How to Reduce Shipping Risk

When you’re operating a globally active business with customers spread across multiple continents, shipping is bound to form a significant part of your supply chain.

In this case, you’ll want to mitigate the many risks associated with sea freight, allowing your business to get on with what it knows best – its products.

While you manage your products and supply chain, Blu Print can take care of commercial printing, labelling and courier bags.

As a global business ourselves, the Blu Print team has a wealth of experience navigating the global supply chain and the risks associated with international shipping. You can trust us to offer the best advice, products and services to connect fellow Australian businesses to the world.

First, What Are the Risks?

Leading digital freight forwarder, DFreight, has outlined six significant shipping risks.

Economical risks include variations in demand, capacity, fuel prices, and rates.

Political risks include international sanctions such as those imposed on Russia during its invasion of Ukraine.

Environmental risks include pollution and emission levels from a given vessel, as well as inclement weather, which can halt transportation.

Similar to political risks, geopolitical risks occur when the tension between states prevents the movement of goods through a certain region.

Operational risks include accidents that delay a vessel or the maintenance procedures which are relied upon for safe travel.

Finally, financial risks include interest rates and currency fluctuations which may cause shipping to become infeasible or too expensive.

How to Manage These Risks

No matter how big your business is, it is vital that you take these shipping risks seriously.

This begins when you choose your shipping company and perform your due diligence. A reputable shipping company should have a good reputation with flexible services and capable data collection technology.

Ensure that they have ample capacity to cater to your business as it grows and that their network is diverse enough to manage widespread disruption.

The next step to reducing shipping risk is to perfect your packaging. While Blu Print can’t provide lengthy advice on choosing a shipping company, we can talk all day about packaging.

By matching items with suitable packaging, you not only remove the risk of goods being damaged in transit, but you also improve delivery efficiency.

Oversized packaging can reduce the capacity of any vehicle and slow your dispatch rates. This of course will cause delays for customers and hurt your reputation.

Our Enviro 80 eCom satchels are a great option for apparel, sturdy electronics, stationary, beauty products and much more. Their lightweight design allows more to fit in a smaller space than something like a cardboard box would. If you want to reduce the risk of delays while improving your dispatch output, consider the benefits of soft-shell courier bags and satchels.

One of the best ways to mitigate economical shipping risks is to make use of IoT and tracking technology. These tools can collect shipping data for analysis so that you can detect the weak spots in your supply chain.

Once the data is digested, you can quickly and effectively go about fixing the holes and reducing the risk of parcels being lost or delayed.

Get in Touch with Blu Print

If you have any questions about the above or want to discuss any points of interest, our team is always up for a chat. We built our business from the ground up and want to help similar businesses do the same.

Image source: https://unsplash.com/photos/3XjMwxUHx0Q

3 Promising eCommerce Markets in 2023

As a homegrown Australian business, Blu Print knows the time and effort that goes into building a business in eCommerce or otherwise.

You perfect the product, build an audience, design some sustainable packaging, and secure a reliable supply chain from depot to delivery.

After all of these steps, you would hope that your chosen industry is looking to buy and your products will sell well into the future.

While this isn’t always the case and it’s sometimes difficult to forecast, we’ve developed a list of the most promising markets for eCommerce success.

Using this information and Blu Print’s services in packaging, printing, and personalised labels, you should have the tools to target your business towards the right markets and the right audiences.

If you need any further advice, or to learn more about our Enviro 80 eCommerce satchels, get in touch today.

Top Markets by Country

It’s becoming more well-known that the international eCommerce market is now a powerhouse in global sales, but do you know which countries are spending the most online?

Consider these top three countries as you target your next campaign and secure your supply chain en route to these demanding destinations.

China

Not only does China have the greatest share of eCommerce sales, due to its central location and therefore cheaper production costs, but it also has the highest number of digital buyers too.

The country’s total retail eCommerce sales reached almost US$2.9 trillion in 2022, representing more than 45% of its total retail sales.

This figure is expected to exceed US$4 trillion by 2027, as the country’s economic growth continues into the foreseeable future.

As mentioned above, the country also has a record number of digital buyers – 842 million as of December 2021.

If your business is suited to the Asia-Pacific region, you will absolutely want to tailor some portion of your marketing and product range to China.

The United States

A distant second while still maintaining a staggering value, the United States reached more than US$900 billion worth of retail eCommerce revenue in 2022 – less than one-third of China.

This was largely thanks in part to eCommerce behemoth, Amazon.com, which made a whopping sales revenue of over US$500 billion in 2022.

The United States is spoilt for choice when it comes to fashion, beauty or entertainment products, however, so you’ll need a significant point of difference to crack this market.

United Kingdom

Taking a break from comparing companies based on raw eCommerce sales and buyers, we turn our attention to the United Kingdom.

This research tells us that the UK tops the list for total eCommerce spend per capita at $4,201.

Leading second-placed United States by more than $750 per capita, the UK loves spending its money on Amazon (thanks America), eBay and online retailer ASOS.

The UK’s online retail space made up 4.8% of its total retail sales in 2021, an increase of over 20% on the year before.

Any Australian business targeting the UK for sales growth is sure to earn their keep with some savvy marketing and the right commercial printing products from Blu Print.

Contact Blu Print

The world of eCommerce is always changing, as we can see from the growth in some regions, and it’s bound to keep evolving.

If you’re getting lost in the depths of information on how to succeed in eCommerce, get in touch with Blu Print and we’ll support you with all your packaging printing and labelling needs.

That will be one step closer to delivering for your customers, and one step towards global eCommerce success.