How Businesses Can Manage and Mitigate Delivery Exceptions

Table of Contents

1. What does delivery exception mean?
2. Common causes of delivery exceptions
3. Strategies to manage delivery exceptions
4. Mitigating delivery exceptions

Timely deliveries are key to exceptional e-store service. Today’s consumers can quickly gauge your online business's delivery reliability by checking out customer reviews on Google, peer review sites, and even your own website. Your on-time delivery record is not just a logistical detail—it's a critical component of your e-commerce business’s marketing, sales, operations, customer experience, repeat business, and ultimately, your bottom line.

However, delivery exceptions can make on-time deliveries difficult and sometimes impossible. This article can help you address delivery exceptions by discussing their meaning, the common causes, and how to manage them and reduce their occurrence.

What Does Delivery Exception Mean?

A delivery exception refers to a delay in delivering a package to a customer. Whether caused by a wrong address or an earthquake, a delivery exception demands an immediate response to resolve or reduce its impact on the delivery and your customer’s reaction. The response can be generated systematically, by a human, or both. 

While some e-commerce businesses handle their entire delivery systems internally, others use third parties to fulfill orders. Either way, there are proactive strategies you can use to deal with delivery exceptions.

Common Causes of Delivery Exceptions

There are countless reasons for delivery exceptions, some within your control and many that are not. Effective mitigation focuses on the primary causes of this issue. Below are some of the most common reasons for delivery exceptions:

Bad weather

Storms, tornadoes, snowstorms, and torrential rains can cause severe disruptions in delivery schedules.

Shipping address mistakes

Simple typos or oversights in the address details can lead to late or non-deliveries. The mistake could be slight, such as typing “avenue” instead of “court.”  Other address-related errors include missed labels, glitches in the ordering system, and poorly printed labels.

Recipient unavailability

Circumstances may prevent a customer from receiving a delivery at the specified time, leading to a missed delivery that requires rescheduling.

Packaging fails

Improper packaging can result in damaged orders, causing more returns and poor customer experience.

Seasonal conditions

Holidays like Christmas, peak periods, and federal holidays consistently cause delivery delays. Since consumers shop more at these times, the higher volume of orders can bottleneck shipping systems.

Customs delays

Some international delivery orders can violate customs regulations in various countries or regions. This issue can delay delivery or result in a package return.

Strategies to Manage Delivery Exceptions

An effective way to manage delivery exceptions is to develop a two-pronged approach that includes the following categories:

1. Proactive and preventative strategy

You can help prevent many of the common delivery exceptions by:

• Ensuring you have an accurate address verification system that double-checks all delivery and tracking data, such as barcode and addresses. E-commerce software can manage this task automatically.
• Displaying easy-to-read shipping instructions on your website that thoroughly explain all shipping rules and regulations.
• Using protective packaging to prevent damage to orders during the shipping process. Ensure your staff knows how to package the product correctly.
• Choose a third-party shipping solution like Shippo. Since third-party shipping solutions partner with major carriers like FedEx and UPS, you can reduce the chances of delivery exceptions on international deliveries.

2.  Real-time monitoring strategies

Multicarrier shipping software solutions like Shippo offer your e-commerce store the advantage of real-time monitoring of deliveries. In addition to allowing you to use barcoding and scanning to determine the status and location of packages, you can also detect delivery exceptions.

Mitigating Delivery Exceptions

Even with the soundest strategies in place, delivery exceptions will happen. For this reason, it is essential to mitigate delivery exceptions effectively with proven practices:

Automated customer support

An automated notification system is an incredible tool for keeping your customers in the loop throughout delivery. With remote tracking, you can provide your customers with valuable updates via your website, email, texts, or in-app chat.

Your customers can also access updates on their orders with a tracking number that you provide. You can use the system to notify the customer of a delivery delay, such as congested holiday workloads or inability to reach them.

Reliable carriers

You can quickly reduce the impact of delivery exceptions by selecting the best pricing packages from major shipping carriers, including customer service and insurance. 

Customer communication

To avoid misunderstandings about the delivery experience, you should have clear customer policies prominently displayed on your website and apps.

Being Prepared for Delivery Exceptions

It’s a fact that delivery exceptions will interfere with some customer deliveries. However, proactive strategies and mitigating methods can significantly lessen their influence on your business’s operations, customer satisfaction, and profitability. Partner with Shippo to discover how our multicarrier shipping solution can help you deal with delivery exceptions.