| May 13, 2020
Paste customer question and my reply.
1. Delivery / packaging
customer: this is something what needs to be improved as soon as only possible. All all packages should arrive in a high quality cardboard box and not wrapped in a foil. The exception is for electrical items and products made of glass - here you should definitely use a protective film, but the product should arrive in a high-quality carton either way. Everything must be neatly packed so that it will look professional. Here’s an example you can use as a benchmark
Murphy: For package, I have to consider both protective of the package and the cost. If package like the picture, dimension rate will go sky-high. triple price of the actrue weight are normal. I have explained at the meeting. So if there is room to improve, pls give me complain orders so that I know how to do it better.
for delivery time, also a cost issue, if you find DHL/UPS that get you 5days shipping time, price are sky high, I tried DHL custom BOL file(a few paper) to Chris, 445RMB for the shipping, crazy, you can check price on DHL official site you know what I am talking.
The shipping time are 8-15 days, 80% between 10-15days, 10% maybe 20 days due to pandemic, 10% are like 15-18days just a bit late.
The problem is some new products, or some very low poor sell product that I have to order only when store has new order, the package from supplier to my city needs 3, 4 days. That could cause the whole shipping time 20 days. So I would do local storage so that I can send at same day. While another problem is that the due to pandemic, suppliers city been lock down from time to time. Which means they can ship anything. And we have to wait.
2. Customs fees
customer: In the last 4-5 weeks we had 2 or 3 cases where the customer had to enforce the customs duties. It is therefore essential that in the case of a large order, the electrical equipment is always divided into several packages - that is, always send one electrical device per package.
Murphy: I’v been doing this for a few months, every electronics in standalone box/package. If we still get the issue, pls provide a tracking number, so that I can find out.
3. Chinese lettering
customer: Any Chinese labels on the packages should possibly be avoided. The customer should have the feeling that he gets the goods directly from Switzerland, as our company name also says (=Swiss gadget).
Murphy: Some products have no English version. If I remove it would be damage the package. So if any product that have the problem. We have to stop selling it. As per my understanding, as long as customer not complain against it, means we can keep selling.
4. Processing time, delivery time and quality
customer: We need to think together how to shorten the delivery time. Are there different shipping options here? Could you work out and present us with several cost options? We are basically open to new shipping providers and can imagine paying appropriate price for this. The customer should possibly get his package from within 8 and 10 working days - even if one would have to calculate a surcharge here. Can you please provide us with a couple of options?
Thank you very much in advance & see you/talk to you tomorrow!
Murphy: Very good question. Let me explain.
1 package go through 4 parties, carrier agent collect package from my office. Carrier agent order space from flight, and then send to Hong Kong, load to the flight. The flight go to Switzerland(sometimes the flight transfer at different countries, at RU or some mid-transition). The flight land in Switzerland, hand over to local carrier, local carrier have over to local company, could be Swiss post, PDP, DHL or whatnot, local company do the last stop delivery.
The package go through many parties, and load from car/truck/flight for many times, so it could possibly damage in somewhere, but nobody knows until delivered. The carrier only response for tracking delay, or lost. If some damage, could happen in any part of the way. So can’t do anything.
The carrier agent’s job is to integrate and optimized the delivery channel, say, Swiss post, Netherland post, Germany DHL, PDP and they find the cheapest and fastest way to provide different shipping options( with different prices/shipping time options) for customer like me.
The thing I can do is find more carrier agent, to check if they have cheaper and better options. And trust me, when time goes on, everyone remains at market are providing almost same options. Because if somebody just a bit expensive, they vanished. There are very much competition here for everyone.
So we chose the option that fast shipping option in reasonable cost. There are some stories during pandemic between us and the carrier for delivery. Not happy, but with acceptable result.
There are more knowledge that I can share for other shipping channel like China Europe Special Train. We were work for better price and shipping time and try different shipping method. Something like FCL:(Full Container Load) / LCL: (Less than Container Load)
The margin is all about cost control, so the current way we work are chose very carefully and many other options were tested.