Shipping & eComm rules are more complex and elusive as ever. But that doesn’t help you when your parcel is returned undeliverable. So before you ship, freshen up on a few shipping rules you probably never knew. 

Shipping & eComm Rules to Never Ignore

The Canadian Consumer Protection Guidelines

-Stay up on the stipulations for selling and marketing to Canadian consumers, especially in regards to online shopping, mail order and spamming. 

The US Federal Trade Commission ‘30 Day Rule.’ 

-The FTC 30 Day Rule stipulates your customer must have received their parcel within 30 days.  

-As a seller or retailer, you must seek the customer’s consent on delayed shipment in the event you cannot ship within the 30 days. 

– If there’s no consent, you must promptly refund all the money the customer paid for the unshipped merchandise.

-This applies to most goods a customer orders regardless of advertising methods or payment method. 

Post a Privacy Policy

-Canadian companies are subject to privacy laws. So clearly disclose why you need your customers’ personal information and why you intend to use it.  

-Many potential customers won’t even deal with online companies who don’t disclose privacy laws. So disclose the policy for your benefit and compliance. 

Your business should ultimately be aware of all major national and regional shipping regulations. 

Helpful Shipping Rules of Thumb

Overshare

-Keep your customers happy and prevent returns with thorough item descriptions. 

-Give more than enough descriptive information disclosing as much as possible. Photographs and interactive diagrams are useful for sharing such information as size, color, weight and texture of your product.

Instill Confidence in the Consumer

-Link to legitimate reviews and customer review sites, such as Yelp and the Better Business Bureau. You should also link to Google with Google My Business, as this is among the most objective and trusted review sources. 

-The Better Business Bureau industry association also provides membership for trusted retailers and subsequent certificates and seals of quality. 

Have General Business Integrity

-Install or have an internet agency set you up with a secure website with a great reputation. There are many nuisances in the way of site coding and redirecting needed to let search engines- and subsequently consumers- know you’re a legitimate business. 

-Install or have an internet agency set up a secure and encrypted checkout page. 

-Never request financial information from your customers through email. 

Once your operations are compliant with all the ins, outs and legalities of shipping, just find your favorite shipping provider and you’ll be set. Companies such as ShipTime not only aggregate data to find you the best shipping rates available. Working with the most accredited shipping providers, they also help you take the hassle out of your shipment operations with customer-centric services.

Sourcing the best possible shipping rates, ShipTime provides all relevant shipping information on one screen. The ShipTime dashboard speeds your shipping quote with predefined box sizes. 

The ShipTime dashboard solution also provides predefined incentive rewards and the “My Pickups” functionality, allowing you to see scheduled pickups and times. They cover all your bases when it comes to efficient tracking and delivery.

Learn more here.