Ugly Freight Solutions: How Small Business Owners Can Ship Smart

By Rieva Lesonsky

Just over 10 years ago, 74% of consumers were willing to wait between five days and a week for a package. Now, nearly the same percentage of consumers will likely not purchase from retailers with delivery times longer than two days. However, with transit times for big and bulky items typically taking 10-21 days from purchase to delivery, how can sellers of big and bulky products (often referred to as “ugly” freight) maintain customer loyalty, especially during peak shopping seasons like back-to-school and the holidays?

The good news is there are shipping solutions for ugly freight. To learn more, I recently caught up with Heather Hoover-Salomon, the CEO of uShip, an online freight marketplace that streamlines the shipping of large and bulky items.

Challenges of “ugly” freight transport

Rieva Lesonsky: To begin, what is “ugly” freight?

Heather Hoover-Salomon: Big and bulky freight comes with a unique set of shipping frustrations. In the industry, we affectionately refer to these items as “ugly” freight for this reason. While the item itself might be a beautiful armoire or an ornate artwork, the shipping process could be a recipe for disaster. An item might be oversized or oddly shaped and, therefore, more challenging to fit into a truck. Or perhaps the product (which was once tightly packed to perfection) is now assembled and must journey back from a customer’s home to a warehouse. There are many ways that moving beautiful items can be ugly.

Lesonsky: What makes transporting ugly freight so tricky compared to other shipped merchandise?

Hoover-Salomon: First, it’s harder to find experienced carriers willing to transport these items. Not every carrier has the appropriate truck capacity or white glove delivery experience to handle an ugly freight shipment. It’s also far more expensive to ship, with last-mile delivery costs alone accounting for 30 to 40% of the total cost of transportation. Finally, if that online couch order turns out to be not just ugly freight, but ugly in general, returning it brings a new set of logistical challenges. This is likely why 68% of retailers report recouping less than 50% of a big and bulky item’s total cost following a return.

Lesonsky: How do these shipping challenges impact customer experience?

Hoover-Salomon: Unfortunately for small businesses, over 70% of consumers say shipping problems negatively affect their opinion of a merchant rather than the carrier responsible for the error, harming the customer experience. Our research shows that one in five consumers have experienced an item arriving damaged, one in seven have grappled with an item never arriving, and one in 10 have “wasted an entire day” tracking their purchase. These current statistics for ugly freight transport don’t bode well for small businesses looking to build customer loyalty.

Then, there’s the speed factor: While customers 1714066922 expect their ugly freight shipments to take far longer to arrive than the average parcel delivery, they’ve done so begrudgingly. Since customers want the ugly freight shipping process to more closely resemble their two-day parcel purchases, small businesses are inherently at a disadvantage through no fault of their own.

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Importance of proactive communication and carrier vetting

Lesonsky: What can small businesses do to navigate shipping ugly freight and improve the customer experience?

Hoover-Salomon: While big and bulky e-commerce sellers are at a disadvantage, there are ways to improve the process and maintain consumer trust.

For example, let’s talk communication. In the parcel world, it’s nearly guaranteed that consumers are accessing real-time updates on their shipments, with 90% of consumers actively tracking their packages in transit. However, many companies still don’t offer adequate tracking capabilities for ugly freight, leaving customers in the dark.

Customers are often frustrated when they plan their day around receiving a delivery, and the item either doesn’t arrive on time or, worse, doesn’t arrive at all—which drives over half of all negative feedback received by sellers.

A huge piece of this puzzle is investing in tools to help small businesses manage expectations and communicate transparently with customers. Implementing automated tracking software or alerts via email or text of any problems during shipping is a great place to start, especially if your small business needs to restore customer trust.

Lesonsky: How about carrier vetting? What should SMBs look for in a shipping partner?

Hoover-Salomon: Vetting carriers is a major component in minimizing poor customer experiences. Assessing how different carriers perform is essential. We evaluate carriers on factors such as whether a shipment was delayed, if the carrier caused the delay, and whether the delay resulted from a weather event, etc. Implementing a similar approach as an SMB could often mean the difference between a happy and angry customer.

The future of big and bulky logistics

Lesonsky: What does the future look like in this space? Are there upcoming technologies that could make shipping ugly freight easier in the future?

Hoover-Salomon: There’s a lot of promising tech under development right now. For the first time, thanks to AI and machine learning, a future is within reach where ugly freight is just another box on a truck, heading effortlessly to its destination in two days or less. SMBs will soon be able to receive a comprehensive quote and be matched with a carrier for large items in real-time with only a photo. Machine learning tools currently under development will proactively flag and solve shipping problems before a human would have even noticed their existence. Carriers can be re-routed around severe weather or road construction in real-time. And that’s just the beginning.

Small businesses shouldn’t underestimate the impact of communication and carrier vetting on the customer experience. Even if they can’t change the underlying logistical hurdles of transporting ugly freight, they can invest in communication and carrier vetting strategies to minimize its impact on their customers until new technologies enable faster delivery times.

About the Author

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media and SmallBusinessCurrents.com and has been covering small businesses and entrepreneurship for over 30 years. Get more insights about business trends by signing up for her free Currents newsletter.