6 Top Tips to Assist Your Internet Ordering This Xmas

The following tips really apply at any time of year, but are worth repeating in the lead up to Christmas, where people are looking for bargains or just more unique items from online stores. These are provided from the perspective of the online retailer (of which we are one), and come from the most common things that occur that end up causing issues to you receiving your order in good time.

Double Check You Have Provided The Correct Delivery Address

Simple although it sounds, it happens often enough that an incorrect delivery address is given. From typing errors, to giving the wrong house number or postcode, and mixing up a work street address with a home postcode, they all occur, so please double check what you have entered. Ourselves and the vast majority of online retailers will print out an address label directly from what you have entered, to eliminate the chance of any typing error from our side, so what you enter is where it is sent out too.

Provide a correct email address /contact

For us this would be the number one error from customers. While sometimes we can work out what it should be (they have missed the, for .co.uk or another obvious thing), many times we cannot. When you have placed an order via our website, we want you to receive the automatic confirmation email, so you can be reassured your order has been received. A good option when you don’t want to provide your main or regular email address is to set one up with one of the free services – e.g hotmail, yahoo, googlemail etc – and use this for your online orders.

Keep en eye out for ‘We tried to deliver’ cards

With the abundance of junk mail put through letterboxes theses days, it appears these cards get lost amongst it. If you have ordered something and are expecting a parcel, makes sure you check through all the junk mail for any ‘we tried to deliver cards’ that may have been left. Of the times we do have customers asking about a missing delivery, it often turns out it is in their local delivery office waiting for collection. Have a friendly chat with your postman and your neighbors too. We have seen reports of postman not leaving a card when they should have, and also at home have received cards that are actually for the neighbors.

Check delivery times and have reasonable expectations

The lead up to Christmas just keeps getting busier and busier for delivery services, regardless if it's the mail, courier, or own delivery, and inevitably there can be some delays. Try to allow a bit of extra time to receive something. If you need an item urgently, check what express / next day options are available, and what the cut off in ordering times are for those.

Note down what you have ordered and from whom

Again although this may sound obvious, it is equally frustrating for both parties when we receive inquiries / complaints about an order that was not even from us (but from another business that happens to sell the same / similar products).

Check where the business is based and where your order will be sent from

If your items are being sent to you from another country, you need to allow for the extra delivery time. You also need to consider exchange rate differences.

As an example, we are called The New Zealand Honey Shop, but are based in London, UK, and with a .co.uk website domain, and provide our address details, including of our physical shop on our website. Yet some people think they are ordering from New Zealand. Or we get orders from other countries eg USA that haven’t paid attention to us being a UK based business, and then wonder why it is taken an extra few days for their order to arrive. Equally people don’t always take into account exchange rate differences – this is particularly important for you to check if you are ordering from a foreign website in the current environment of frequently changing exchange rates. Also be aware of any potential liability for any customs charges that could affect you.

There are other things you can check in terms of your online security, or seeing if an online retailer provides a contact phone number that you can use should you need to, however these are issues for a separate security tips checklist. The aim here has been simply to share with you 6 top tips to help insure you can receive your items, from an online retailers experience.

These tips are brought to you by The New Zealand Honey Shop, UK based specialists in UMF Manuka honey, propolis, and other natural bee based products.