5 Tips for Small Businesses Looking to Ship Holiday Packages

The holidays can be a boon for small businesses, but they can also cause major headaches for those that need to ship to their customers. Pitney Bowes (PBI) - Get Report President of North America Mailing Patrick Brand says, "during the holidays, everything moves faster and customer expectations rise significantly, so for small businesses they really need to fulfill customer order needs much much faster."

Brand says small businesses can take five simple steps to make the holidays a little more stress-free as the complexity and the volume of shipping goes up dramatically.

First, Brand says small businesses should use multiple carriers. Second, cut down on excess packaging. Third, use online shipping software to streamline the process. Fourth, always verify the shipping address to avoid extra charges. Fifth, always keep customers in the loop on when their packages will arrive.

Brand says, "when customers order something, they want to know when it's going to arrive and they want to know if it's going to be late." Pitney Bowes has worked on logistics and shipping for large businesses and just last month launched a cloud-based software solution, called SendPro, for small and medium-sized businesses.