How to implement automated courier claims in Beauty & Cosmetics
Beauty & Cosmetics is one of the most popular e-commerce segments, accounting for around a third of global beauty sales. But Beauty & Cosmetics orders are also highly susceptible to failed deliveries, with millions of fragile, highly-regulated, easily-damaged products often being shipped internationally.
Most logistics teams outsource the delivery process, but when things go wrong, dealing with the consequences is very much an in-house task. That's why more and more logistics leaders in Beauty & Cosmetics are automating their courier claims process with platforms like Claimit. Here's how you can do it step by step too.
1. Integrate with an automated courier claims platform
No painful delays. No lengthy onboarding. Most automated courier claims platforms are simple plug-ins that connect directly to your e-commerce site or CRM.
Claimit's platform plugs directly into your e-commerce channel (i.e. Shopify, Squarespace, Wix etc) or your CRM (i.e. Zendesk, Freshdesk etc). You then simply add your couriers from a dropdown list (we cover 150+ major couriers) and you're ready to go.
What's more, as the platform doesn't retain any personally identifiable information (PII), you don't need the input or approval of a data protection officer to get started. And because Claimit only takes a percentage of successful compensation claims, it doesn't cost anything up front either, so you don't need to worry about your logistics budget.
2. Automatically log failed deliveries
Automated courier claims platforms are synced to your e-commerce orders, so they run in the background constantly without your team needing to actively manage them. Every order you ship is covered, every order that goes awry is picked up, so your logistics team can just check the dashboard for oversight.
For example, Claimit will scan for 50+ potential shipping errors (i.e. a shipment going off route) and will alert the courier to resolve the issue if something looks out of place. If the issue is unresolvable, the platform instantly raises a claim without you needing to wait for an unhappy customer to make a formal complaint. This ensures you're ahead of the curve, can offset customer dissatisfaction and get the claim in before the tight courier deadlines (some couriers only allow claims within 7-14 days of the expected delivery date).
3. File a claim
In the first week of using an automated courier claims platform, your team will start noticing more delivery issues than you imagined. But instead of manually trying to claim compensation for these deliveries yourself, the system automatically does everything for you, straight from your CRM or e-commerce site.
For instance, Claimit will automatically input all the details needed for each courier's specific claims procedure (i.e. tracking number and value) and also check each courier's specific compensation rules. Evri, for example, will let you ship oils, perfumes, aftershaves and nail varnishes, but you won't be able to claim compensation for them. Meanwhile, DPD does not allow any claims for liquids and requires damage reports within seven working days after the parcel delivery.
4. Track claims (and courier performance)
Thousands of orders and hundreds of claims are hard to keep track of. But courier claims automation gives you full visibility of each claim's status from a centralised management dashboard, so you can track claim progress in real time until resolution.
At Claimit, our dashboard goes beyond simple claim monitoring. It also offers analytics on courier performance across different routes and products. For example, you can see a breakdown per courier, region and shipment to see which couriers are best placed for your diverse product range.
5. Recoup lost revenue
By automating the claims process, you get paid compensation 40% quicker on average and massively improve your claims success rate.
For instance, Healf is a wellness and beauty brand that ships hundreds of skincare products each month. After using Claimit, Healf increased its claims success rate by 80% and saved the operations team 90% of the time previously spent on manual claims.
"We have full confidence that claims are being handled end-to-end, consistently, and with a level of persistence we simply couldn't resource internally." Firas Wahhab, Operations Manager, Healf
Claim for billing errors too
Automated courier claims platforms don't just log and file claims for failed deliveries, but billing errors too.
From packaging penalties to overweight surcharges, couriers add an average £0.96 surcharge per shipment sent. But not all of these are valid.
Courier claims platforms also use AI invoice auditing, so every single shipment is scanned, cross-referenced and validated line by line, flagging errors and then filing claims for anything that's not right, saving e-commerce companies hundreds of thousands.
Check out how AI invoice auditing works by reading this blog.
