Improving Your eCommerce Delivery – 6 Factors to Consider

The e-commerce delivery process is critical for the success of your business. If you prioritize every other aspect, but fail to invest in the delivery aspect, it can ruin the whole buying process for the consumer. Making it important to have strategies in place to ensure its success

 

What is eCommerce Delivery?

eCommerce delivery refers to the process and services that are needed in order to transport the goods that were purchased online from the retailer to finally delivering them to the customer’s desired destination.

 

E-Commerce Delivery Strategies

As a business you need to ensure that you use proper delivery practices in order to offer the customer a great and memorable experience. This will ensure customer retention and will guarantee them recommending your brand to their family and friends. Using the e-commerce delivery strategies listed below will be able to ensure greater business success.

 

Try not to make profit off delivery

When it comes to delivery, this isn’t the area that you should aim to make more profit from. The harm in trying to do so will likely result in losing customers as they will go to other businesses with similar products, but cheaper deliveries. Your delivery rate should be as low as possible but be placed at a competitive rate.

 

More delivery costs obvious at checkpoint

Free delivery is what is most appealing to customers, but if you are unable to offer that then you need to be transparent about delivery costs. It can be frustrating to wait until the end of a transaction to find out how much you will be charged for delivery. It can also drive away customers as they are likely to abandon shopping carts, especially if delivery costs are high. To offer transparency about shipping costs you can either have a flat-rate for delivery and if you can charge based on location then customers should be able to enter their zip code to calculate delivery costs before they can check out.

 

Don’t over promise

In an effort to impress customers you might promise delivery that is faster than you can do and the consequences of this can be disastrous. Rather choose to underestimate by adding an extra day or two to delivery estimate. This allows room for error if delays occur. For example, if you think a package can be delivered in two days, then offer it for three or four days. When the customer receives it early, they will be happy. However, if you offer two-day shipping and it arrives in three days then they will be upset.

 

Provide tracking option

The moment a customer makes an order, everything lies in your hands and it is your chance to establish a relationship with them. Once you confirm an order that has been placed by a customer, you should give them the opportunity to track their order until it reaches their destination.

From the moment you receive the order’s tracking number and delivery information, email it to your customer as soon as possible. They will be able to gain information regarding estimated delivery date and regular updates of when the package moves. It will help them to stay on track with their orders and be ready to receive them. It will also help resolve any issues they have because they are not aware of what is happening.

 

Have customer support

The experience that a customer has throughout the delivery process will matter more to them than the price or product itself. Customers are more likely to forget the products that they bought, but will never forget the service that they received. In order to provide the best possible service then you need to communicate with the customer throughout the process. This helps them feel involved, and you can do this through sending delivery notifications. You can send them emails and text messages to stay updated. By doing this, you build trust with your customer and it guarantees that they have a positive experience.

 

Take responsibility for the shipping problems

The reality is mistakes happen all the time, and a common mistake is losing packages.

Though the carrier of the customer is mostly at fault, you should take accountability for it. If you try to blame the carrier or the customer then you might lose the customer’s loyalty.  There might be an instance when the carrier delivers a package to the wrong address because it was captured incorrectly. In this situation you should fix the issue by offering a refund or replacement to the customer and apologizing for the mistake. Your second responsibility is investigating what went wrong and this can be done by either;

 

  • Double-checking the package’s tracking details online
  • Checking if the address and contact information provided was accurate
  • Check with the carrier to see if the issue was resolved

 

After this process, you will eventually regain your loss when the carrier manages to find the lost item.

 

 

 

Conclusion

The power of offering a positive delivery process is undeniable and it can do wonders for your business. When you work on always offering a great delivery service you ensure that you build a great relationship with your customers and improve delivery operations for your business.

 

 

 

Have a look at the 5 Ways Mobile ePOD Software Can Optimize eCommerce Logistics.