Experts predict that the 2021 holiday season sale is going to be record-breaking. According to Deloitte, the holiday sales will total $1.3 trillion from Nov to Jan timeframe. Ecommerce sales will increase by 11 to 15 percent reaching between $210 and $218 billion. Amidst these huge sales volumes, order fulfillment and delivery challenges are still disruptive.
We are still witnessing delays in delivery. Limited containers, shipping shortage, freight congestion, and higher-order volumes have caused shipping carriers to work beyond their capacity, resulting in delays. It’s necessary to mitigate these delays to deliver products to customers on time. An extension like Magento 2 delivery date can help you streamline your order deliveries.
Here are a few more tips to ensure your products reach customers by holidays.
1. Forecast Demand and Performance
Most businesses start preparing for the festive season during the Q3, i.e., around September. The first thing you need to do is evaluate the demand for products and the last year’s sales performance. Pay attention to metrics like – total revenue, total shipping cost, best and worst selling products, sales channels and their outcome, profit per item, cost per return, total return, busiest days and weeks, supported payment modes, etc.
Forecasting demand and pre-planning help you stock the proper inventory and get better results. It eliminates the guesswork, giving your predictions a stable ground of data and analytics.
2. Stock up Inventory and Packaging
It’s worse to run out of stock, lose sales and inform customers about product unavailability. However, you can sideline these by procuring inventory and supplies.
Procure inventory based on the last year’s sales and forecast demand. Implement marketing strategies based on the collected data. It will help you stock at the right level. After defining the procurement objectives, talk to your suppliers and share your needs. You can preorder the stock to avoid the last-minute shortage.
Don’t forget to stock extra shipping supplies, as it will help you overcome disruptions in fulfillment.
3. Set Shipping Dates using Magento 2 Estimate Delivery Date
In the US alone, UPS and FedEx deliver 34 million packages each day combined. This staggering number of packages can derail your deliveries. Hence, use Magento 2 estimated delivery date extension and set shipping dates, configure order processing and costs, manage order deliveries and time slots.
To ensure customers receive orders on holidays, establish ship-by dates for each courier. Set an order date and time limits to receive it on a specific date. For example, you can set an order and time limit for same-day delivery – “order before 2 pm to receive an order by EOD.” “Products ordered after 2 pm will be delivered tomorrow.”
4. Automate Shipping
The holiday season is packed with sales. Thus, it’s a good time to bring in automation tools. It will free you to do meaningful work. For instance, you can use inventory management to avoid manual entries and automate stock management. Help desk software can help streamline customer queries and ticket generation. You can offer self-service and allow customers to apply for returns themselves. Enhancing post-purchase shopping experience with auto-generated transaction messages, packing slips, tracking emails, etc. Plus, you can create rule-based shipping and enable customers to select shipping type, courier, returns, and more. It will shove off shipping confusion, letting you work efficiently.
Offer affordable shipping rates. Our Magento 2 delivery date extension let you define different shipping types and configure their prices.
5. Optimize Cart Experience with Magento 2 Delivery Date
Shipping and on-time delivery has become the cornerstone of business success. Customers, rather than the product, focus more on delivery. They choose the brands that offer convenient shipping options and deliver faster. And now that Amazon has set the bar high, you need to optimize your customer experience. Here’s how:
- Let your customers choose their delivery date and time. Provide convenient options for delivery.
- Provide options like ‘call me before delivery to double-check if they are available to receive the package. Also, to free your delivery person from repetitive visits.
- Let customers edit their delivery date and time. The more power they have over their order deliveries, the happier they will be.
- Keep the cost transparent. Don’t surprise them with additional costs like taxes.
- Offer same-day delivery, delivery notes, reminder emails, and more.
Align deliveries as per your customers – it will boost sales and customer retention. Our Magento 2 delivery date extension can help you streamline it. It offers various features for customers and admin.
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