While a number of factors contribute to the success of an online store, some contribute more to success than the others. Order shipping is one such area which has a comparatively significant impact on the success of your ecommerce business. It’s only after you have shipped the products and your customer have received them, that you get to see their ordered products in its physical form. In this virtual transaction between the buyer and the seller, the buyer is satisfied only after he gets the product in the best condition and at agreeable terms. So if you want your customers to keep coming back to you, you will have to provide a top-of-the-line shipping experience.
In this blog, we have discussed about 5 such ways which can enhance the order shipping experience for your customers.
By providing discounts on shipping charges
Maybe it’s the most tried and tested method of improving shipping experience, but whatever works is never outdated. If you can manage to provide free shipping, there is nothing better than that. You can manage the costs by including it to the base price of the product, but the ‘free shipping’ tag actually satisfies customers to great extent. If the prices set by competing stores don’t let you increase your product prices and provide free shipping, you can provide discounted shipping to your customers. For example, you can provide free shipping when the customer’s cart crosses a certain amount. It not only satisfies the customer but you also get more sales as customers will try to add items to their shopping cart to get free shipping on the products.
Send out regular delivery updates
One thing you should consider is that customers are always eagerly awaiting for their ordered products to reach them. Sending out regular delivery updates keep them informed that their package is on the way. You should use different channels to send these updates to make customer experiences better. Apart from mails, message them the updates on their mobile phone which is always accessible. Even though people might not take a keen interest in these updates, not sending them will keep them wondering where their order is. So, it’s one of the best practices you should follow. You should also provide your customers with a platform to track their packages.
Offer multiple shipping methods
The online market is changing. It’s not the same market it used to be a few years ago. There are hundreds of online stores competing with yours and you need to keep up with the things as they are progressing. Many online businesses are now providing options of multiple delivery speeds and shipping methods. Apart from the standard days which it takes to reach the package to the buyer, you should also offer express and superfast deliveries for customers who need the product urgently. You can charge them extra for this as customers don’t mind paying for service they actually need. You must make sure that your shipping partner is capable of undertaking the responsibilities. A broken promise can do the reverse to your business by losing those customers for life. Use leading shipping services like Fedex, DHL, Australia Post Shipping, UPS, etc for your store. All of these have multiple shipping options and pricing methods. Choose the one that suites you best.
Have a customer centric return policy
By streamlining your shipping process with the return policy of your store, you can gain the trust of your customers. Customers often hesitate from buying products online for the doubt in quality of the product. A hassle free return policy in which the customer has to do nothing but to handover the package to the courier person, will let your customers buy more from your site as they don’t have to worry about being stuck with the product in case they don’t like it. Provide a service like that and make sure it’s visible to the buyer when they are scrolling through the site.
Offer pre-scheduled deliveries
Waiting for your ordered products to reach to you is a suspense no one wants to experience. Especially if you are part of nuclear family or single. If both you and your spouse are out for work, who would receive the order at home. If you give your office as delivery address, are you always sure you will be in office when the delivery happens? Considering these uncertainties, it might be a smart thing to offer customers the option to select their own comfortable date and time for order delivery using a suitable delivery date scheduler tool.
Even if you can’t implement all of the above suggestions, you should definitely opt for those that are suitable for you. A seamless shipping experience is a must for gaining customer trust and loyalty. If you go through the product reviews of customers on different platforms, you will see that good or bad shipping experiences dominate their reviews. To be in the good books of your customers and for sustaining in the competitive market, you should absolutely consider it a priority to perk up your shipping process.
