Shipping is an essential factor that directly impacts your eCommerce business’s reputation. Customers prefer to buy from eCommerce companies that provide simple and convenient shipping options.
When you ship the goods, your customers will notice the shipping. Their experience will generate positive or negative word of mouth; you must avoid the latter at all costs.
Negative shipping experiences cause online customers to never purchase from the same store again.
To avoid negative reviews and unsatisfied clients, you must spend time and resources on the best eCommerce shipping practices and strictly stick to them for the whole process.
However, if you manage to build a fast and comfortable shipping and delivery process, your e-commerce business will gain a massive advantage in the increasingly competitive market. There are a lot of examples that prove the point; one of the latest emerging e-commerce platforms has been veli.store has managed to shrink all delivery times to only three hours.
Enhance Customer’s Experience
You want to provide your customers with the best delivery experience possible, and shipping is a big part of that.
If there is good delivery software, they will help you track and connect every step of the delivery chain process. Thus, it will help make it easier for businesses of all sizes. As a result, the customer sees realistic delivery timelines based on information such as your transportation schedule. This method eliminates the errors that are common with manual delivery scheduling.
Increase Conversions and Reduce Cart Abandonment
Shipping and handling costs are the primary reason 44% of online shoppers abandon their carts while shopping. Due to excessively slow shipping, customers also cancel their orders. So you need to provide your customers with fast and free shipping to reduce cart abandonment and increase conversions.
Boost Customer Satisfaction And Loyalty
Online shoppers expect a low-cost, fast-delivery platform. When you exceed their expectations, they will return for more and recommend their friends for the purchase. You can also include free shipping as part of a loyalty program. For example, Amazon Prime has over 100 million Prime members and redefines eCommerce shipping standards.
Increase Average Order Value
When you offer free shipping with a minimum purchase threshold (for example, free shipping on all orders over $60), many customers will add more items to their cart to meet the requirement. According to a 2015 study, 52% of American shoppers have added additional products to their shopping cart to meet a minimum purchase threshold.
Helps Boost D2C
Shipping is essential to any business, especially in the Direct-to-Consumer (D2C) space. Accomplishing your e-commerce or D2C shipping and developing the right strategies for your shipping needs are important factors influencing your store’s profitability.
Regarding online purchases, shipping is the first point of physical contact between you and your customers. As a result, providing your customers with an excellent shipping experience is critical to keep them returning to your e-commerce website.
If you have a large e-commerce business, there’s a good chance you have an entire team dedicated to processing shipping queries internally. In most other cases, however, e-commerce businesses must work with a dependable partner to handle their shipping needs.
Selecting the right shipping partner is critical because this entity will be in direct contact with your customer. Of course, the interaction depends on the delivery’s quality, speed, and hygienic procedures followed during the delivery.
Take Over Competitors
While free shipping is not appropriate for every business, you should if your competitors offer it. If you are only few among the competitors in your industry that does not provide free shipping, you will likely fall behind.
What is the incentive for customers to do business with you if your competitor offers a better deal?
In contrast, if none of your competitors offer free shipping, this could be a great way to differentiate yourself and create a loyal customer base.
Conclusion
Customers are concerned about shipping. So, you can provide the best shopping experience, prices, and customer service. Still, your shipping process allows your customers to touch your products.
Any steps you take to improve shipping reliability and efficiency immediately impact this critical physical link between your customers and your products.