As an ecommerce start-up, a delivery strategy should be at the forefront of your thoughts. Your customers will be attracted to well-presented, concise delivery information on your website, as well as well-packaged products on their doorsteps, so it’s vital that you do all you can to ensure that they continue to buy from you.
So, in order to attract and retain customers, what is the best delivery strategy to adopt?
Depending on the type of products and consumer behavior, there can be various factors to consider when it comes to devise an effective delivery strategy. For instance:
- What are customers looking for from delivery?
- What delivery options are there to attract customer’s attention?
- Which ones are more cost effective?
- And how can an effective delivery strategy help the business?
Answering these simple questions, you can actually devise an effective delivery strategy that helps you increase profit margins and makes customers happy at the same time.
Let’s see what you can do!
Offer the Delivery Options that Customers Want
Customers often want their products as soon as possible. If your business has an established shipping facility, it should not be an issue, but if you are a startup, developing your own logistics department will surely take time. This is where you may consider partnering up with different delivery services.
Since these established delivery services have an optimized system in place, you can save a lot of initial investment and use that amount in growing your business.
You may also consider a click and collect option which can drastically reduce your costs. If you have your own delivery team, you can make use of apps that would help optimize and get the best routes for deliveries.
Try adding as many options as possible because an option that works great for one set of customers might not be equally acceptable to others.
Communicate Effectively with Your Customers
You should strive to maintain a great level of communication with your customers throughout the delivery process. Should there be any problems with the delivery of any items, customers will want to be kept informed throughout the process.
Ensure that you manage their expectations by contacting them regularly to let them know any updates. If communication costs are high, you may want to look into free options like most businesses are using WhatsApp for business to offer a seamless experience to customers.
Allow Your Customers to Keep Track of Their Items
From the moment they purchase their items, customers often want to follow the delivery journey. Allow your customers to keep an eye on the progress of their parcel so that they can make plans to receive the package as and when it is expected to arrive.
The clear process will ensure that your customers come back to your site to buy more from you at a later date.
Offer Customers a Cheaper Alternative
Everyone wants to save money where they can, and parcel delivery prices are no different. Your customers won’t want to pay for expensive postage costs, so try to work with multiple couriers that are reasonable and price the delivery according to urgency.
The Bottom Line
By following the above tips and creating a solid parcel delivery strategy, you can help to ensure that your eCommerce business doesn’t just become another statistic.