Find Out How Ecommerce Retailers Ensure Happy Customers & Repeat Business

Ecommerce is a fast-growing industry that’s moving from strength to strength in modern times. According to figures by the Office of National Statistics, online sales accounted for 18.2% of all retail sales in the UK in 2018, the highest it’s ever been. Increasing from 14.4% in 2015, ecommerce’s market share is continuing to increase in an industry that was worth $366 billion in 2017.

So with so much money changing digital hands, how does an ecommerce company keep up with the modern customer’s demands and expectations? This blog will look at the most important factors every online retailer will need to consider if they want to keep shoppers happy and secure their continued business. The 2018 State of Ecommerce report revealed that 61% of consumers say a positive delivery experience incentivises them to shop with an e-tailer again, a figure so high that it needs to be taken note of.

Better Delivery, Less Basket Abandonment

Everyone is busy. We can’t be expected to wait at home for a delivery to arrive on every single weekday. Some might be able to spend a morning working from home one day, while some of us need to select a same-day evening delivery. Contrastingly, some shoppers won’t be able to take any days off during the week and will need to have their items delivered on the weekend. The 2018 State of Ecommerce report found that 75% of consumers expect to be able to see all available delivery options displayed on the product page they’re viewing, showcasing that transparency is key.

The point is, everybody has different requirements and what works for one customer won’t work for another. Because of this, offering a variety of delivery options will ensure that you don’t lose a customer at checkout. Providing outcomes like click & collect, next-day deliveries and more ensures that your customer feels valued and means they can get exactly what they want. And when it comes to pricing, customers really want to know the fees as soon as possible, as this will prevent a shock later on which could then lead to another case of the customer scarpering.

Cart abandonment is a serious issue, according to Statista, over 3/4 shoppers chose to leave a website in the middle of an order in 2017. There are many reasons people choose to abandon their products, from unresponsive pages to mobile pop-ups, but Statista found some interesting insights on deliveries too. The highest reason chosen for abandonment was the delivery fees being too high at 25%. While an alternative study by Baymard Institute found that 60% of those surveyed left the website mid-purchase because of the extra costs of the delivery being too high. Finally, in the same research, a lack of express delivery option is often cited in the top 10 reasons for not completing the sale.

Transparent Communication Makes for More Understanding Customers

Once your customer has picked an order, they’ll expect it on their chosen day. While this will happen without a blip 9/10 times, there’s always the possibility of something going wrong; a delay, a road closure, adverse weather, etc… Sometimes mishaps can’t be avoided. Most customers will be fine with these delays, but only if they actually know about them.

Transparency is important in every single business, but it’s even more important in ecommerce. In a traditional retail environment, customers get the instant gratification of their purchases and have something physical in their hands right away. But in ecommerce, that’s not possible. So fulfilling orders in an expected way is crucially important to a brand’s reputation. Too many orders not matching what the customer has been told and opinions will begin to wane.

One of the best ways of securing your customer’s trust is by selecting tracked deliveries. Not only does this give peace of mind, but even if there are unforeseen circumstances, the customer will be fully aware and can alter their expectations.

Consistently Packed Products Are What the Modern Customer Expects

In addition to the previous factors, one key consideration is how your products are actually presented. And by this, we don’t purely mean how unique or pretty your packaging is (though that can help of course), but how securely it transports your items because after all, that’s what people are paying for.

We’ve all opened ‘that’ Amazon delivery, a pair of scissors in a box the size of your car. How did that make you feel? A bit awkward about the environmental impact? Angry at the lack of sophistication? Reluctant to order again? Getting packaging ‘right’ isn’t necessarily about branding, it’s about making the consumer confident in your ability as a retailer to get it right.

While a handwritten note and/or free gift will turn a smirk into a full-blown smile, it’s not essential. No amount of personal touches in your packaging can make up for a damaged product. Ensuring a consistent level of quality across all deliveries is vitally important for a brand’s reputation and if this isn’t achieved, it can leave a nasty aftertaste for many consumers.

So how can your business achieve all this on top of everything you’re already doing? Thankfully, a new type order fulfilment solution has arisen in the London area to help you meet these aspirations with ease.

Focus on Your Customers, Not on Order Fulfilment

Traditional order fulfilment can help with the majority of these issues but it also creates a few more to take their place. Ordinarily, retailers would have to send half of their stock to a warehouse outside of London – making it doubly hard to manage orders, decreasing control over the packaging, and generally making things more complicated.

Imagine you’ve gone to two restaurants recently, at one, the service was great but the food was just OK. At the other, the service was average, but the food was amazing. Which one would you go back to? Yes, bad service can ruin a meal (and a purchasing experience) but if you nail what you actually serve them, they’ll definitely come back. So why not focus on getting your products as good as they can be? Cutting out the time you spend packaging to answer more emails, advertise, create new products, set up a loyalty scheme for customers… Packing a box doesn’t guarantee repeat business, all of the other stuff we just mentioned does. So let us handle the packing.

The Weengs Solution

Weengs provide a new type of order fulfilment that is designed to provide ultimate convenience for your shop while still providing a consistently excellent standard of service. After receiving an online order, all you need to do is log it via the useful Weengs app and then they’ll take care of the rest.

So far, so good. But what about the quality?

As well as professional packers with decades of experience in the logistics industry, Weengs has state-of-the-art equipment and machinery that can manufacture bespoke boxes in seconds. Able to cater to fragile items, awkward shapes and sizes and much more, each item is thoroughly packed to a consistently high standard.

If your customers prefer a certain carrier or shipping method that can be achieved too. By opting for Weengs’ Extra plan, you can have complete control over what carriers your products will be delivered by, whether that’s the Royal Mail, DPD or someone else. And there’s no monthly fee to contend with, you’ll only ever pay when you ship an item.