E-commerce logistics: How to improve customer experience
Speed + accuracy + transparency + price = the basic logistical formula of customer experience
A lot of online stores focus primarily on continuously acquiring new clients in their efforts to grow. However, equally important is the focus on the customer experience associated with shipping and delivery of goods to existing ones.
How do you meet or exceed your customers’ expectations? Why focus on the processes that affect the final delivery of goods? How to improve your fulfillment?
What is customer experience?
The term customer experience refers to all customer interaction with your company or brand, in our case an online shopper with an online store. It is influenced by the emotions, practical experiences, insights or intentions that the online store sends across all its channels.
Delivery of goods and customer expectations
Today’s customer demands a high standard for the price of shipping and the speed of delivery for their orders. In the Czech Republic, delivery within the next day, i.e. in the D+1 mode, is already well established. This has been set by the largest online players such as Alza or Mall, and in the world by marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay. Also from this perspective, quality has never been more important in logistics.
The following figures demonstrate the demands on logistics:
- 43% of customers abandon their purchase due to high shipping costs
- 73% of customers say that free shipping is the most important factor when paying
- 83% of shoppers expect regular updates on their orders
Given how these standards are “encoded” in customers’ shopping behaviour, it is the enhanced options and transparency in delivery that are a frequent marketing attraction for larger online players. Which ultimately has a significant impact on customer brand loyalty.
Quality of complete fulfillment
Transport thus has an indisputable impact on both your competitiveness and your conversion rate or customer lifetime value (CLV). That’s why the hallmark of today’s fast-growing online stores is a wide portfolio and low carrier prices or offering free shipping options.
But customer experience doesn’t just equal shipping. The quality of the logistics processes inside your warehouse is also a prerequisite for fast delivery. If you aim to meet the aforementioned standard, you also need to focus on efficient processing, picking or packing of incoming orders.
10 ways to improve customer experience in logistics
That’s why you need to constantly look for ways to improve your fulfillment. Doing so will encourage customers to enjoy their shopping experience and increase the likelihood of their future return visits. Below we offer our 10 logistics tips.
1. Focus on accuracy in order processing
The joy of a quickly delivered parcel can be negatively impacted by its incorrect contents. There are two primary ways to reduce order processing errors:
- Properly set up fulfillment processes: receiving, storage, picking, packing
- Using the appropriate warehouse management system (WMS)
The higher the demand for your products, the more difficult it will be to maintain a high level of accuracy in the orders processing. You should keep the minimum level between 96 and 98%, if it drops, it is the right time to hand over logistics to an expert partner.
“During the first quarter of 2021, we reached a level of 99.91% accuracy. The aforementioned 0.09% is due to the absence of EAN codes on products, mislabeling of products from production or other human factors,” Lukas Stralka, Warehouse Manager Skladon.
“Since January 2020, we have not noticed any errors in order picking. Due to the low percentage, we perceive the record keeping as time inefficient. We are set up so that if a significant error occurs, we communicate the situation directly with our Key Account Manager,” Simona Benkova, Process Manager Skinners.
2. Offer multiple modes of transport
The first mistake is if you only offer one shipping method to your customers. You run the risk that the customer won’t be comfortable with the terms of that carrier, whether in terms of speed, communication or time flexibility.
That’s why it’s advisable to work with multiple domestic carriers, with both more economical ground transport and a faster air option available for foreign countries. It is also worth mentioning cooperation with local carriers in the target markets.
At Skladon, we work with more than 20 global and local carriers. This enables our clients to deliver their goods almost anywhere in the world.
“With Skladon we are able to deliver our goods to more than 90 countries. We are confident that they will even handle specific import conditions to new destinations for us if required,” Michaela Steinhauser, COO Skinners.
3. Comply with delivery times
Set transport conditions according to your capacity. Be fully transparent about delivery terms. If for some reason there is a time delay, inform your customer immediately about the situation. The customer will always appreciate timely and direct communication from you.
In Skladon we have set later delivery times, which allows us to guarantee delivery within the Czech Republic by the next day for orders received before 12:00.
4. Share current shipment statuses
This is one of the top priorities in e-commerce, today’s customer expects easily accessible and accurate information about their order.
Set up automatic notifications to send to recipients with their tracking information. This will relieve the burden on your customer service colleagues, who can focus on more urgent cases instead of responding to order statuses.
By communicating transparently, you strengthen the relationship with your customers.
5. Take interest in communication
As mentioned above, communicate with customers even after the purchase is complete. Why not choose a personalised or entertaining form for this purpose?
Win them over with animations, discounts or other unexpected bonuses that delight the customer and increase the likelihood of future purchases. For example, don’t be afraid to experiment with emails informing about order confirmations, current shipment status, shipping details, etc. But try to keep the communication clear at all times.
6. Surprise your customers when unboxing
Try to surprise your customer at the moment of unboxing. Whether it’s with unusual packaging, filler, tape, vouchers, discount cards, small gifts or other attention-getters.
This increases customer brand loyalty or awareness, where there is a higher chance of publicly sharing the unboxing experience, for example on social media.
“At Skladon, we set up specific packaging procedures with each client during onboarding according to their specific requirements. We offer the client a choice between using their own packaging material or ours, which we are able to provide more cost-effectively. The use of branded tapes, insertion of packaging material or other accessories is also a matter of course with us,” Rostislav Matejka MLog., Logistics Engineer Skladon.
7. Think environmentally
Plastics are gradually running out of breath. Customers are increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of online retailers. In a recent IBM survey, nearly 70% of respondents confirmed this.
Switch to eco-friendly packaging options that are recyclable and sustainable for our planet.
8. Simplify reverse logistics
Returns and claims are an unavoidable part of any e-commerce store. They are generally viewed negatively, however, according to research by Invesp, up to 92% of customers are willing to repurchase from an online store if the process of returning goods from a previous order was easy for them.
Therefore, be clear in your terms and conditions about how to start the returns process, how and where to send the goods back to your warehouse, the delivery time for returns, the process for replacing items from an order, refunding money or credits for a new purchase, etc.
In addition, customize your web interface so that return instructions are easy to follow and require only a few clicks from the customer to process. Alternatively, we recommend inserting a printed return form with instructions for completing it directly into your shipments. This will make your customers feel more comfortable with their next purchase.
9. Ask your customers for feedback
In order to continuously improve your customer experience, we recommend sending satisfaction surveys to your customers. Set up these emails automatically and in follow-up to delivery.
This will give you guidance on which areas of your fulfillment or supply chain to focus on. We also recommend monitoring and responding to your online reviews, especially negative ones. It’s never too late to improve the customer experience.
10. Consider sending a subscription
The subscription model offers its subscribers to automatically send orders at predetermined intervals – monthly, quarterly, annually, etc.
It often works on a “sign up and save” basis, where the customer is carelessly delivered discounted items while the e-commerce store earns its monthly base in revenue.
Surprise your customers by collaborating with a fulfillment expert
Implementing the above recommendations requires a lot of time and money. Is logistics really an area you want to focus on? Leave these worries to a fulfillment expert. With our infrastructure, technology, equipment, experience and pro-client approach, you will achieve a better score faster and without higher investments.
Looking for a way to speed up and refine your order fulfillment process? We’re here for you! Take our case study of working with nanoSPACE, where we helped increase customer ratings on Heureka.cz from 53% to 99% in just one month.
