5 Leading eCommerce Delivery Trends to Adopt

For ecommerce businesses to grow, it is essential that they pay attention to the latest ecommerce delivery trends so that they can adopt them. These ecommerce delivery trends ensure that businesses scale their business while meeting customer expectations.

eCommerce delivery refers to all the services involved when transporting products that customers have purchased online from the warehouse or retailer until they reach their delivery destination. The ecommerce delivery process involves order receiving, processing and fulfilment.

 

eCommerce Delivery Trends

  1. Free Shipping
    Free shipping is something that customers value most, and some customers might not purchase with your business if you do not offer free shipping. Therefore, for companies to ensure that they reduce cart abandonment and increase their sales, they need to offer free shipping. Free shipping might be expensive to implement, but there are ways that businesses can offset these costs, such as requiring a minimum spend threshold to receive free shipping. Free shipping is also the only top website banner that matters from a conversion rate standpoint, making it an effective strategy that companies can utilize for different channels, such as social media and emails.
  2. Distributing Inventory
    Shipping out packages is expensive, and all delivery businesses want to ensure that their costs are as low as possible. One of the ways that they can ensure that they keep their delivery costs down is through utilizing data that not only assists them in reducing costs but can also reduce time in transit. Historical order data assists in identifying where your customers are located, making it easier to adopt a distribution inventory model where your inventory is split across fulfilment centres in different locations. The coronavirus pandemic has also highlighted how important it is to have more than one fulfilment centre. It would assist businesses in reducing risk if there was an instance where they had to shut it down unexpectedly. Distributing inventory is valuable for companies that often have to deliver packages from one side to the other. You would need to calculate the delivery costs you would incur if you moved from one fulfilment centre to having fulfilment centres in multiple locations. It would be essential to also look at the additional costs you would incur for each facility.
  3. Self-Service Returns
    Returns are a common occurrence for most businesses, and their returns process should ensure that these returns are handled in a manner that increases customer satisfaction. Returns are especially important for ecommerce businesses as a complicated returns process can make or break the business. Customers expect a self-service returns process that is simple and free while also avoiding support chat queues. Companies can choose to offer scan-based returns where a return label is included in the delivery package, ensuring that customers are not charged until the carrier scans the return label. Customers should also have the option to print their return labels at home and drop off their returns at a location where you accept returns, making the returns process more convenient for them.
  4. Increase in Delivery Options
    Nowadays, customers have started seeing more delivery options, such as local pickup, click and collect, and free shipping. For your delivery business to achieve success, ensure that you offer them more delivery options to retain your customers. Increasing the delivery options you offer is also crucial as you will accommodate all your customers’ different schedules. Though there are customers who are forgiving of delivery delays, some only want fast delivery at all times. Some customers only want the quickest and cheapest option, but they might not want their packages to be delivered to their door. One of the most popular delivery options that customers are looking for is the free delivery option, as most would only make a repeat purchase if they could receive free delivery. Businesses should also consider adding the local pickup and free click and collect, making it easier to maintain their profit margins while meeting demand.
  5. Premium Delivery Subscriptions
    Everyone loves a gift, and the same can be said about free delivery as most people prefer this option. There is a way that companies can provide their customers with free delivery that also increases customer loyalty, and this is through having premium delivery subscriptions. One of the first companies that started using this method was Amazon, and they called it Amazon Prime; and Amazon now has more than 80 million subscribers using this service. Premium delivery subscriptions are one of the best methods that businesses can implement to ensure that they increase customer satisfaction while also improving their brand loyalty rate.