Marketshare is hard to gain in the increasingly competitive online retail market, especially with retailers offering free one and two day shipping. Mid-market and growing retailers may feel the burden of tight shipping margins. But shipping promotions undoubtedly attract customers. Where is the sweet spot between shipping margin and customer conversion?
What to Consider Before Holiday
Major shippers and retailers all have different cut-off days for delivery by December 25th. Make sure you note these dates in several crucial places on your website, including the product description page and check-out page.
Considerations surrounding staffing and the warehouse should be made to get the rush of close-to-Christmas orders out the door and on the right carrier. Valuable space in the warehouse is saved when orders are moved through the order-to-door cycle faster and customers are more satisfied when their orders on on-time and correct.
Finding Shipping ROI
Shipping margins were traditionally a function of the operations department, but retailers should consider bringing in insights from the marketing and merchandise team as well. Analytics firm Kissmetrics reports that almost a third of shoppers will bounce off a site without completing their purchase if presented with an unexpected shipping cost. Site operations are deeply affected by shipping costs and promotions.
After holiday, many retailers find that miscalculations in their shipping costs have eaten into their year-end revenue, What can you do before holiday to ensure that shipping costs stay in check?. An order management platform that is able to explore all viable options from a carrier standpoint automatically can save retailers time, money and customer service headaches.”
The Right Platform for Shipping and Beyond
Inefficient shipping is an obstacle that is nearly impossible to recover from during the holiday rush. Customers celebrating gift-giving holidays have a hard deadline. A lost or delayed order will cause loss of trust from that customer.
A shipping management system that demonstrates excellence in holiday readiness includes:
- Integration with domestic and international shipping companies for price comparison in one centralized source.
- Freedom to integrate company business processes to auto-choose the carrier with the lowest shipping cost, or pick the shipping company manually if that is your warehouse process.
- Visibility into order status and tracking to alleviate burden on customer service representative and customers inquiring about the status of their order.
