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2024 Holiday Shipping Guide: Deadlines, Surcharges, and Smart Strategies for E-commerce Businesses in the US and Canada

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 06:23:04 +0000

The holiday season is almost here, just T-23 days as we are writing this article away from things getting really hectic.

For e-commerce businesses, this means it’s time to prepare for the busiest time of the year. And remember, early preparation is key to ensuring a smooth holiday season.

So, in this blog, we’ve covered a comprehensive holiday schedule in the form of information on shipping deadlines and peak season surcharges for the 2024 season.

Why Early Preparation for the Holiday Season is Necessary

The holiday season is a time when shoppers are on a buying spree, looking to get the perfect gifts for their loved ones and deals for themselves. However, this great opportunity brings up a great challenge for businesses such as yours.

The holiday shopping rush can turn out to be overwhelming, leading to issues like shipping delays, inventory shortages, customer service overload, and so much more.
The holiday season is a time when shipping carriers are straining their capacity due to experiencing high volumes of packages, which often leads to delays. This means that you need to plan accordingly to get your products shipped out for timely delivery.
Customers are more likely to make impulse purchases during the holidays, especially towards the last minute. For such customers, we understand carriers’ shipping deadlines to avoid delays and holiday disappointments.

This is why starting your plans for the holiday season early is crucial:

Now that we understand the importance of early preparation, let’s get started.

Before we get into the details, here’s a little heads-up: shipping carriers exceed their capacity to deliver on-time during the peak season. To help you evade delays successfully, we are planning a Q/A session, where our CEO Sri shares insights from the 7th annual edition of our e-commerce holiday shipping report, focusing on on-time carrier reliability and logistics challenges to support your holiday retail coverage.

Join our briefing session and get:

FedEx and UPS On-time Performance Insights: A detailed on-time performance analysis covering Ground and Express services, key U.S. cities, states and retail categories
2024 Holiday Forecast: Get an expert outlook on carrier reliability, factors impacting on-time performance, shipping costs, and consumer expectations for the holiday season.
Interactive Q&A Session: Engage with our host, ask questions, and gain an insider’s perspective on the 2024 peak season logistics; and its impact on retailers and holiday shoppers.

You can register for the session here.

Key Holiday Shipping Deadlines in 2024

Getting your customers to spend with you is just halfway to the finish line. Getting their products into customers’ hands is a bigger challenge for e-commerce businesses during this busy season.

On the one hand, carriers are straining their capacity to ship out huge volumes of packages during the holiday rush. So know what steps you must take to get on the right track this holiday season.

To make things simpler for you, we’ve noted important holiday-season dates for carriers in the US and Canada and have presented them to you.

US Shipping Deadlines

To help shippers plan their deliveries for the holidays accordingly, carriers such as FedEx, UPS, and USPS release their schedule, i.e., a calendar with information on when services will not be operated, special restrictions for certain services, and geographical locations, etc.

Staying updated on this schedule can help e-commerce businesses such as yours follow shipping deadlines and send out deliveries on time.

Here’s a breakdown of key shipping deadlines (the last shipping dates for select services to help ensure your package is scheduled to arrive by December 24, 2024 unless otherwise mentioned specifically) by major carriers in the U.S., including FedEx, UPS, and USPS:

FedEx

FedEx SameDay – 12/24
FedEx First Overnight, FedEx Priority Overnight, FedEx Standard Overnight, Extra Hours – 12/23
FedEx 2Day & FedEx 2Day AM – 12/20 (With an optional Saturday pickup (a $16 per package surcharge), the last day to ship for FedEx 2Day and FedEx 2Day AM can be extended to Saturday, Dec. 21st)
FedEx Express Saver – 12/19
FedEx Home Delivery
- 12/17 (5-day shipping)
- 12/18 (4-day shipping)
- 12/19 (3-day shipping)
- 12/20 (2-day shipping)
- 12/23 (1-day shipping)

FedEx Home Delivery
- 12/17 (5-day shipping)
- 12/18 (4-day shipping)
- 12/19 (3-day shipping)
- 12/20 (2-day shipping)
- 12/23 (1-day shipping)

FedEx Ground Economy – 12/13

Read FedEx’s 2024 shipping deadlines for holiday packages in detail

UPS

UPS Ground – Check ups.com/ctc for details
UPS 3 Day Select – Dec. 19
UPS 2nd Day Air – Dec. 20
UPS Next Day Air – Dec. 23

Read UPS’ 2024 Year-End Holiday Schedule

USPS

USPS recommends the following mailing and shipping deadlines for expected delivery by Dec. 25 to domestic addresses

USPS Ground Advantage Service – DEC 18
First-Class Mail Service (including greeting cards) – DEC 18
Priority Mail Service – DEC 19
Priority Mail Express Service – DEC 21

Read USPS’ 2024 shipping deadlines for holiday packages in detail

Deadlines for Canadian Carriers

Similar to the US, carriers from Canada also announce their holiday service schedule YoY to help businesses that ship plan their dates accordingly and avoid shipping delays.

Canada Post

Priority – December 23
Xpresspost – December 23
Expedited Parcel or flat rate box – December 20
Regular Parcel – December 19

Read Canada Post’s 2024 shipping deadlines for holiday packages in detail

FedEx Canada

FedEx First Overnight – Monday, December 23
FedEx Priority Overnight – Monday, December 23
FedEx Standard Overnight – Monday, December 23
FedEx 2Day – Friday, December 20
FedEx Economy – Thursday, December 19

Read FedEx Canada 2024 shipping deadlines for holiday packages in detail

UPS Canada

December 16th – Last day to ship by Ground for delivery to US & Extended Areas.
December 16th – Last day to ship by Ground for delivery across Canada (domestic).
December 20th – Last day to ship by Air for International delivery.
December 23rd – Last day to ship by Air for delivery across Canada and the US.

Read UPS Canada’s Holiday Shipping Dates 2024

Peak Season Surcharges and How They Affect Holiday Shipping Costs

Carriers strain their capacity during the peak season to meet the increasing delivery demand. They’re hiring additional temporary resources, ensuring all things go well, yes. To manage these operational challenges and additional costs, carriers implement peak season/demand surcharges (applied to specific services and vary based on package weight, size, and destination).

These charges can significantly impact e-commerce shipping budgets, particularly for large or bulky items.

FedEx

FedEx delivery commitment times will be extended by 90 minutes starting Dec 19-24

Domestic surcharges – FedEx will charge a $1–$2 fee per package for express services and $0.30–$0.55 per package for ground residential shipments during the peak season. Large-scale shippers who see a spike in volume during the peak season will also be charged a fee.
International surcharges – For exports, FedEx will charge $0.10–$0.35 per pound for parcels and freight, with a minimum charge of $1–$20 per shipment. For imports, FedEx will charge $0.25 per pound for parcels and freight in Zones F and N, with a minimum charge of $1 per shipment for parcels and $0.50 for freight.
Additional handling and oversize charges – FedEx will charge $3.45 per package for additional handling and $39.50 per package for oversize from February 5–September 29, 2024.

Read FedEx’s demand surcharges for 2024 in detail

UPS (from November 24–December 28, 2024)

Additional handling – $9.95 per package
Large package – $99.00 per package
Over maximum limits – $495.00 per package
Demand surcharge (for UPS Ground Residential, Air, and SurePost packages) – $0.25–$2 per package

In the list of services that are eligible for the UPS Service Guarantee, the guaranteed delivery time for UPS Next Day Air Saver deliveries has been extended to end-of-day (11:59 p.m. on the guaranteed day of delivery).

Read UPS’ demand surcharges for 2024 in detail

USPS

Priority Mail – For packages weighing 0–3 lbs, there is a $0.90 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 4–10 lbs, there is a $1.45 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 11–25 lbs, there is a $3.25 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 26–70 lbs, there is an $8.50 increase in Zones 5–9.
USPS Ground Advantage – For packages weighing 0–3 lbs, there is a $0.50 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 4–10 lbs, there is a $1.00 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 11–25 lbs, there is a $2.00 increase in Zones 5–9. For packages weighing 26–70 lbs, there is a $5.85 increase in Zones 5–9.
Priority Mail Express- For packages weighing 0–3 lbs, there is a $1.10 increase in Zones 1–4. For packages weighing 4–10 lbs, there is a $2.00 increase in Zones 1–4. For packages weighing 11–25 lbs, there is a $3.90 increase in Zones 1–4. For packages weighing 26–70 lbs, there is a $9.75 increase in Zones 1–4.

Read USPS’ peak season surcharges for 2024 in detail

UPS (Canada)

The following surcharges are applicable between September 8, 2024, to January 18, 2025 unless mentioned otherwise.

Additional Handling – CAD $7.70 per package (all service levels)
Large Package – CAD $77.00 per package (all service levels)
Over Maximum Limits – CAD $495.00 per package (all service levels)
UPS Canada Domestic Air and Ground Services – CAD $0.55 per package (applicable from September 15, 2024, to January 18, 2025)

Read UPS’ demand surcharges in Canada for 2024 in detail

Canada Post

Oversize and unpackaged items: $30, up from $21 in 2023
Out-of-spec items: $400, up from $300 in 2023

Also, for items mailed between November 24, 2024 (Monday) till January 12, 2025 (Sunday), Canada Post will only honor late delivery claims if the item is delivered two or more days after the delivery standard.

Read Canada Post’s peak season surcharges for 2024 in detail

Impact of Carrier Delays on E-commerce Businesses and Customer Satisfaction

The holiday season brings not only high volumes of orders but also increased pressure on shipping carriers to deliver on time. Despite all best efforts, the surge in holiday shipments can lead to delays that disrupt delivery timelines and create ripple effects for e-commerce businesses. Delayed shipments are more than an operational inconvenience; they come with hidden costs that affect customer retention and brand reputation.

Late deliveries can result in an average customer churn rate increase of up to 15%

Customer Dissatisfaction and Lost Loyalty: Late deliveries lead to dissatisfied customers, with many choosing to abandon the brand after just one poor delivery experience. This is especially true during the holiday season, when customers are anxiously awaiting their orders for time-sensitive gifting.
Increased Support Costs: Each late delivery typically results in additional customer support inquiries. For instance, a delayed package leads to “Where Is My Order?” (WISMO) questions, increasing customer support volume. This can lead to longer wait times, strained support teams, and higher overall operational costs.
Potential Revenue Losses: Customers who experience delayed shipments are more likely to abandon their carts or cancel future purchases. For an e-commerce business, this translates to direct revenue losses as well as the cost associated with trying to re-acquire lost customers.

Strategies to Circumnavigate Surcharges and Avoid Delays

During the holiday season, increased demand often results in higher shipping surcharges and more frequent delays, both of which can disrupt a business’s operations and impact the customer experience. For e-commerce businesses, minimizing these additional costs and ensuring on-time delivery are key to maintaining customer trust and satisfaction. But how can businesses avoid the pitfalls of peak-season shipping while still providing a seamless experience?

Here are some effective strategies.

1. Plan and Ship Early

Encourage customers to shop early by running holiday promotions well ahead of time. This gives your business ample time to process and ship orders before the peak season rush. Shipping early not only helps you avoid the higher surcharges that carriers may impose closer to the holidays, but it also allows for a buffer period in case of unexpected delays.

2. Set Clear Expectations

Consider creating early-bird sales or “holiday countdown” campaigns, offering slight discounts or free shipping incentives to encourage early purchases. Display shipping deadlines prominently on product pages, checkout pages, and in email confirmations. You can also implement a shipping countdown timer to increase a sense of urgency and motivate shoppers to complete their purchases ASAP if they want an earlier delivery slot.

3. Use Regional and Hybrid Shipping Solutions

Partnering with regional carriers or hybrid solutions can be a smart alternative to traditional carriers during the holiday season. Regional carriers may offer lower rates for certain delivery zones, while hybrid solutions, such as UPS SurePost or FedEx SmartPost, utilize major carriers in tandem with local delivery networks to reduce costs.

4. Optimize Shipping Zones with Distributed Fulfillment Centers

Distributed fulfillment enables orders to stay within specific shipping zones, avoiding the higher fees associated with long-distance deliveries.

For instance, if your e-commerce business has a high volume of orders from the East Coast, partnering with a fulfillment center in that region.

You can also offer a local pickup option that can be a valuable alternative during the holiday season in reducing shipping costs and avoiding surcharges but also gives customers a reliable option for securing their items quickly.

5. Consolidate Orders and Encourage Bulk Buying

Encourage customers to buy more in a single transaction by offering bundled products or “buy more, save more” incentives. Consolidating multiple orders into one shipment reduces per-package costs, decreases the frequency of surcharge fees, and can improve efficiency on the operational side.

While these strategies work out for areas in your control, they also lay the foundation for a more positive post-purchase experience.This is where LateShipment.com comes in to ensure that even during the busiest times, customers feel valued and well-informed, creating lasting loyalty and reducing the risk of post-purchase dissonance.

How LateShipment.com can Help E-commerce Businesses During the Peak Season

A key driver of customer dissatisfaction during the holiday season is feeling uninformed or blindsided by delays and extra fees. Proactive communication can mitigate this dissonance by keeping customers informed every step of the way. Here’s how:

Send Real-Time Updates: Use real-time tracking notifications to keep customers in the loop about any potential delays or changes in delivery times. This prevents WISMO (Where Is My Order?) inquiries, reducing the burden on customer support teams.
Communicate Potential Delays and Delivery Options: Regularly update customers on order status, especially if there’s a delay,. Consider using SMS or push notifications for critical updates close to delivery dates. Use clear messaging that conveys empathy and proactive support, improving the customer experience despite delays
Leverage Predictive Alerts for High-Volume Days: Proactively prepare for peak holiday days, such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, by using predictive analytics to anticipate surges in delivery times and customer inquiries. LateShipment.com’s predictive insights can help you notify customers in advance, ensuring they have realistic expectations and reducing post-purchase dissonance.

By implementing these strategies, e-commerce businesses can effectively navigate the holiday season’s unique challenges. Reduced surcharges and delays mean fewer surprises for customers, and proactive communication helps prevent the negative impact of post-purchase dissonance, creating a smoother, more enjoyable shopping experience during the busiest time of year.

Get Started With Your Holiday Season Plans

Following the schedule of services and operations and understanding the surcharges from shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS can help you plan your shipping game in advance and not succumb to sky-rocketing surcharges.

That’s not all! Planning for the holiday season is a huge task that requires you to tick all the boxes and have everything ready in place to manage the upcoming rush and whatnot.

One area that most businesses unwillingly ignore is the post-purchase phase, which holds incredible value in boosting retention rates and revenue. To help you tick that box as well, we’ve come up with our annual shipping report that highlights delivery trends, operational challenges, and consumer expectations for speed and reliability for the upcoming 2024 holiday season.

Download the report to gain unbiased insights on UPS and FedEx on-time performance.

The post 2024 Holiday Shipping Guide: Deadlines, Surcharges, and Smart Strategies for E-commerce Businesses in the US and Canada appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Tracking Pages And Shipping Notifications To Get Inspired This Holiday Season

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 12:11:11 +0000

The holiday season is a time when the e-commerce and retail space is busier than usual with customers looking to get their list of items at the best rates possible.

But there are hundreds of brands out there and the competition only gets fierce year-on-year.

As an e-commerce merchant, if you’re looking to get into a better position than your competitors, then the holiday season is the perfect opportunity to do that.

We’re not going to beat the bush, here’s the trick — create memorable experiences that turn one-time holiday shoppers into lifetime customers.

One of the best ways to do that is to keep customers engaged about their orders through branded tracking pages and notifications. Let’s explore some inspiring examples, along with templates you can customize to create the ultimate branded tracking experience this holiday season.

The Importance of Branded Tracking Pages and Notifications

Shipping notifications are not the same as marketing emails. In fact, they have an open rate of more than 3.2x. This is because the post-purchase stage is when customers are anxious about their orders and can’t wait to see updates and track them periodically.

You can get your A-game here by sending shipping transactional notifications to customers at various stages of the order fulfillment process without being asked for and following up with ‘branded’ tracking pages with real-time order updates.

While we’ll look in-depth into tracking pages and notifications, let’s start with the impact of these post-purchase assets, serving multiple purposes, and how all of these are particularly valuable during times like the holiday season.

Enhanced Customer Experience

Keeping your customers informed through shipping notifications and tracking pages, allows you to leverage additional touchpoints to enhance customer experience, which usually consists of just “order confirmed” and “order delivered” in traditional methods. Not just benefits for you, customers also appreciate your efforts to provide real-time updates on their orders, especially during the holiday season.

Brand Recognition

Customers are highly anxious in the post-purchase phase. Sending your customers to the carrier’s tracking page and not sharing order status updates, creates a disconnected brand experience, where your carrier’s brand is the last thing your customers will remember about your brand. On the other hand, through effective post-purchase engagement, you can leverage every touchpoint to reinforce your brand identity and build a stronger connection with your customers.

Opportunities for Upselling

Customers track their orders 6-8 times during order delivery and 6-8 additional marketing touchpoints with customers post-checkout. Boost repeat sales with product recommendations on order tracking pages, while also providing relevant product usage information to reduce returns.

Thus, it is clear what role branded tracking pages and shipping notifications play in the growth of your business. To make things easier, here are some guidelines that you can follow while creating these branded tracking assets.

Best Practices for Creating Branded Order Tracking Pages and Shipping Notifications

A branded tracking page is not just a tracking page hosted on your domain instead of the carrier’s. Multiple elements make it unique and beneficial for your post-purchase, in terms of CX and marketing efforts. Here are some of the ‘must-haves’, if you’re looking to build a customized tracking page for your e-commerce brand.

Elements of a branded tracking page

1. Provide complete delivery information

Customers often visit tracking pages to stay updated on their orders, especially during peak seasons or after big sales. Providing clear, accurate, and detailed delivery information reduces anxiety and minimizes customer service (WISMO) inquiries.

What to Include:

Order summary: List items ordered, quantities, and relevant details (e.g., color, size)
Detailed tracking info: Clear order history with details such as shipment date and location updates
Live order status timeline: Show the package journey (e.g., Ordered, In Transit, Out for Delivery, Delivered) with a timeline or progress bar for visual clarity
Expected Delivery Date (EDD): Set realistic expectations with accurate delivery dates. If there are delays, update this information promptly to maintain transparency

2. Replicate brand identity

Consistency reinforces brand recognition and loyalty. When the tracking page matches the brand’s aesthetic (colors, logo, typography), it feels like a seamless part of the brand experience rather than being boring, generic, dull, etc.

What to Include:

Logo: Place your logo prominently at the top to remind customers they’re still within your brand ecosystem.
Brand Colors and Fonts: Use the same fonts and colors from your main website to create a cohesive look and feel.

3. Feature relevant support channels

Even with detailed order tracking, issues can arise and customers can have queries. Providing easy access to customer support channels directly on the tracking page reassures customers that help is just a click away if they need it.

What to Include:

Contact Options: Display multiple ways for customers to reach you (e.g., live chat, email, phone). Some brands even offer a “track or modify my order” button that leads directly to support.
FAQ Links: Include links to common questions related to shipping, returns, or delays. This can save customers time by addressing their concerns immediately.

P.S. Ensure that these support channels and contact information are strategically positioned in an easy-to-find spot on the page.

4.Get customer feedback around the delivery experience and take appropriate actions

Collecting customer feedback on the delivery process provides valuable insights to improve logistics and fulfillment. It also shows customers that their opinions matter, enhancing brand loyalty.

What to Include:

Simple Rating System: A 5-star rating or thumbs-up/thumbs-down option lets customers quickly share their experience.
Optional Comments Section: Allow customers to leave specific feedback about what they liked or disliked about the delivery, such as packaging, speed, or condition of items.

5. Include product recommendations and promotions

Tracking pages are an often-overlooked opportunity to engage customers post-purchase. Suggesting related products or upcoming promotions can drive repeat visits and boost sales.

What to Include:

Personalized Product Recommendations: Use data from past purchases to suggest relevant items or complementary products. For example, if the customer purchased a camera, you can suggest accessories such as a lens, tripod, etc.
Special Offers and Discounts: Show exclusive discounts for returning customers or advertise upcoming sales. You could even offer a discount on their next purchase if they refer a friend.
New Arrivals or Best Sellers: Showcase popular products or new collections, encouraging customers to explore other offerings in your store.

6. BONUS: Capture the spirit of the season

Create a holiday-themed tracking page. Use festive colors, seasonal icons, and a joyful design that reflects the season’s magic. Add playful touches, like snowfall animations or holiday-themed order milestones, deadlines until the holiday offer gets over, etc, to make the page feel interactive.
Include a holiday-specific ‘updates’ section mentioning holiday order deadlines, extended holiday shipping timelines, and changes to your holiday return policy.

Engaging shipping transactional notifications that you can send

Shipping notifications are nothing but the transactional updates of the customers’ orders getting shared with them via email, SMS, or in-app push notifications.

The purpose of a shipping notification is really simple.

Customers are frequently engaged up until the purchase to ensure that they hit that ‘buy’ button. But as they’re awaiting their parcels, the communication between the two parties becomes almost non-existent.

Due to this ‘post-purchase communication gap’, all your efforts to keep your customers engaged get lost along with any chance of retention.

This is where proactive communication with customers about their order delivery status in the form of shipping notifications comes into play to offer customers a memorable post-purchase experience.

Here’s how it works. There are multiple shipping events that occur throughout the post-purchase phase, particularly in the order delivery lifecycle. Each of these events can be leveraged to ensure that your brand remains on the top of the customers’ minds even after delivery. Additionally, times like the holiday season also make room for new and uncommon events as well.

1. Setting Expectations: Your order might get delivered late

In the spirit of transparency, start by sharing potentially less joyful news—some orders may arrive later than expected.

The holiday season is a time when shipping carriers are straining capacity to deliver huge volumes of shipments on time. This often creates a situation where delivery issues such as delays are common in occurrence.

By proactively communicating this possibility during the holiday shopping rush, you help customers adjust their delivery expectations, ensuring their holiday celebrations go off without a hitch.

2. The Exciting Beginning: Your order is shipped

The ‘Order Shipped’ notification during the holiday season takes on a special significance. It’s the first glimmer of hope for customers eagerly awaiting their holiday surprises.

Along with the tracking number, you can include an estimated delivery date and important order-related information such as contents of the package, delivery address, etc. to avoid last-minute confusion.

‘Order shipped’ or the shipping confirmation notification is one of the most anticipated ones as this sets up the conversation towards all the other touchpoints of the post-purchase journey. Therefore, make sure this is sent at the earliest in order to ensure the customer that you take the onus of keeping them informed about their order delivery status.

3. On the Way: Your order is out for delivery

Following the ‘Order Shipped’ notification, the ‘Out for Delivery’ update becomes an eagerly anticipated message. It signifies that the holiday magic is en route to the customer’s doorstep.

Enhance this notification by attaching a link to a branded order tracking page, empowering customers to monitor them on their own. This self-service approach drastically reduces frequent order status inquiries and thereby allows your support teams to focus on priority tasks at hand.

Also, unlike the carrier’s tracking page, sending your customers to your own branded order tracking page, opens new opportunities like improving brand recall and doubling your chances at driving repeat sales through marketing campaigns on your tracking page’s real estate.

4. Mission Accomplished: Your order has been delivered

When the holiday order arrives on time, it’s a moment to celebrate.

Send a ‘Delivery Confirmation’ notification with a heartfelt thank you for choosing your brand for their holiday shopping.

Encourage them to make future holiday purchases and continue building joyful memories with your products.

5. Unexpected Delays: Your order is predicted to face delays

As mentioned, delivery issues such as shipping delays are inevitable and frequent during the holiday season.

But the real issue stands at customers finding that their parcels have been delayed and you not informing them about it.

To avoid this scenario, you can make use of a real-time tracking solution and send ‘Predicted Delay’ notifications for individual packages facing potential delays. This proactive step reassures customers that you’re on close watch of their orders and thereby makes them less prone to frustration.

6. Handling Delays Gracefully: Your order is in-transit with delays

If the predicted delay (or your customers’ worst fears) doesn’t get resolved automatically, then the follow-up shipping notification from your end comes in the form of ‘In-Transit with Delays’.

These notifications should be sent promptly to stay empathetic to your customers, as well as to take their decision on how they want the issue to be resolved.

You can consider sending replacements via expedited shipping options or offer them special coupons for their next purchase.

7. Acknowledging Hiccups: Your order was delivered with delays

Despite all your efforts and fixes, when the package is delivered late, it’s vital to acknowledge the issue, as the chances of customers forgiving you are higher when you do that.

To make it even better, you can add a heartfelt apology note along with a discount coupon for their next holiday purchase, so that they feel less impacted by the issue and may choose to shop with you once again.

8. Addressing Delivery Challenges: There was a failed delivery attempt

A ‘Failed Delivery Attempt’ notification is sent when the order is marked ‘failed delivery’ by the shipping carrier.

This usually happens when the delivery is not being made for reasons such as “no one at home to receive the package”, “wrong delivery address”, “package requiring adult signature”, etc.

In your failed delivery attempt notification, you can include details such as the date, time, and reason for the failure, along with clear instructions on how they can reschedule delivery or pick up their holiday package.

9. In Search of Lost Packages: Your holiday order is suspected to be lost

When a holiday package is suspected to be lost, you must waste no time and promptly send a ‘Suspected Lost’ notification.

Just like delays, customers can be under severe stress when their important orders are on the verge of getting lost, therefore you can offer multiple solutions to let them know that the issue can be resolved.

Keep customers informed about the situation, you can also offer solutions such as locating the package, refunding the cost, or sending a free replacement to mitigate their frustration greatly.

10. Handling the Unfortunate: Your holiday order is lost/damaged in transit

In the unfortunate event of a lost or damaged holiday package, send a ‘Lost/Damaged in Transit’ notification immediately.

Apart from just notifying, the best ploy is to take full responsibility, offer cost-free returns and replacements, and provide discounts or coupons for future holiday orders.

11. Rerouting Solutions: Your holiday order is returned

For holiday orders that are marked returned by the shipping carrier, use the ‘Order Returned’ notification to re-engage with customers.

This notification is primarily sent to let your customers know that their order is now in your possession after a failed delivery attempt.

Additionally, you can enable your customer support team to acquire accurate information from customers such as the address and the date & time of rescheduling etc and effectively follow up with them. This way, you can save on additional shipping costs.

Create Branded Tracking Experiences with LateShipment.com

As the holiday season approaches, use branded tracking experiences to create unforgettable holiday moments and make your customers’ celebrations truly magical.

With LateShipment.com’s you can create branded order tracking pages and send automated shipping notifications via email and SMS to reduce your customers’ anxiety, improve repeat purchases, and ensure that the CX you provide is on-brand. During times like the holiday season when each one-time shopper can be converted to a repeat customer, amplify the chances by offering a great experience via meaningful engagement.

That’s all from us for now. It’s now your turn to create customer experiences that delight with LateShipment.com.

We’re ready when you are.

Or still have questions? We’re all ears.

The post Tracking Pages And Shipping Notifications To Get Inspired This Holiday Season appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Post-purchase Strategies to Turn One-Time Holiday Shoppers into Your Brand’s BFFs

Sashank Ravindranath — Sun, 26 Nov 2023 11:16:54 +0000

Introduction

Holiday shoppers don’t just mean the “I’m planning to spend (more than I usually do during the other months) for my holiday season needs by capitalizing on seasonal trends, special deals, and promotions” type.

It covers impulse buyers — who make unplanned purchases motivated by emotional triggers such as peer pressure or “FOMO” from the holiday trends, gift givers — who are purchasing products for others, early bird or last-minute shoppers, and shoppers of different demographics (age, gender, spend threshold, etc).

Amidst all these characteristics, one thing that stands in common is the holiday shopper preferring to be just a one-time shopper.

The One-Time Shopper Dilemma

You might have faced this scenario where someone shops with your brand once and that’s all… you never hear from them again.

Unfortunately, in some cases, their decision to shop with you just once has something to do with you. This term is coined as “The one-time shopper dilemma”, where e-commerce businesses are unable to convert one-time shoppers into repeat customers due to unfavorable customer experiences.

76% of customers say that an unacceptable customer experience would affect their decision to order from the company again.

It is almost easy for one-time shoppers to get what they want. But in your case, not so much, given the increasing competition among e-commerce brands in today’s space.

Enter “Brand BFF” or repeat customer, a win-win situation for your customers and your business.

Why Focus on Customer Retention?

Overcoming the one-time shopper dilemma requires a comprehensive approach to address the not-so-positive experiences that:

Arise from bad delivery experiences, lack of engagement and follow-up, etc, and
Prevent you from increasing the likelihood of converting one-time shoppers into repeat customers.

To give you a little motivation, here are some of the benefits that you can stand to gain by increasing your customer retention rates.

Cost-effectiveness: Retaining existing customers is significantly more cost-effective than acquiring new ones. Studies show that it costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain an existing one.
Stronger customer relationships: Fostering strong customer relationships impacts multiple customer satisfaction metrics such as high customer lifetime value, positive brand perception, and increased brand advocacy.
Competitive advantage: In a competitive landscape where similar products offered are similar, the experiences you offer play the differentiator. And with positive experiences, leading to higher retention rates, you now have a significant advantage over your competitors.

With the importance of customer retention clear, it’s time to focus on one particular component that is crucial to increasing your customer loyalty in the long run — ‘the post-purchase customer journey’.

Chapter 1: Mapping the Post-Purchase Customer Journey

The ‘post-purchase’ is an integral, but often overlooked function in any e-commerce business.

Integral because the experiences offered by you in the post-purchase phase occur in the final stages of the customer journey and thereby have a higher chance of leaving a lasting impression on your customers than CX offered in the pre-purchase and purchase phases.

On the contrary, most businesses don’t pay enough attention to post-purchase customer experience due to reasons such as:

Businesses assume their job is done after handing over the package to the shipping carrier for delivery
Businesses don’t recognize the post-purchase being a goldmine of opportunity to effectively engage customers
Businesses often operate with limited resources, making it challenging to dedicate the time and effort required for effective post-purchase strategies.

Are you one of such businesses? No, it’s all good. If yes, you need to shift your commitment to prioritizing the post-purchase CX. And that process begins with understanding the ABCs of the post-purchase customer journey.

1.1: Defining the Post-Purchase Journey

A customer’s post-purchase journey is interactions with your brand that take place once the order is dispatched to when it is ‘delivered’ or ‘returned’.

In simple terms, the post-purchase customer journey usually takes place from the moment the buy button is clicked and the order is confirmed, till the moment it reaches the customer’s doorstep. In some cases, the post-purchase journey extends beyond order delivery, whenever the customer initiates a return on their purchase.

A successful post-purchase customer experience strategy is ensuring that your customers have hassle-free order delivery and return experiences with your brand that in turn help you nurture customer relationships and achieve sustainable growth. That said, let’s see why post-purchase is a huge missed opportunity for most businesses out there.

1.2: Key Touchpoints and Moments of Truth: Why Post-purchase is a Huge Missed Opportunity

There might be different reasons for Americans choosing to spend 39% less this holiday season from 2022. However, as for pain points, customers said they had several frustrations in the previous holiday season such as a lack of communication during the shipping process (57%), lost or damaged packages (51%), and delayed packages (49%).

A harsh truth to digest is that issues are inevitable and common in the post-purchase phase and mind you, these issues hold serious power to hurt your customer’s satisfaction levels and lead to even more problems.

1.3: Understanding the Post-Purchase CX Challenge: Identifying Threats and Impact

Post-purchase issues may be common. But the real problem lies when you don’t do anything about it and let customers fend for themselves.

This brings up the necessity to maintain engagement and address customer concerns post-checkout. However, with most businesses like yours involuntarily not tending to these issues, there exists a disconnect or a ‘post-purchase CX gap’ that can lead to frustration, dissatisfaction, and ultimately, customer churn.

Up to 20% of shipments face ISSUES such as late delivery, attempted-failed delivery, lost or damaged in transit
Up to 40% of customer support inquiries are WISMO (Where Is My Order) or RETURN-related
Up to 35% of all products that are purchased from e-commerce retailers are RETURNED
82% of shoppers are worried about their orders not reaching them on time
78% of shoppers won’t buy from the brand again after just ONE bad delivery or return experience

But there’s no need to stress — the upcoming sections will cover everything you need to know about creating an e-commerce post-purchase strategy that will improve customer experience, and boost customer retention.

1.4: The Power of Post-Purchase CX

Post-purchase issues tend to drive customers away. On the other side of the same coin, 46% of customers say that a positive post-purchase experience makes them more likely to buy from a brand again. That is the power of the ‘overlooked’ post-purchase CX — to make or break a brand.

Increase in retention, brand reputation, and consumer spending: A positive post-purchase experience can make customers feel happy, valued, and appreciated. Such customers don’t just keep shopping with you but will recommend your brand to others and are also willing to pay more.
Reduced customer support costs: With frequent and meaningful engagement throughout the post-purchase journey, you can minimize customer inquiries and reduce the need to contact customer support, thereby saving you time and money.
Increase in revenue: By leveraging post-purchase interactions to the maximum and exceeding customer expectations, you can create and identify opportunities to upsell or cross-sell additional products.

With the significant benefits that you can reap by working on your post-purchase CX loud and clear, we’ll move on to the hero section of this article. How you can craft a successful strategy to optimize CX throughout your customers’ post-purchase journey.

Chapter 2: Crafting a Post-Purchase CX Strategy

Taking measures to close the post-purchase CX gap and provide customers with a frictionless delivery experience can cement you as their preferred brand.

Now the question one should ask is: On whom does the onus of closing the existing gap and perfecting the post-purchase really fall? The answer is: on everyone — from marketing to sales to operations and customer service.

2.1: Aligning Teams for Post-Purchase Success

Support agents providing fast and exceptional customer service
Operations team making better decisions to improve delivery performance and reduce returns
Sales team using the post-purchase as an additional channel to drive revenue
Marketing team sending effective and targeted campaigns based on customer history

Bringing all business functions together and taking a unified approach to post-purchase interactions is vital for your business to enjoy post-purchase success. But what does post-purchase success look like?

2.2: Metrics and KPIs for Post-Purchase CX

Customer Satisfaction (CSAT): To measure customer satisfaction with the post-purchase experience through surveys, feedback forms, and online reviews. In 2023, E-commerce and retail had the second-highest benchmark for CSAT scores at 81.
Net Promoter Score (NPS): NPS indicates the likelihood of customers recommending your brand to others. For the e-commerce industry, the average NPS is 45. That means you should aim for a 45 or higher score to succeed.
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV): CLV represents the total revenue customers generate over their lifetime relationship with the brand. According to many e-commerce experts, LTV should be about 3x CAC.
Return-related metrics: To monitor different metrics relevant to returns and exchanges to identify potential product or operational issues. Some must-know return KPIs for e-commerce businesses are Return rate, Reason for return, Frequently returned products, etc.
Customer Support Resolution Time: A metric that directly impacts your CSAT and NPS scores — the average time it takes to resolve customer inquiries and issues. 61% of consumers define excellent customer support interaction as one with a quick resolution.

By consistently monitoring these metrics and KPIs, you can identify trends, assess the impact of post-purchase strategies, identify areas and make data-driven decisions for improvement, and drive long-term CX success.

Adopting the following ways to improve your post-purchase CX will ensure a positive impact on both your customers’ lifetime value and the retention rate of your business.

Chapter 3: Delivering a Seamless Order Fulfillment Process

The order fulfillment process is the first step in the post-purchase experience. It’s important to make sure that this process is seamless and efficient to avoid customer frustration.

Here are a few tips for delivering a seamless order fulfillment process:

3.1: Process Orders Quickly and Accurately

The order fulfillment process is the series of steps that take place after an order is placed until the product is delivered to the customer. While it can be time-consuming, when optimized with the right strategies it can help you improve customer satisfaction and so much more.

There are several strategies that e-commerce businesses can implement to improve their order fulfillment process:

Optimize Inventory Management: Accurately keep track of inventory levels to avoid both stockouts and overselling.
Partner with reliable shipping carriers: Partner with reliable shipping carriers to ensure timely and accurate deliveries. Each carrier like DHL, FedEx, and UPS has its pros and cons. Compare them and see what works best for your business.
Make use of an Inventory Management tool: An inventory management software like Linnworks can help you automate processes and execute a seamless CX across the order fulfillment journey.

3.2: Provide Real-time Tracking Information

Providing real-time order tracking information to customers is a crucial aspect of delivering a seamless order fulfillment process. Here are some key benefits of providing real-time order tracking:

Track your shipments across the carriers and 3PLs that you use: Gain real-time visibility of your shipments, even after packages have left your facility — across carriers, 3PL service providers, service types, and locations, to have a true and unified view of your fulfillment operations.
Dive deep into delivery exceptions and on-time performance trends: Gain a commanding and consolidated view of all delivery issues and on-time performance trends to intervene before they can adversely affect your customers’ satisfaction levels and the efficiency of your order fulfillment operations.

TLDR; by prioritizing real-time order tracking, it is time to deliver a seamless and transparent order fulfillment process and enhance customer satisfaction.

3.3: Offer Multiple Shipping Options

By offering a variety of shipping choices, you can cater to different customer needs, preferences, and budget constraints, leading to reduced cart abandonment, and increased customer satisfaction.

Identify customer preferences: Analyze customer data and feedback to understand the most popular shipping options and preferences among your target audience.
Clearly display shipping options: Provide clear and transparent information about shipping options on product pages and during the checkout process.
Accommodate special delivery requests: Offer options for expedited shipping, weekend delivery, or any other specific delivery instructions. This can come in particularly handy while catering to last-minute shoppers.

3.4: Handle returns and exchanges promptly

Making returns easier for holiday season shopping is the norm now as 98% of shoppers say that fast and convenient returns will make them more likely to order again. Here are a few strategies if you’re looking to keep up or even perform better than competing brands when it comes to order returns.

Establish a clear and transparent returns and exchanges policy: Clearly outline the terms and conditions for returns and exchanges, including time limits, eligibility criteria, and return shipping instructions. Make this policy easily accessible to customers on your website, checkout page, and order confirmation emails.

56% of customers abandon their carts due to delivery and returns-related concerns.

Communicate effectively throughout the process: Keep customers informed about the status of their returns and exchanges throughout the process. Send email notifications, provide tracking information, and address any inquiries promptly.
Retain revenue by encouraging exchanges or store credits over refunds: Incentivize customers to exchange an item or accept store credits with additional discounts, rather than a refund to save a lost sale and retain profits.
Streamline your returns processes: Utilize return automation tools to make tasks self-service, automate steps, send proactive status updates, etc, to reduce unnecessary returns workload on your support team as well as to make the process quicker.
Analyze return and exchange data: Regularly review return and exchange data to identify trends, potential product issues, and areas for improvement in the order fulfillment process.

Remember, your customers are not always happy doing returns. Therefore, don’t make it more stressful for them. On the other hand, by making the returns and exchanges process as seamless as possible, you have the power to transform a potentially negative experience into an opportunity to showcase customer care and build lasting relationships.

Chapter 4: Customer Support: Your Retention Superpower

Delivery issues such as delays being inevitable and carriers often withholding information to prevent themselves from being shown in a bad light highly increases the odds of your customers bombarding your support reps with frequent WISMO queries.

Customer support teams are overloaded with WISMO requests that make up approx. 50% of the overall customer inquiries.

On the other hand, with great customer support, you can effectively assist and resolve customer issues and open new doors for customer satisfaction and retention. Here are some ways for you to provide stellar customer support in the post-purchase phase.

4.1: Proactively Resolve Delivery Issues Before They Impact Your Customers

Trigger proactive alerts: Whenever your customers’ parcels are facing critical delivery issues, such as predicted delays, suspect lost, etc, have tickets triggered to your helpdesk system to enable your support agents to proactively address the issue at hand.
Arm your support team with data: Provide customer support teams with access to complete shipment tracking information to resolve delivery issues promptly. This empowerment ensures that customers receive timely assistance and issue resolution.

4.2: Turn Support Interactions into Opportunities

Actively listen and gather insights: Engage in active listening during support interactions to fully understand customer concerns, pain points, and expectations. Use this valuable feedback to identify areas for product improvement, service enhancements, or process modifications.
Personalize interactions: Tailor support interactions to individual customer needs and preferences. Use customer data to provide personalized recommendations, address specific concerns, and offer relevant solutions. This can foster deeper connections and increase customer satisfaction.
Integrate support with marketing and sales: Collaborate with marketing and sales teams to share customer insights gathered from support interactions. Use this data to inform marketing campaigns, sales strategies, and product positioning to align with customer needs and preferences.

By leveraging customer data and insights, businesses can transform customer interactions into valuable touchpoints to gather insights, foster positive relationships, and demonstrate a genuine commitment to customer service.

4.3: Encourage Customer Self-service

Provide your customers with the tools and resources to resolve their own issues to free up your support team to focus on more complex and urgent matters. This can help in reducing support costs and improving overall efficiency.

Branded order tracking experience: Customers track their orders 6-8 times before delivery. That’s valuable time that you can’t afford to miss out to re-engage with your customers and boost brand recall. For instance:
- You can host tracking pages on your domain and populate them with branded elements that ensure your brand stays at the top of their mind.
- Apart from the usual content such as order summary and tracking information, you can also go a step further in customer convenience and include options to contact support for emergencies or initiate returns/exchanges directly
- You can also include personalized product recommendations and run offers/sales to double your chances of driving repeat sales.

Reduced support costs, Increased agent productivity: With customers having enough information at hand to manage their own support requirements, you can reduce the burden on your support teams, which can lead to lower support costs. Also, agents who’ve spent their time tending to unwanted inquiries can now focus on more complex and urgent matters, improving their overall productivity.

Access to 24/7 support: With self-service options available to customers 24 hours a day, customers can resolve their issues whenever and wherever customers need them, without having to wait for support.

4.4: Leverage Customer Support Technology

Technology plays a crucial role in enhancing customer support by providing you with innovative tools and solutions to transform your customer support operations and create exceptional customer experiences.

Utilize predictive analytics: Make use of technology that analyzes historical parcel data and forecasts potential disruptions such as delays and helps you take the right course of action before such issues impact your customer.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Chatbots: AI-powered chatbots can provide 24/7 support by answering frequently asked questions, guiding customers to relevant resources, and escalating complex issues to human agents. Chatbots can also personalize interactions based on customer data and preferences.
Help desk systems: Utilize help desk tools such as Freshdesk and Gorgias as a centralized platform for managing customer inquiries. This can help in empowering your support team to deliver lasting customer experiences, as well as simplify their operations by bringing in a structured way of prioritizing.
Omnichannel support: Omnichannel support integrates various communication channels, such as phone, email, live chat, and social media, into a unified platform. This seamless integration allows customers to switch between channels without losing context and ensures that their inquiries are handled promptly and efficiently.

Ultimately, by effectively utilizing customer support as a retention superpower, you can strengthen customer relationships, reduce churn, and achieve long-term success.

Post-purchase interactions from your end don’t have to be only when something goes wrong. Even when everything is going your way, there’s an additional opportunity to boost engagement and reap its benefits.

Chapter 5: Email and Post-Purchase Engagement

A great way to build lasting relationships with customers is to keep them engaged and ensure that you remain on the top of their minds. And what better way to engage customers throughout the post-purchase phase than keeping them notified till their order reaches them.

5.1: Order Confirmation and Beyond

The ‘order confirmed’ notification is a priority for two things — assurance to the customer that their order has been accepted and kicking off the rest of the post-purchase shipping notifications to improve CX throughout the delivery lifecycle.

Order shipped: Once the order has been processed and shipped, customers should receive a prompt shipping confirmation email, providing them with a tracking link or reference number to monitor the progress of their shipment. This proactive communication keeps customers informed and reduces the burden on customer support teams.
Order In-transit: Throughout the shipping process, customers should receive periodic updates, either via email or SMS notifications, informing them of the shipment’s location, estimated delivery date, and any potential delays or disruptions. Real-time tracking links further enhance transparency and provide customers with a sense of control.
Order out-for-delivery: Upon reaching the destination city or postal code, customers should receive an out-for-delivery notification, indicating that their order is on its way to their doorstep. This timely update allows customers to prepare for the package’s arrival and manage their schedules accordingly.
Order delivered: Finally, upon successful delivery, customers should receive a delivery confirmation email or SMS notification, providing them with a final acknowledgment of the order completion. This closing touch reinforces customer satisfaction and encourages repeat purchases.

However, this is no longer the bare minimum as customers expect brands to keep them informed at every event of their package journey to mitigate their highly otherwise high anticipation levels. If you’re looking to exceed expectations, you need to proactively step up your game and leverage additional touch points in the order journey.

5.2: Post-purchase Shipping

In the order delivery and returns phases of the post-purchase customer journey, there are additional events for you to understand and implement in your existing email and SMS series:

Delivered with delays: A fairly straightforward notification sent when the order is delivered exceeding the proposed timeline. Customers are more likely to forgive you for the delay, when you acknowledge the delay from your end along with a little apology note and a coupon.
In-transit with delays: Tracking your orders in real-time gives you the opportunity to proactively identify and resolve delays before your customer is impacted by them. For high-value customers, you can go a step further and send out replacements via expedited shipping options, so that your customers don’t end up losing them.
Failed delivery attempt: When a delivery attempt is made and yet the order does not reach the customer’s hands, the onus of handling the issue is still on you. Whenever a delivery is re-attempted you have to shell out a few extra dollars as re-delivery charges. Therefore, avoid additional re-attempts, by keeping customers informed.
Delay predicted: Maximizing real-time order tracking and predictive analytics, gives you the opportunity to keep the customer informed when there is a possibility of a delay (which might turn out resolved on its own) to stay on the safe side. This ensures that the customer knows that you are on top of their order and will be less anxious regarding it reaching them on time.
Suspected to be lost: Despite state-of-the-art tracking systems, packages can still end up somewhere else than the required destination. When you suspect a package to be lost, the first thing that you must do is notify your customers at the earliest.
Order lost/damaged: In case your worry turns out to be true and the package ends up lost in transit/ damaged upon being received, you must prioritize notifying customers at the earliest and try to offer a prompt resolution. You can also go a step further and bear the cost of returns and send out a replacement at your own cost and provide discounts or coupons for future orders.
Return notifications: Similar to delivery status notifications, you can also keep customers in the loop of their order returns by sending emails and SMS:
- When they initiate a return
- When their return request is accepted, rejected, or canceled
- When the return order is in-transit, and
- When the returned order is received at your facility

Remember, engaging with your customers when they are not very excited is the perfect time for you to revive their trust in your brand and strengthen relationships.

5.3: Nurturing Customer Relationships Through Email

Keep sharing product recommendations (Cross-selling and upselling): Utilize customer purchase history and identify preferences to send personalized product recommendations. You can also suggest complementary products, accessories, or new releases that align with their interests.
Educate your customers via ‘how-to’, tips and tricks emails: Share product tutorials, usage guides, or tips and tricks to help customers maximize the value of their purchases and enhance their overall experience.
Provide exclusive offers and loyalty rewards: Reward customers with exclusive offers, discounts, or loyalty points based on their purchase history or engagement levels. These personalized incentives encourage repeat purchases and strengthen customer loyalty.
Send ‘thank you’ mails and feedback requests: Express gratitude for customer purchases through personalized thank-you emails. Include feedback requests to gather valuable insights into their experience, identify areas for improvement, and demonstrate a commitment to customer satisfaction.

Post-purchase email is not just about confirming orders and providing usual updates; it’s about building lasting connections, fostering positive experiences, and cultivating a loyal customer base that contributes to sustainable business growth.

Post-purchase CX: The Path to Lifelong Customer Relationships

In the ever-evolving landscape of customer experience (CX), post-purchase interactions play a pivotal role in forging lifelong customer relationships and driving retention.

Prioritize customer satisfaction beyond the point of purchase to transform fleeting transactions into enduring connections.
Embrace evolving strategies and stay attuned to customer expectations to achieve sustainable growth in the ever-evolving world of customer experience.

Appendices

Getting started on implementing these strategies is the first step to turn one-time shoppers into your brand’s BFFs.

But wouldn’t it be even better if there were solutions to automate all these tasks on your behalf?

Meet LateShipment.com’s post-purchase suite — to help you provide delightful delivery and return experiences to automated refund recovery and drive everything post-purchase from one place.

LateShipment.com is a post-purchase automation platform built for D2C e-commerce businesses to offer superior CX throughout delivery & returns, effortlessly recover refunds for shipping errors by carriers, and drive efficiency in shipping with last-mile logistics intelligence.

When it comes to post-purchase CX, LateShipment.com helps you:

Reduce WISMO (Where Is My Order) support requests by up to 70% and return-related customer inquiries by up to 80%
Achieve CSAT (Customer Satisfaction) scores of 80+ even when delivery issues occur
Boost brand recall and customer engagement post-purchase by 6x
Drive up to 12% repeat purchases
Improve conversion rates by up to 28%
Reduce return processing time by up to 95%
Retain revenue from over 30% of your returns

And so much more…

Still doubtful? Don’t take our word for it.

Listen to what fellow e-commerce brands have to say about implementing post-purchase strategies into their existing workflows and seeing huge results.

For even more extensive strategies, here’s a free and comprehensive downloadable guide equipped with the post-purchase actionable strategies needed to transform one-time holiday shoppers into devoted brand advocates. Dive into the world of customer retention and discover how to make your brand the go-to choice for every season.

The post Post-purchase Strategies to Turn One-Time Holiday Shoppers into Your Brand’s BFFs appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The importance of Estimated Delivery Date during the holidays

Raksna Anand — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 10:56:14 +0000

Do you know what customers search for in the checkout page? It’s the estimated delivery date. Yes

45% of customers abandon their carts because of unsatisfactory delivery options.(shipbob)

It is important to provide your customers with accurate shipping information including estimated delivery date.

What is estimated delivery date?

46% of e-commerce customers prefer to know the ETA of their package before they place their order (timesofIndia)

An estimated delivery date is the exact date on which the package the customer has ordered would reach their doorstep. It depends on various factors such as the time taken for the product to be shipped, distance, preferred shipping method and transit time.

Imagine that a customer is shopping last minute for Christmas gifts for their loved one. In this case, the accurate delivery date plays an important role because the customer wants to know if the product will reach them on time. Hence, we recommend all e-commerce businesses to include estimated delivery dates in their product page and checkout page.

Why is estimated delivery date important?

1. Builds trust and authority

The primary goal of establishing the estimated delivery date is to build a trust and authority factor over the brand. Especially when the customer receives the product on time, it fosters a good customer experience. Estimated delivery date not only provides accurate information but also encloses professionalism. When all the satisfactions are met in terms of the product and when the product arrives on time, it sets the stage for retention.

2. Increases sales

When the customer sees the accurate delivery date and if it aligns with their timeline, it would definitely be a huge factor to nudge them to click that buy button. During the holiday season, especially when time is everything, an accurate delivery date could give them a picture of what they can expect. This also reduces the cart abandonment rate. The customer would be very excited, especially when there are faster shipping options. They will anticipate more to receive the order.

3. Reduce WISMO enquiries

An average customer visits the branded tracking page 6-8 times while the shipment is in transit. Customer anxiety runs high, especially during the holiday season. Providing an accurate delivery date can drastically reduce WISMO enquiries. It is not only about specifying an accurate delivery date, it is important that you mention the date on the branded tracking page.

Near-accurate EDD results in a 76% drop in WISMO calls, even in case of delayed deliveries. (Australiapost)

This way, customer support representatives can handle more pressing queries rather than focusing on WISMO enquiries.

4. Setting customer expectations right

A. Managing Anticipation: Customers will know when they will receive the order and when they can anticipate receiving their orders This sets clear expectations and rules against any uncertainties Especially during the holiday season when supply chain disruptions are really high, an estimated delivery date could be a game changer leading to customer satisfaction

B. Avoiding unpleasant surprises: Without the accurate delivery date, the customer would imagine that a certain product could be shipped in a certain date and if that doesn’t happen, it leads to frustration which in turn gives a very bad delivery experience affecting the brand’s perception. The customer will have a completely different perception of the brand from here on

C. Gift of Giving: Usually during the holiday season, customers plan on gifting their loved ones and if they do not know the estimated delivery date of when this would happen then they wouldn’t be able to make a certain plan leaving them hanging.

5. Reduces Porch piracy

Porch-piracy is an epidemic. With the explosive growing of e-commerce sales, package theft has become more prevalent, relevant than ever.

One in two Americans have had their package stolen. Now, in some states, package theft has moved from a conviction to a felony. Providing accurate delivery date and time can allow the customers to accommodate a specific time during the date collected packages from the delivery partner. Thus, accurate delivery date and time can save you a lot of money and prevent your customers from experiencing a bad moment.

Where to display the estimated delivery date?

Product page
Checkout page
Shopping cart page
Order confirmation page
Order confirmation email
Branded tracking page
Customer Account dashboard
Customer service page

Wrapping Up

In this ever-bustling world, brands need to adapt to certain strategies to stay relevant. Including estimated delivery dates is an important feature which plays a major role in pushing the customer towards clicking the buy button.

Most of the customers want their order to be delivered yesterday. In such cases, it is better to provide customers with shipping optionality. Shipping optionality is the feature to provide customers with multiple shipping options, varying from expedited shipping to eco-friendly shipping to standard shipping options. This way the customer has the freedom to choose when they want their product to be delivered. Most of the customers who choose expedited shipping options often are willing to pay extra to get the product shipped and delivered soon. Try conveying as much information and provide customers with as much shipping options as you can for a better customer experience.

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Shipping as a marketing tool: Drive delight this holiday season

Raksna Anand — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 10:30:55 +0000

Ever thought of ecommerce shipping as a marketing tool? E-commerce brands often focus on various channels during the holiday season like marketing, website design, product variations, emails and social media. We’re here to say that e-commerce shipping is also a great marketing tool that e-commerce brands should consider.

E-commerce shipping is the last part of the pre-purchase customer journey before the buy button is clicked. Holiday buyers look at the shipping options and buy their gifts. Entice buyers with shipping and we’ll teach you how.

Ecommerce Shipping: The Ultimate Marketing tool

1. Free shipping, duh

90% of customers would shop online more often if free shipping is offered. (savemycent.com)

Free shipping would

Improve conversion rate,

Reduce cart abatement rates,
Positive customer experience.

We understand that every business cannot offer free shipping. In that case, we suggest that you do the following

Offer free shipping above a certain value,

Offer free shipping on certain products only
Offer free shipping only to members or email subscribers to make them feel exclusive

2. Ecommerce Shipping optionality

With shipping optionality in the play, brands offer freedom to customers to choose what they want in terms of shipping. There are many types of ecommerce shipping options that are trending right now.

Expedited shipping – Expedited shipping is an umbrella term which has many options, which are two-day delivery, same-day delivery, and overnight shipping. 54% of consumers under the age of 25 state that same-day shipping is crucial when shopping online. (Walker Sanders)

Many customers who opt for expedited shipping often are willing to pay extra for faster shipping options. These expedited shipping solutions are practically a way to reduce cart abandonment rates and increase conversion rates.

Local delivery – Local delivery is when a product is delivered from your local store to the customer’s doorstep. It is a great option for brands to acquire local customers.

International shipping

Eco-friendly shipping options – Gen Z and the millennials are obsessed with sustainability and knowing good for the earth. Eco-friendly shipping options opt for biodegradable packaging, carbon offset programs, and recyclable packages. Often, these eco-friendly shipping methods take much time to reach the customer as they opt for ground shipping. But customers are still considering eco-friendly shipping in order to save the world.

A Statista study says that product packaging accounts for the greatest portion of greenhouse gas emissions in the e-commerce industry. There are options to increase shipping efficiency and reduce unwanted packaging boxes,

Pack orders efficiently,

Let customers know that you are practicing sustainable shipping methods,

Allow customers to offset carbon at checkout,

Consolidate orders,

Promote the use of reusing and recycling packages,

Opt for eco-friendly shipping and fulfillment partners,
Reduce returns.

3. Gifting options

With the holiday season, festive cheers would be everywhere. Even the brand’s website would be decorated with festive elements to set the holiday mood. Why not offer that gift-wrapping option in your e-commerce shipping as well? This saves enormous time for your customers and time is everything during the holiday season. Your customers or people in general would want to spend their time with their loved ones. You are supporting that by reducing the time for them to wrap gifts. Provide multiple gift-wrapping options in your ecommerce shipping.

4. Personalized notes

A personalized note is also a time-saving element which you can use as a part of your shipping process. Gifts are often bought from e-commerce brands and this customizable personal note when given as an option would add a personal touch to your entire product and improve customer satisfaction.

5. Estimated delivery date

8 out of 10 shoppers agree that the more valuable their package, the more important it is to have an accurate EDD. (Forbes)

Customers are often anxious about their products being delivered on time. Especially during the holiday season, the anxiety peaks. In order to alleviate this anxiety, estimated delivery dates should be specified.

Mentioning the holiday shipping deadlines would also be helpful in this case, as it gives a real-time scenario of what’s going on in the shipping industry as well. Shipping deadline is the latest date in which you can ship your packages and send them their way to the customers to reach them on time. In order to reduce anxiety or obliviousness, brands can offer shipping.

6. Shipping cost calculator

Factors to consider:

Dimension

Weight

Destination

Type of shipping
Supply chain disruptions
Shipping deadlines

Various shipping costs for various types of shipping services could be displayed in order to give a real-time image of how much shipping costs for the customer. A customer on a budget would be able to get a clear idea of what type of service he or she wants.

7. Customisable packaging

Oreo’s ColorFilled campaign is the best example to depict how important customizable packaging is. Oreo ran a campaign called the ColorFilled campaign where customers had the liberty to choose packaging of their own and they even designed packaging of their own. Oreo announced that this would be a limited edition. Oreo being Oreo, their fan base felt crazy and ordered a lot of products from Oreo. This campaign was a huge hit. Customizable packaging is one competitive advantage you can use in terms of ecommerce shipping to further nudge customers into converting.

Customer journey after the buy button

The customer journey does not end after the buy button. The phase after the ‘buy button click’ is called the post-purchase phase. Brands often overlook the post-purchase part. Right from the mail which says ‘your order has been placed’ to delivering the product, sets the stage for retention.

Retaining old customers costs less than acquiring new ones. Shipping happens through 3rd party logistics partners. Brands should assume responsibility for any shipping mishaps even though they’re not responsible for anything which happens after the product has been shipped. Taking up responsibility offers a very big competitive advantage in terms of offering last-minute delivery delight.

Final word

While e-commerce brands do a lot of things to drive traffic to their website, the elements in the website clearly play an important role in pushing the customers towards converting. E-commerce brands often offer discounts, spin-the-wheel offers, customized coupons, and gift bundles in order to lure customers to convert. But shipping is the last touch point or the last element that you can add to further improve the conversion rate. When customers find the shipping Options they want and when the package arrives the way they want, customers click the buy button.

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11 Shipping Notifications To Be Sent During The Holiday Season

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 29 Sep 2023 12:11:11 +0000

Holiday orders with your e-commerce business are always special for both your customers and you.

For your customers, their purchases are usually gifts for their loved ones (or even for themselves) and for you, it is an opportunity to make more out of it and have a successful time of the year.

However, with the holiday season also being the busiest time for shipping, your customers’ orders are prone to face delivery issues in the form of delays, loss, damages, etc.

Stats say that over 6-12% of e-commerce shipments face delivery issues. But the real problem isn’t package delivery issues — it is customers being unaware of them as they happen, leading to bad experiences.

Also, owing to the high importance of the orders, even when nothing goes wrong, customers can be prone to get anxious regarding their orders and would like to stay in the whereabouts at all times.

Remember, each and every bad delivery experience leads to frustrated customers avoiding doing business with you and also influencing others’ decisions by sharing their grievances on social media.

Therefore, the onus of ensuring that your customers are fully informed of their order status falls on you. The stakes are high but the action isn’t as complicated as you think — all you have to do is keep them engaged via shipping notifications at different points of the order delivery cycle.

Catching Up On Shipping Notifications

Shipping notifications are nothing but the shipping updates of the customers’ orders getting shared with them via email, SMS, or in-app push notifications.

The purpose of a shipping notification is really simple.

Thanks to this ‘post-purchase communication gap’, all your efforts to keep your customers engaged get lost along with any chance of retention.

This is where proactive communication with customers about their order delivery status in the form of shipping notifications comes into play to offer customers a memorable post-purchase experience.

Why are shipping notifications important?

Shipping notifications are messages sent to customers at various stages of the order fulfillment process. They serve multiple purposes, all of which are particularly valuable during the holiday season:

Manage Expectations: Shipping notifications keep customers informed about the status of their orders, setting clear expectations about when they can expect their purchases to arrive. This transparency reduces anxiety and uncertainty.
Build Trust: Timely updates demonstrate your commitment to customer satisfaction. When customers receive accurate and consistent information, they are more likely to trust your brand and return for future purchases.
Mitigate Inquiries: The holiday season often leads to an influx of customer inquiries. Shipping notifications can answer many common questions, reducing the burden on customer support teams.
Enhance Customer Experience: Thoughtful and informative notifications enhance the overall shopping experience. They show that you care about your customers’ convenience and are willing to go the extra mile.

To understand shipping notifications better, we’ll see each of these events in particular and how notifications can work for each of them.

11 Shipping Notifications To Be Sent During The Holiday Season

1. Setting Expectations: Your order might get delivered late

In the spirit of transparency, start by sharing potentially less joyful news—some orders may arrive later than expected.

By proactively communicating this possibility during the holiday shopping rush, you help customers adjust their delivery expectations, ensuring their holiday celebrations go off without a hitch.

2. The Exciting Beginning: Your order is shipped

The ‘Order Shipped’ notification during the holiday season takes on a special significance. It’s the first glimmer of hope for customers eagerly awaiting their holiday surprises.

3. On the Way: Your order is out for delivery

Following the ‘Order Shipped’ notification, the ‘Out for Delivery’ update becomes an eagerly anticipated message. It signifies that the holiday magic is en route to the customer’s doorstep.

4. Mission Accomplished: Your order has been delivered

When the holiday order arrives on time, it’s a moment to celebrate.

Send a ‘Delivery Confirmation’ notification with a heartfelt thank you for choosing your brand for their holiday shopping.

Encourage them to make future holiday purchases and continue building joyful memories with your products.

5. Unexpected Delays: Your order is predicted to face delays

As mentioned, delivery issues such as shipping delays are inevitable and frequent during the holiday season.

But the real issue stands at customers finding that their parcels have been delayed and you not informing them about it.

6. Handling Delays Gracefully: Your order is in-transit with delays

These notifications should be sent promptly to stay empathetic to your customers, as well as to take their decision on how they want the issue to be resolved.

You can consider sending replacements via expedited shipping options or offer them special coupons for their next purchase.

7. Acknowledging Hiccups: Your order was delivered with delays

Despite all your efforts and fixes, when the package is delivered late, it’s vital to acknowledge the issue, as the chances of customers forgiving you are higher when you do that.

8. Addressing Delivery Challenges: There was a failed delivery attempt

A ‘Failed Delivery Attempt’ notification is sent when the order is marked ‘failed delivery’ by the shipping carrier.

This usually happens when the delivery is not being made for reasons such as “no one at home to receive the package”, “wrong delivery address”, “package requiring adult signature”, etc.

9. In Search of Lost Packages: Your holiday order is suspected to be lost

When a holiday package is suspected to be lost, you must waste no time and promptly send a ‘Suspected Lost’ notification.

Keep customers informed about the situation, you can also offer solutions such as locating the package, refunding the cost, or sending a free replacement to mitigate their frustration greatly.

10. Handling the Unfortunate: Your holiday order is lost/damaged in transit

In the unfortunate event of a lost or damaged holiday package, send a ‘Lost/Damaged in Transit’ notification immediately.

Apart from just notifying, the best ploy is to take full responsibility, offer cost-free returns and replacements, and provide discounts or coupons for future holiday orders.

11. Rerouting Solutions: Your holiday order is returned

For holiday orders that are marked returned by the shipping carrier, use the ‘Order Returned’ notification to re-engage with customers.

This notification is primarily sent to let your customers know that their order is now in your possession after a failed delivery attempt.

Push Visually Rich Shipping Notifications [Email and SMS] with LateShipment.com

Shipping notifications aren’t just messages; they’re a way to nurture the holiday spirit, build lasting impressions, and ensure that every customer’s holiday journey is filled with joy and satisfaction.

So, as the holiday season approaches, use these notifications to create unforgettable holiday moments and make your customers’ celebrations truly magical.

With LateShipment.com’s two-way integrations you can send automated shipping notifications via email and SMS to reduce your customers’ anxiety. During times like the holiday season when each one-time shopper can be converted to a repeat customer, amplify the chances by offering a great experience via meaningful engagement.

LateShipment.com’s Delivery Experience Management and Returns Experience Management platforms seamlessly integrate with shipping carriers and business tools that include Order Management Systems, Email Marketing Tools, Help Desks, and CRM systems.

Order Management System – GoShippo, ShipStation
Email Marketing Tools – Klaviyo, Mailchimp
Help Desks – Gorgias, Freshdesk
CRM – Freshsales, Zoho CRM

That’s all from us for now. It’s now your turn to send shipping notifications that delight with LateShipment.com.

We’re ready when you are.

Or still have questions? We’re all ears.

The post 11 Shipping Notifications To Be Sent During The Holiday Season appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Holiday Schedule 2023: Marketing Calendar and Shipping Deadlines

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 06:23:04 +0000

The holiday season is fast approaching, and for e-commerce businesses, this means it’s time to prepare for the busiest time of the year.

We’re still 2 months away from things getting really hectic but remember, early preparation is key to ensuring a smooth holiday season.

Thus, in this blog, we’ll explore why early preparation is necessary and in order to help you get started, provide you with a comprehensive holiday schedule in the form of a marketing calendar and information on shipping deadlines for the 2023 season.

Why An Early Preparation Holiday Season is Necessary

The holiday shopping rush can turn out to be overwhelming, leading to issues like shipping delays, inventory shortages, customer service overload, and so much more.
Building excitement and anticipation among your customers takes time. Early preparation allows you to create engaging content, run teaser campaigns, and build relationships with your audience.
The holiday season is not just busy but also very competitive. You need to have your marketing campaigns in place early in order to capture the attention of consumers and get ahead of competitors who are still planning their holiday campaigns.
The holiday season is a time when shipping carriers are straining their capacity due to experiencing high volumes of packages, which often leads to delays. This means that you need to plan accordingly to get your products shipped out for timely delivery.
Customers are more likely to make impulse purchases during the holidays, especially towards the last minute. For such customers, you need to be prepared by having their trending products in stock and ready to ship.

This is why starting your plans for the holiday season early is crucial:

Now that we understand the importance of early preparation, let’s dive into the details of the holiday marketing calendar and shipping deadlines for 2023.

Part 1: Holiday Marketing Calendar

Here’s a month-by-month breakdown of key holiday season dates and marketing strategies that work best each day so that you can implement them easily and maximize your sales.

October

While the holiday season officially kicks off with Thanksgiving at the end of November, shopping for the holiday season (yes, quite early) starts this month.

This is the time for you to execute fresh plans that you haven’t tried out before, watch out for what your competitors are planning (something that you’ve not thought of), etc, and set your plans in place for the holiday rush that will commence in less than two months.

The major event in October for retail and e-commerce is Halloween. Taking place on the 31st of the month, the spooky ancient Celtic festival is a time for customers to get creative and businesses to capitalize on.

Halloween - October 31

Popular trends – costumes, decorations, candy, and food

Expected consumer spending – around $100 per person

Effective marketing techniques – Halloween is no longer confined to a single day of trick-or-treating. It has expanded into a season that spans the entire month of October, with consumers engaging in various activities such as decorating, attending parties, and visiting haunted attractions.

For e-commerce businesses, this extended Halloween season provides ample opportunities for sales and engagement:

Create Halloween-themed marketing campaigns that resonate with your target audience. Use spooky visuals, themed emails, and social media content to set the mood.
Produce blog posts, videos, or infographics that offer Halloween tips, DIY ideas, and costume inspiration.
Run contests, giveaways, and user-generated content campaigns on social media. For example, encourage customers to share their Halloween preparations using your products with a dedicated hashtag.

Halloween presents a golden opportunity for e-commerce businesses to engage with customers and increase sales. With a well-planned marketing strategy, you can enjoy the fruits of ‘spooktacular sales’, it can bring.

November

Only 2 months for 2024, less than a month for Thanksgiving — November is the time when things get quite hectic at e-commerce workplaces as businesses come together to run things for a week full of shopping.

Key holiday events in November are collectively called The Cyber Weekend and include Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Cyber Monday.

Let’s start taking a look at them one by one.

Thanksgiving - November 23

Thanksgiving, traditionally a holiday for expressing gratitude and sharing a bountiful meal with loved ones, has evolved into a significant shopping event in recent years.

For e-commerce businesses, Thanksgiving presents a unique opportunity to engage with customers and kickstart the holiday shopping season.

Expected consumer spend – $6 Billion

Popular trends – Food, home goods, and apparel

Effective marketing techniques – With the evolution of holiday shopping, the Thanksgiving landscape has largely shifted from a day of just families coming together to becoming synonymous with early holiday shopping, thanks to the rise of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Here are some ideal marketing techniques that e-commerce businesses can come up with to have a great Thanksgiving sale:

Create Thanksgiving-themed content: Send out a big “thank you” to your customers by crafting out social media posts, personalized emails or messages to display your gratitude. This is also a great way to get into the spirit of the season and attract customers.
Mobile Shopping: With the rise of mobile devices, many consumers shop on their smartphones during Thanksgiving gatherings. Ensure your website is mobile-responsive, and consider mobile-specific promotions.
Thanksgiving Giveaways: Run Thanksgiving-themed giveaways or contests like free products, gift cards, or even a trip. This is a great way to generate excitement and engagement around your Thanksgiving sale.
Get into the spirit of Thanksgiving: You can also try spending the day with your local community and try giving back to them in order to associate your brand with the Holiday theme and etch your brand in your customers’ minds.

Black Friday - November 24

In this section, we’ll delve into Black Friday’s significance, average consumer spending, emerging trends, and effective marketing techniques for a successful Black Friday sale.

Expected consumer spend – Close to $10 Billion

Popular trends – Electronics, Apparel, Home goods, Toys

Effective marketing techniques – Over the years, Black Friday has transcended its brick-and-mortar origins and has become a global shopping extravaganza across e-commerce and the U.S. It’s characterized by doorbuster deals, massive discounts, and a shopping frenzy that lasts well beyond the traditional single day.

To have a successful Black Friday sale, e-commerce businesses can look forward to implementing the following marketing techniques:

Early Promotions: Start building excitement weeks in advance. Tease upcoming deals and exclusive Black Friday discounts to create anticipation.
Countdown Timers: Add countdown timers to your website and emails to create a sense of urgency. Highlight limited-time offers.
Personalization: Leverage data to provide personalized product recommendations and targeted offers based on customer preferences.
Post-Sale Engagement: Keep the momentum going with post-Black Friday promotions, ensuring that customers return for more holiday shopping.

With well-planned marketing strategies, you can ensure your Black Friday sale is not just successful but also a memorable shopping experience for your customers. So, gear up for the Black Friday shopping extravaganza and make it a win-win for your business and your potential shoppers.

Small Business Saturday - Saturday, 27th November

Small Business Saturday, a shopping holiday celebrated on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, is a day dedicated to supporting small businesses and local entrepreneurs. As an e-commerce business, you can capitalize on Small Business Saturday by aligning with the values of supporting independent sellers and having a successful sale.

Expected consumer spend – The average shopper spends around $150

Popular trends – Electronics, Apparel, Home goods, Toys

Effective marketing techniques – Looking to have a successful Small Business Saturday sale? Employ the following marketing techniques:

Embrace the “Small” Identity: If you’re a small business who is also relatively new to the e-commerce world, then this is your chance. Highlight your unique story, values, commitment to quality, etc, and position yourself as a small, independent venture.
Collaborative Giveaways: Partner with other small businesses for joint giveaways or promotions to expand your reach.
Email Marketing: Send targeted emails to your subscriber list, announce your participation in Small Business Saturday, display your promotions, and express appreciation for their support.

In short, Small Business Saturday offers e-commerce businesses an excellent opportunity to connect with consumers who value supporting small, independent ventures. If you’re a small business, it’s time to embrace your small business identity and offer compelling promotions. If you’re not, you can still capitalize on the holiday by supporting other small businesses and making an impact on your customers.

Cyber Monday - November 27

Cyber Monday, which follows the Thanksgiving weekend, is a digital shopping phenomenon known for exclusive online deals and discounts. For e-commerce businesses, it represents a golden opportunity to boost sales and engage tech-savvy shoppers.

Expected consumer spend – More than $11 Billion

Popular trends – Electronics, apparel, and home goods.

Effective marketing techniques – Cyber Monday marks the peak of the holiday shopping season. Thus, it is crucial for you to implement effective marketing strategies that capture their prospects’ attention and put your brand on the top of your customers’ minds compared to that of your competitors.

Here are some of the strategies that can come in handy:

Extended Cyber Monday: Cyber Monday is no longer a single holiday but is extended into a week-long event, allowing shoppers to take time and spend time with brands beyond one day. You too can take advantage of this situation and extend your product offerings and deals to cover for a week.
E-commerce store optimization: The competition will be huge on Cyber Monday — don’t let factors like slow loading times, bad UI/UX to cause your shoppers to drop off. Ensure your website is optimized for speed and ease of navigation. Remember, a user-friendly experience can significantly impact conversion rates.
The importance of social media: Social media is a powerful tool for businesses to promote their Cyber Monday sales. Make sure to promote your sales on all of their social media channels, and also run social media contests and giveaways to generate excitement.

By keeping these trends in mind, you can create a successful Cyber Monday sale that will boost their sales and grow their customer base.

December

Peak season is over, but for e-commerce businesses such as yours, it’s not yet time to sit back, relax, and write your Christmas lists. You still have just a couple more hurdles left to end the year on a successful note.

Close to 30 days in between to major shopping/ customer spending days of the holiday season. Goodbye Cyber Monday, Hello Christmas.

Christmas - December 25

Christmas, celebrated on December 25th worldwide, is a time of joy, celebration, and gift-giving.

For e-commerce businesses, it’s also a season of tremendous sales potential, thanks to shoppers’ decision to actively seek the perfect gifts for loved ones and themselves.

Expected consumer spend – Average spend of over $725 for men and $609 for women in the US

Popular trends – Toys, electronics, and apparel

Effective marketing techniques – Here are some ideal marketing techniques that e-commerce businesses can come up with to have a great Christmas sale and successfully culminate the holiday season:

Festive Visuals: Decorate your website and social media profiles with festive visuals, evoking the Christmas spirit.
Social Media Campaigns: Run Christmas-themed social media campaigns, contests, and giveaways. Encourage customers to share their holiday purchases using a dedicated hashtag.
Bundled Gift Sets: Create attractive bundled gift sets that offer savings and convenience for shoppers.
Last-Minute Shopping Promotions: As Christmas draws near, offer last-minute shopping deals and guaranteed delivery options to cater to procrastinating shoppers.
Post-Christmas Sales: Extend the holiday shopping season with post-Christmas sales to capture gift card redemptions and late shoppers.

In conclusion, Christmas is a season of joy and giving, making it the perfect time for e-commerce businesses to spur their customers to spend more. With well-planned marketing strategies, you can ensure that this Christmas becomes a season of success for your business.

New Year’s Eve - December 31

Almost done. We’ve now come to the ‘thank you note’ of the holiday season. New Year’s Eve — a time that is mostly for celebrations and parties but is also a great opportunity for e-commerce businesses to capitalize on customers looking to end the year with a bang and kickstart the new one.

Expected consumer spend – More than $100 on an average

Popular trends – Apparel, accessories, and alcohol

Effective marketing techniques – Here are some ideal marketing techniques that e-commerce businesses can come up with to have a successful New Year’s Eve sale:

Themed Marketing: Use New Year’s Eve themes and visuals in your marketing materials to set the mood.
Social Media Engagement: Utilize platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to welcome your customers to the new year and make a great impact.
Last-Minute Deals: Conduct clearance sales for your older products as a way to attract last-minute shoppers who are still looking to make the most of great deals.

By keeping these trends in mind, e-commerce businesses can create a successful New Year’s Eve sale and end the year on a high note.

Adhering to the marketing calendar and implementing the strategies required is just one half of your holiday planning task.

There exists a bigger, much more important half that plays major roles in influencing your customers’ experiences, repeat shopping, and all the other factors that ensure that one time holiday shoppers become loyal customers. And that half is just about getting better at giving your customers what they want — hand over your customers’ parcels to them on time.

Part 2: Holiday Shipping Deadlines (FedEx and UPS)

As we mentioned, preparing yourself for great holiday sales is just halfway to the finish line. Getting your products into customers’ hands is a bigger challenge for e-commerce businesses during this busy season.

On the one hand, carriers are straining their capacity to ship out huge volumes of packages during the holiday rush. On the other hand, on-time deliveries and the overall post-purchase customer experience play a key differentiator for businesses. So know what steps you must take to get on the right track this holiday season.

To make things simpler for you, we’ve noted important holiday-season dates for UPS & FedEx and have presented them to you.

UPS Holiday Schedule

To help shippers plan their deliveries for the holidays accordingly, UPS releases their schedule, i.e., a calendar with information on when services will not be operated, special restrictions for certain services and geographical locations, etc.

Staying updated on this schedule can help e-commerce businesses such as yours follow shipping deadlines and send out deliveries on time.

Thanksgiving

November 23, 2023, Thursday: Thanksgiving (UPS Holiday) – No UPS pickup or delivery service. UPS Store locations are closed. UPS Express Critical service will be available. Call 1-800-714-8779 or visit upsexpresscritical.com.

November 24, 2023, Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) – Normal pickup and delivery service.

Christmas

December 24, 2023, Monday: Christmas Eve – Unlike last year, where services were operated with modifications, UPS this year will have their pick up and delivery service closed on Christmas Eve, with The UPS Store being opened only in select locations (check with your local store for specific hours of operation). UPS Express Critical service will be available.

December 25, 2023, Monday: Christmas Day (UPS Holiday) – No UPS pickup or delivery service. The UPS Store locations are closed. UPS Express Critical service will be available.

New Year

December 31, 2023, Sunday: New Year’s Eve – Similar to Christmas, UPS this year will have their pick up and delivery service closed on New Year’s Eve, with The UPS Store being opened only in select locations (check with your local store for specific hours of operation). UPS Express Critical service will be available.

January 1, 2024, Monday: New Year’s Day (UPS Holiday) – No UPS pickup or delivery service. UPS Store locations are closed. UPS Express Critical service will be available.

FedEx Holiday Schedule

Similar to UPS, FedEx announces their holiday service schedule YoY to help businesses that ship plan their dates accordingly and avoid shipping delays.

If you’re a business that uses FedEx for your shipping needs and isn’t much worried about service delays on the assumption that you can claim refunds via FedEx’s Money-back guarantee policy, know that from December 13, 2022, to January 2, 2023, the FedEx money-back guarantee will be temporarily suspended for select FedEx Express services for U.S. domestic and U.S. export shipments. Thus, make shipping on time your priority to avoid a bad customer experience and unnecessary costs.

Thanksgiving

November 22, 2023, Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving) – FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx SmartPost, FedEx Freight, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. Early on-call pickups in some areas for FedEx Express. FedEx Office locations will close by 6 PM.

November 23, 2023, Thursday (Thanksgiving) – Only FedEx Custom Critical will be open. All other services will be closed for Thanksgiving. FedEx Trade Networks is subject to availability.

November 24, 2023, Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) – FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx SmartPost, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. Only FedEx Freight will be closed. Early on-call and dropbox pickups in some areas for FedEx Express. FedEx Office locations will open by 7 AM or at their regular time.

November 25, 2023, Saturday – FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx SmartPost, FedEx Trade Networks, FedEx Office, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight will be closed. Early on-call pickups in some areas for FedEx Express.

November 26, 2023, Sunday – Only FedEx Trade Networks, FedEx Office, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Express, FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, and FedEx SmartPost will be closed. FedEx Home Delivery will be made only in Sunday-eligible stations.

Christmas

December 16, 2023, Saturday – FedEx Express, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx Office, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight will be closed. No pickups, but deliveries will be made as usual via FedEx SmartPost.

December 17, 2023, Sunday – Only FedEx Office, FedEx Custom Critical, and FedEx Trade Networks will be open. FedEx Express, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx SmartPost, and FedEx Freight will be closed. FedEx Home Delivery will be made to Sunday-eligible stations.

December 18, 2023, Monday to December 21, 2023, Thursday – All services will be open.

December 22, 2023, Friday – All services will be open with Early station, on-call pickups, and dropbox closings in some areas for FedEx Express. FedEx Freight will be working on a modified schedule with its pickup and delivery options. For example, parcels picked up today will resume on December 27 and be delivered on December 28.

December 23, 2023, Saturday – FedEx Express, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight will be closed. No pickups, but deliveries will be made as usual via FedEx SmartPost. FedEx Office locations will have modified hours the day before the holiday, with some locations closing early. Please contact your local FedEx Office location for details.

December 24, 2023, Sunday (Christmas Eve) – Only FedEx Custom Critical will be open. Almost all other services will be closed for Christmas Eve. Sunday residential delivery will not be available to all destinations except for stations that deliver on Sundays, which are open. FedEx Office locations will have modified hours, with some FedEx Office locations closed. Please contact your local FedEx Office location for details.

December 25, 2023, Monday (Christmas) – Only FedEx Custom Critical will be open. All other services will be closed for Christmas. FedEx Trade Networks is subject to availability.

December 26, 2023, Tuesday – All services will be open. Parcels picked up by FedEx Freight on December 22 will be delivered today.

New Year

December 27, 2023, Wednesday, and December 28, 2023, Thursday – All services will be open.

December 29, 2023, Friday – FedEx Ground, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx SmartPost, FedEx Office, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Freight will only be open with for pre-arranged pick-up and delivery shipments. Freight shipments picked up today will resume on January 3 and will be delivered on January 4. Early on-call and drop box pickups in some areas.

December 30, 2023, Saturday – FedEx Express, FedEx Home Delivery, FedEx Office, FedEx Trade Networks, and FedEx Custom Critical will be open. FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight will be closed. No pickups, but deliveries will be made as usual via FedEx SmartPost. Early station, on-call pickups, and dropbox closings in some areas for FedEx Express.

December 31, 2023, Sunday (New Year’s Eve) – Only FedEx Custom Critical will be open. Almost all other services will be closed for New Year’s Eve. Sunday residential delivery will not be available to all destinations except for stations that deliver on Sundays, which are open. FedEx Office locations will have modified hours, with some FedEx Office locations closed. Please contact your local FedEx Office location for details.

January 1, 2024, Monday (New Year) – Only FedEx Custom Critical will be open. All other services will be closed for the New Year. FedEx Trade Networks is subject to availability.

January 2, 2024, Tuesday – All services will be open.

Bottom Line

Following the Holiday calendar can help you with your marketing campaigns by giving you data like important shipping dates, popular products on particular days, effective short-term marketing techniques, and sales data.

Similarly, following the schedule of services and operations from shipping carriers like FedEx and UPS can help you plan your shipping game in advance and not succumb to sky-rocketing surcharges.

That’s not all! Planning for the holiday season is a huge task that requires you to tick all the boxes and have everything ready in place to manage the upcoming rush and whatnot.

One area that most businesses unwillingly ignore is the post-purchase phase, which holds incredible value in boosting retention rates and revenue. To help you tick that box as well, we’ve come up with a downloadable guide that you can make use of. Follow the strategies in the guide and not just cover but dominate your post-purchase customer experience for this holiday season.

The post Holiday Schedule 2023: Marketing Calendar and Shipping Deadlines appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Guide for E-commerce Businesses to Thrive This Peak Season

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 02 Dec 2022 09:47:53 +0000

No more talking about this year’s holiday season in the future sense. It’s already up and running. Your fellow e-commerce businesses, shipping carriers, third-party logistic partners, etc have all geared up to handle the peak season’s shipping volume without succumbing to delivery issues and negative customer experiences.

But just because the times are busy doesn’t mean we run helter-skelter till the peak returns season in January. You can still work on your strategies to make improvements for last-minute shoppers.

We have compiled as much as peak season trends and metrics to help you make data-backed decisions to optimize your post-purchase during the critical Holiday season and beyond.

Here’s a sneak peek of what you’ll be seeing in this article.

Peak season trends by the numbers
Forecast of peak season carrier performance rates
Frequent issues that e-commerce businesses might face during the peak season
Strategies to ensure post-purchase success

Without further ado, let’s get into things.

Peak Season Trends by the Numbers

We’ll start with the most important trend that is pretty much going to be a first for the peak delivery season in a while. Experts are predicting a lower shipping volume compared to the last two years, thanks to the pandemic-induced e-commerce boom slowing down and customers navigating high inflation.

Despite inflation and other concerns, e-commerce is projected to grow, at a slower rate of 6-8% YoY compared to 18% in the year before.

Also, it is expected that peak sales will happen only later in the holiday season this year with shoppers hoping to take advantage of discounts. Major brands too have anticipated such trends and are pushing early sales with lucrative deals. Amazon launched a second Prime Day, and stores like Target and Walmart followed suit with early fall holiday deals.

Also, major retailers are expected to take extraordinary measures to tackle stockpiling by maximizing discounts in the month of December which will result in Holiday sales peaking a little bit later.

Happy sales numbers aside, there seems to be some doom and gloom, i.e new challenges for e-commerce shippers in the form of the supply chain, inventory, and fulfillment issues.

Despite the possibility of a lower shipping volume, record high shipping costs, shipping network congestion, and labor shortage will affect the 2022 Holiday Season. This can in turn hurt the operational efficiency of shipping carriers.

But shipping carriers would’ve taken proactive measures to stay ahead of these challenges or have they?

Forecast of Peak Season Carrier Performance Rates

Major carriers like UPS and FedEx are aware of the incoming peak season shipping volume and have taken appropriate measures to counter them.

All major carriers in the US, like FedEx, UPS, and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) are equipped to handle about 110 million packages per day, and that could outpace peak season handling capacity by about 18 million packages per day. However, despite all of this, the on-time delivery performance is projected to significantly stay impacted.

In the 5th edition of our annual “2022 State of Holiday Shipping in the U.S.” report, we have forecasted that UPS is expected to outperform FedEx across all shipping types, going by on-time performance indicators from the past 12-24 months.

Also, when it comes to shipping services, packages shipped through both Ground and Express services offered by UPS and FedEx will remain affected.

That’s not all! The report focuses on understanding the impact of the surge in order volumes and supply chain disruptions on the on-time delivery performance of UPS & FedEx in the United States during the peak season, with actionable strategies to optimize post-purchase operations.

Undoubtedly, shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx will be stretched to the limits in order to meet on-time delivery promises this Holiday season, this will result in an unprecedented spike in delivery disruptions. Additionally, peak season surcharges will escalate shipping costs to fulfill Holiday orders.

Not just delays, there are further issues that can take a toll on the post-purchase experiences you provide. Let’s take a look at what they are and how they can affect your business.

Frequent Issues That E-commerce Businesses Might Face During the Peak Season

1. Shipping deadlines can be stressful if you’re not aware of them

UPS and FedEx have been following this necessary practice of setting deadlines for shipping because parcel volumes during the peak season are typically significantly higher.

If you are planning to send out a parcel at the 11th hour via expedited service to satisfy last-minute shoppers, you have no choice but to be aware of the deadlines in their carriers’ holiday schedules, or else, you may end up as a victim of peak surcharges and deplete your shipping budget.

Also, you can communicate holiday shipping deadlines with your customers to ensure that your customers are not set up for frustration over their holiday gifts getting delayed but instead will have a seamless order delivery experience.

Click here to access the special holiday-specific calendars drawn up by UPS and FedEx:

2. Tracking parcels with the shipping carrier can cause anxiety

An increase in the shipping volume can only mean the odds of your shipment going haywire getting higher. Apart from delays, your parcels can get lost, damaged, etc. Even when everything seems to go well, an anxious customer who is unaware of the parcel status can bombard your support reps with WISMO inquiries.

In either of the cases, the customers are quick to blame you, the retailer, instead of the shipping carrier, who is in charge of fulfilling their parcels.

This is because customers often consider that the onus is on retailers to make sure that their parcels are delivered according to their expectations and when they face a slight inconvenience, they feel aggrieved and helpless.

To mitigate your customers’ parcel anxiety and ensure they enjoy a delightful delivery and returns experience, you can make use of a post-purchase solution that tracks your parcels in real time and keeps your customers informed about the status of their parcels at all times.

3. Shipping carriers have levied surcharges and suspended money-back guarantees

With carriers putting higher efforts to improve one-time shipping performances, investments will be the need of the hour. To meet ends and see profits just like any other industry, shipping carriers like UPS and FedEx make levy additional surcharges on select parcels to select locations.

As a retailer, such costs can be a burden, especially if your shipping volume is high and your customer base is throughout the country. In such cases, if you are looking for temporary relief in the form of shipping refunds for service failures, then here’s another shocker. Shipping carriers suspend their money-back guarantee on certain dates in their holiday schedule.

UPS on the other hand, are continuing their suspension of Service Guarantee since the pandemic, except a few selected services. Click here to know what they are.

While this makes shipping more expensive and works to your disadvantage, you can take steps to make sure that you are relatively less affected by them.

The solution is really simple — take control of your post-purchase phase and reduce parcel issues from impacting your customers. This makes sure that you don’t have to compensate the customer who might stop doing business with you citing the bad experience. Also, a quality post-purchase experience from your end can increase repeat purchases. That’s two birds with one stone!

In the run-up to the holidays, the supply chain will take center stage and the winners are going to be those retailers who will take measures to mitigate the impact of delivery delays on customer experience and loyalty.

Strategies to Ensure Post-purchase CX Success This Peak Season and Beyond

Taking measures to close the post-purchase CX gap and provide customers with a frictionless delivery experience can cement you as their preferred brand to shop from. Adopting the following ways to improve your post-purchase CX will ensure a positive impact on both your customers’ lifetime value and the retention rate of your business.

This is where we come in.

LateShipment.com is the world’s only cloud-based Post-purchase Success platform built to enable retail parcel shippers of all sizes to provide memorable order delivery and returns experiences — besides reducing shipping costs by up to 20%.

Here’s how LateShipment.com can help ensure post-purchase CX success:

Proactively identify and resolve delivery related issues
Reduce customer anxiety with automated shipping notifications
Offer custom-built branded tracking experiences on your online store
Make order tracking self-service to reduce delivery related support tickets
Leverage order tracking moments to increase sales and reduce returns
Get customer feedback around order delivery experiences
Optimize your returns process to make it hassle-free while maintaining profitability

BONUS: Bring better performance accountability to shipping carrier services by recovering millions of dollars in refund claims.

That’s not all!

LateShipment.com seamlessly integrates with over 600 shipping carriers and business tools that include E-commerce platforms, Order Management Systems, CRM and Marketing Automation tools to help you craft delightful post-purchase experiences, at scale. Visit www.lateshipment.com to find out more.

The post Guide for E-commerce Businesses to Thrive This Peak Season appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Angry Customer Rants on Twitter for Common Post-purchase Issues

Sashank Ravindranath — Tue, 22 Nov 2022 07:49:28 +0000

Delivery issues are inevitable and particularly more frequent during the holiday season. But we can’t blame the shipping carriers for it. This is because the huge incoming volume of shipments really puts a strain on their capacity to deliver orders properly.

However, that doesn’t mean we let them get away with delivery issues because an angry customer doesn’t delve deep into the reasons behind the issue. They just want their orders intact and on time.

Being an e-commerce merchant, you may be accustomed to delays but for customers, they are always difficult to process, which may result in a burst of emotions. But we also can’t blame them for it.

As your customers’ shopping experience is completely virtual, they have gotten accustomed to getting relief only when a physical parcel shows up on their doorstep. Until then, they are constantly anxious. Even a minor inconvenience in their delivery waiting period will lead to your business paying a heavy price in terms of angry customer rants and poor online reviews.

Here’s the thing about these rants:

In most cases, they are directed towards you, the retailer, rather than the shipping carrier as customers hold the business they purchased from accountable rather than the carrier.
They have the power to demotivate potential customers who might be looking forward to shopping with the business by damaging the brand’s online reputation.

So, if you’re wondering what it is that you can do when facing such situations, this post is for you.

The reason for this post’s existence is: to let you know of the consequences of angry customer rants on social media, particularly the fan-favorite Twitter, and resolve them, to avoid them from becoming a headache.

Common Issues That an Angry Customer Takes to Social Media

While there are a long list errors that a package can face while making its way from the e-commerce store, there are just 5 major issues that an angry customer often takes to social media.

Where Is My Order? (WISMO)
My Order is Late
My Package is Lost
I have received a damaged package
I’m Not Satisfied with the Given Response

Let’s take a closer look at how angry customers expressed their ire over these issues on Twitter and what your business can do to prevent or handle such situations.

1. Where Is My Order? (WISMO)

Customers expect to be kept in the know of the whereabouts of their parcels as they eagerly await their delivery. When they are unable to see regular shipping event updates on the shipping carrier’s tracking page, they feel aggrieved and helpless. This in turn leads to repeated WISMO inquiries that consume all of your support reps’ time.

Now, imagine a scenario where there is a lack of response from support teams to such queries. In such cases, these anxious customers don’t hesitate to quickly take the issue to Twitter, where they simply call out the brand and get the attention of others, just like this.

@marksandspencer hi marks where is my order, as you have stolen my money and where is it???
— simon james (@simonja45479401) November 12, 2022

What You Can Do

To the modern consumer, it feels unnatural NOT to receive real-time updates on the status of their packages which in turn forces them to bombard your support teams with WISMO calls to alleviate their anxiety.

You can handle such situations by being proactive in engaging your customers with timely order updates even before they request one. You can also take this a notch further and make order tracking self-service so that your customers get their hands on all the details they are looking for and thus, don’t expect your support reps’ help.

2. My Order is Late

Let’s say your customers easily track their parcels and are aware of the status at all times. While their anxiety is eased a bit, it is still not yet fully resolved — thanks to the inevitable occurrence of order delays during times like the holiday season.

Delays are bad, sure. But what makes it worse is the situation when your angry customer informs you about them instead of the other way around.

Unattended delays lead to bad delivery experiences. And 78% of customers won’t shop with a brand after just one instance of a bad delivery experience.

What the hell is up with @amazon delivery? Package was supposed to be here today with the next day delivery. Now it says running late and it will be 15-17th for delivery. It’s not even the holiday season yet
— ℂ𝕒𝕣𝕝𝕒 𝔸 (@techsavvy68) November 15, 2022

What You Can Do

Gain complete visibility into your shipments in transit and send out a quick replacement via an expedited shipping option if you notice one of your customers’ parcels getting delayed. Additionally, you could provide affected customers with a coupon code offering a discount for their next purchase.

Not all delays are due to shipping carrier errors, there can be uncommon cases such as

The package facing a standstill because of bad weather, customs delays, roadblocks, etc
The package getting delivered late simply because there was no one at the location to collect it

In such cases, keep your customers informed if their parcels might be delayed. This way, your customers will be impressed with your commitment to provide them with a great delivery experience, and thus will give you another chance despite facing a delay.

3. My Package is Lost

Lost packages are worse than late deliveries and for obvious reasons, make your customers more infuriated. This is because, unlike delayed packages, the odds of lost packages finding their way back to the customer are very slim and statistically unlikely.

Sure, the customer gets refunded in such cases. But think about the frustrations they faced. It’s going to leave a scar on their delivery experience and makes things next to impossible to retain them.

Pet circle love to not deliver your stuff then when you email them they’re like “we are so sowwy what is your kitties name? we lost ur package again ~does ur kitty love a snuggle?” And I’m like “I will never shop here again! Yes pixie loves snuggles”
— kelsie (@randyshart) November 15, 2022

What You Can Do

A lost package can come in as a shock for a customer. Thus, the process to handle it must be done step by step.

Like all post-purchase issues, initiate the communication instead of expecting them to find out eventually or waiting for them to come up with a WISMO inquiry
Start by sending a “suspected lost package” notification as soon as you find a package going haywire while live tracking all your shipments
Have a support rep stay in touch with and periodically update the angry customer to placate them. Additionally, make sure to send a free replacement for the lost product by expedited shipping.

This way, you can demonstrate your commitment to the customer and possibly impress them enough to retain them moving forward.

4. I have received a damaged package

Just like getting lost, packages are delivered to customers in a damaged state more often than you might expect. The numbers are particularly high during the holiday season as parcel handlers are confronted with huge volumes and must work fast to clear them.

When an expensive order is found to be damaged, it causes a dent in your profit margin. But far greater is the resulting negative impact it has on the customer’s perception of your brand.

Remember that the now angry customer is likely to voice their ire on social media and deter others from shopping with you.

Hey @amazon that package I ordered arrived almost a month late and was completely destroyed. It is soaked through. I left a note asking the delivery driver to leave it inside the screen door. This was ignored. I would have fit fine as per photo 4. You really messed up here. pic.twitter.com/1FVF86lqAK
— Joe (@WorthASandwich) November 13, 2022

What You Can Do

As a first step, make sure to package right. Your parcel will likely undergo significant stress during handling and your packaging should be sufficient to protect the parcel.

As the next step, provide labels for return shipping within your parcel so that your customer can return-ship it back to you if required. Make sure to absorb the cost of this return shipping. Provide a replacement or a refund to the customer at the earliest.

5. I’m Not Satisfied with the Given Response

As we mentioned, delivery issues are common and inevitable. However, lackluster customer support from your end while handling these issues can be more damaging to your reputation than the issue itself.

61% of the customers will stop doing business with you after one bad customer service experience.

Even the other four issues can be contained with proper customer support but the lack of an effective support team can cause even frequent customers to shun your brand.

Hi Simon, thanks for your tweet. Would you be able to confirm your order number, email address, and postcode in a PM? Once we have that information, we'd be happy to look into this for you. Take care, Tonayah. https://t.co/FqaAto1Kxs
— M&S (@marksandspencer) November 12, 2022

Keep in mind that a “Thanks for your tweet” might not be the response to an angry customer ranting about a delivery issue with their package. Such a response can really infuriate the customer further, who would immediately get the notion of shopping with an insensitive brand. This would further lead to angry customers continuing their rants and tarnishing your brand’s reputation online.

What You Can Do

Make sure your customer support team is thoroughly trained to handle a variety of post-purchase customer queries ranging from late deliveries to damaged parcels and is always available to deal with issues when required.

Negligence or not fulfilling a customer’s expectations will be seen as bad customer service.

Empower your support reps to easily spot shipments that may require attention and work proactively to address delivery issues before being asked to by customers.

Additionally, if a customer has taken their issue to social media, take an empathetic approach and provide redressal at the earliest.

You can take it up a notch and try to make the customer post a satisfied feedback in their social media profiles. This can help in creating a positive opinion of your brand among prospective customers. You might even get a testimonial this way.

How LateShipment.com’s DEM Platform Can Help You

Angry customer rants due to issues like these can heavily damage your online reputation and lead your potential customers into believing that the post-purchase experience you offer is indeed flawed and deters them from shopping with you.

On the other hand, getting your customer’s delivery experience right is crucial to building a loyal customer base. This is because repeat customers spend 67% more than new customers. And if you’re planning on simply replacing one lost customer with another, keep in mind that acquiring new customers is 5 times more expensive than retaining existing customers.

This is all the more reason to not overlook the post-purchase experience you offer and the need to take control of it to drive success.

These tweets are just the tip of the iceberg. You might face a gazillion more issues during the holiday season.

If you’re looking for a way to easily resolve all these issues, here it is.

The best way to handle post-purchase issues like these tweets is to put maximum effort to make sure that such a situation never arises.

A post-purchase automation platform like LateShipment.com can help you do just that by enabling you to provide superior CX throughout delivery & returns and make sure you drive customer delight. Also, LateShipment.com can help you effortlessly recover refunds for more than 50 shipping errors by carriers.

Thus, without further ado, get set up for post-purchase success this holiday season and beyond.

The post Angry Customer Rants on Twitter for Common Post-purchase Issues appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

14 Holiday Insights for E-commerce in 2022

Sashank Ravindranath — Mon, 08 Aug 2022 14:25:47 +0000

The holiday season is the time when businesses need fresh insights to draw their plans so that they could make the most sales. But, coming up with holiday plans has been an wildride — thanks to recent global events.

E-commerce, particularly shipping and delivery has taken a toll since the 2020 holiday season. First, there was a widespread infection of COVID-19 prompting a surge in online shopping. In the 2021 season and 2022 so far, we’ve seen supply chain disruptions, followed by the geopolitical conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

However, experts are hopeful that things are changing for the better yet we still need to keep an eye out to have a better understanding of how this season might turn out to stay ahead of potential issues.

Here are some critical e-commerce holiday insights such as time-tested predictions and trends to help you do just that.

1. How Will the 2022 Holiday Season Be Different?

1.1. Inflation will pose a problem

The annual inflation rate in the US accelerated to 9.1% as of June 2022, the worst since November of 1981, leading to resources such as oil and gas getting really expensive. However, as of now, there is a considerable decrease in gas prices, compared to a couple of months ago.

On the other hand, the global annual inflation rate is predicted to be around 6% by Christmas, making the holiday season inflation higher than its counterpart in 2021.

1.2. The impact of supply chain disruptions

Adding to the woes of inflation will be the increased odds of holiday gifts arriving late or getting out of stock for the worse. While not severe compared to last year’s holiday season, the supply chain constraints still very much exist and will pose a threat to e-commerce production and deliveries.

Experts are also adding that the efforts taken to improve the supply chain via strategies such as technological and workforce investments will make holiday items expensive as well.

1.3. We will see an extended holiday shopping season

As the holidays near, customers will be looking to start their shopping earlier, even as early as June for their Christmas gifts, to not fall prey to the increased costs and possible shipping delays.

Businesses too would be eager to capitalize on this opportunity and start extending their deals for BFCM (Black Friday – Cyber Monday) for more than a week. Thus, similar to the last two years, we can expect the holiday season to start sooner and go on for a few more days rather than just being single-day slots.

1.4. E-commerce will evolve and dominate the shopping space

E-commerce sales have been rapidly growing for the last couple of years and this time as well, one can see a 15.5% increase over 2021 and reach $236 billion. However, the worry of inflated costs on holiday gifts will lead to shoppers using marketplaces to buy many gifts at once.

Also, the need for convenience will put shoppers to buy their holiday gifts via mobile devices thus predicting mobile commerce sales to grow 20% over 2021 to $115 billion.

1.5. The competition between brands will be higher than ever

With e-commerce and consumer demand constantly on the rise, retail businesses that have not yet jumped on the online bandwagon will now take the opportunity to get started.

This makes it difficult for existing businesses to turn visitors into customers amidst the fierce competition during the holiday battlefield.

1.6. CX will be the key differentiator for holiday success

New marketing strategies such as discounts and offers are cool but remember — a lot of businesses might be doing the same thing thus, making you easily forgettable.

Therefore, if you really want to improve conversions and maximize sales during the peak season, you will have to provide personalized customer experiences that work as a differentiator for your brand. Also, in an experience economy, that is exactly what customers expect from you as well.

To help you get started, here are some ways to prepare your business for the holiday season by making use of Customer Experience (CX) as a competitive advantage.

2. How You Can Prepare for The 2022 Holiday Season

The customer’s journey with your brand consists of touch points between the two of you. From product discovery to post-purchase communication and returns, all touchpoints should be leveraged if you’re looking forward to offering the best possible experience for your customers.

If you are indeed looking to do just that, you need to keep up with these holiday insights in the form of handy trends in different areas of your business.

2.1. Make the website and checkout experience seamless

Despite lower COVID-19 cases and almost entire restrictions lifted, 57% of shoppers still planned to do their shopping online, with only 43% heading in-store in 2021.

If this number increases based on projections, the chances of your online store getting traffic also increase. However, all this opportunity is lost when your website is not optimized to gain or handle the holiday traffic, especially during peak shopping days like BFCM.

Website optimization can improve conversions by 70%.

So, what is that you should be focusing on to make sure that your website visitors convert into customers?

Outdated websites and social media campaigns can lead your customers to question the authenticity of your e-commerce store. Therefore, keep your website and social media pages holiday-aligned with new products and promotions for them to stay relevant.
Boring websites cause customers to drop off and heavily increase bounce rates. To avoid that scenario, produce content that is both educational and engaging. This can encourage visitors to stay long enough to hit that ‘buy’ button.
Slow and sloppy websites can lead to frequent crashing and result in frustrated visitors. So, frequently check and optimize your website’s loading speed and design leads to keep it user-friendly and reduce cart abandonment.

Following the above steps can ensure that you provide customers with a seamless experience and exceed their expectations when it comes to the checkout process.

2.2. Personalize the experience

Marketing campaigns aren’t just for making your customers shop with you for once. You can also use them wisely to increase your satisfaction metrics such as Customer Lifetime Value (CLV or CLTV).

One way to do that is to make sure their experiences with your brand are personalized. Suggesting new products based on your customers’ recent purchases can spur them to spend more with your brand. For more personalized recommendations, you can collect information from them via feedback or ask them to fill out surveys such as questionnaires.

Remember, taking efforts to provide personalized experiences also impresses customers, who are delighted by your level of service to them.

2.3 Explore new ways to fulfill orders

A great customer experience strategy requires a time-tested strategy for multiple shipping and fulfillment options. And one way you can do that is by expanding your sales channels across your website.

Your customers use multiple devices while looking for convenient purchasing. Extend the same convenience for them while reaching out to them where they spend most of their time. P.S. You also get to make more sales this way.

When it comes to selling, try considering multiple sales channels such as marketplaces and social commerce. All you have to do is make sure you have the same level of user experience across these channels.

For fulfilling orders, make sure to explore convenient and customer-friendly ways like BOPIS (Buy Online & Pickup In-Store) and curbside pickups to enable your customers to collect their orders at the earliest without succumbing to delays.

You can also follow the same when it comes to shipping and delivery by offering multiple shipping options ranging from same-day delivery, overnight delivery, 2-day delivery, etc.

Providing your customers a list of options to choose what best suits them rather than putting them in a corner with a lack of choice, assures them of decision-making authority and boosts their confidence to keep shopping with you.

2.4. Be aware of shipping carrier deadlines & possible delays

Check here to see the FedEx holiday operations schedule for 2022 that can help you plan your shipments for the holiday season without succumbing to delays.

Click here to view the UPS holiday schedule that can give you tips for managing your shipping calendar and costs.

Being aware of the various timelines associated with shipping carriers can help you stay a step ahead of possible delays.

Major carriers like FedEx and UPS draw up special holiday-specific calendars each year. These contain important dates during the season as well as the last days for parcels to be handed off to the carrier to be delivered on time for key days like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Carriers have been following this necessary practice of setting deadlines for shipping because parcel volumes during the Holidays are typically significantly higher than during the rest of the year. In the past few years (and this year) it is bound to be even busier as more people choose online shopping than brick and mortar.

As an e-commerce retailer, you need to keep these deadlines in mind and be prepared to ship out your parcels on time to avoid your customers’ parcels getting delivered late on account of the considerably high volume that shipping carriers deal with at this time of the year. This assures, even in the slightest way, that your customers are not set up for frustration over their holiday gifts getting delayed but instead will have a seamless order delivery experience.

2.5. Give precedence to post-purchase CX

No matter how hard you try, delays are inevitable and can certainly hurt your customers’ happiness when it comes to order deliveries.

Worry not! That’s where the CX efforts you continue to take in the post-purchase phase come in handy.

Some of the best practices to optimize your post-purchase CX are:

Resolving delivery issues such as delays before customer impact
Keeping customers regularly informed of their order status
Increasing customer delight via tracking experiences that are on-brand
Improving delivery experiences by taking customer feedback into consideration
Making your returns process hassle-free, etc

All of this can improve your retention rate and particularly during a time like the Holiday season, can bring in more sales.

2.6. Clearly define & display your return policy & make returns easier

Having a clearly-defined and frictionless returns policy prominently displayed on your website makes your brand seem less risky for shoppers. In fact, the generous returns policy is one of the aspects that makes e-commerce giants like Amazon tick as a business.

Tailor your returns policy in a way that best suits your customers’ experiences as well as your business’ interests. For example, being too strict with your returns can repel customers from shopping with you a second time due to a lack of convenience.

At the same time, being too lenient can encourage unwanted and fraudulent returns that can be expensive for your business. Therefore, the best ploy would be to keep it balanced when it comes to the time window as well as the product condition.

Also, make returns easier for your customers, who already are not happy with returning a holiday gift that they longed for. You can do just that by making returns initiation frictionless via self-serve methods and keeping customers in the loop of their returns effortlessly.

2.7. Empower your customer-support executives

Regularly tending to customer queries such as delivery issues or WISMO inquiries takes up all of your support reps’ time thus, preventing them from tending to other important queries that can turn out costly for your business.

On the other hand, empowering your support reps to stay in the know of your customer’s parcels which are error-prone, and proactively resolving them before they impact your customer saves your reps’ time and also helps you forge strong relationships with your customer.

You can also provide omnichannel support on your website, social media, etc to avoid issues being escalated and reduce the number of support tickets being created.

2.8. Update your tracking pages with relevant campaigns

Beautiful-looking product pages with relevant holiday content set the customer on the path towards making that purchasing decision. So why not try the same strategy to target repeat shoppers?

Make your tracking experience more than just transactional by having personalized product recommendations for every customer and further encourage them by giving them special offers such as discounts on their upcoming purchase.

Customers engaged via tracking pages and delivery-related notifications have drastically reduced anxiety levels and would be glad to shop with you again given the experience you’ve provided them. Such personalized ads can truly ace the motivating factor and double your chances of driving repeat sales.

Implementing all of these might seem too much to do right before the holiday season. But trust me, they’re not.

These holiday insights set to provide the best possible experience for your customers can ultimately help you in making more sales, especially in an environment where your CX can work as a differentiator for your brand.

3. How LateShipment.com Can Help

LateShipment.com’s post-purchase suite, helps you focus on the post-purchase touchpoints of the customer journey and boost retention and lifetime value through memorable delivery and returns experiences this Holiday season, all while improving carrier performances and reducing shipping costs by up to 20%.

Our feature-packed Delivery Experience Management platform helps improve shipment visibility and drive customer delight post-purchase.
Our customer-first Returns Experience Management platform makes returns effortless and efficient — all while retaining revenue.
Our Automated Parcel Audit and Shipping Refunds solution recovers dollars in the refund claims and enables you to make data-backed shipping choices.

LateShipment.com also seamlessly integrates with over 600 shipping carriers and business tools that include E-commerce platforms, Order Management Systems, CRM, and Marketing Automation tools to help you craft delightful post-purchase experiences, at scale.

Consider trying out LateShipment.com as well as these trends and let us know how well things worked out for you. Have any other trends that you would like to share with fellow e-commerce retailers? Let us know in the comments.

The post 14 Holiday Insights for E-commerce in 2022 appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

10 Ways to Turn a Holiday Shopper into a Lifetime Customer

Sashank Ravindranath — Fri, 29 Jul 2022 13:47:04 +0000

Did you know that the chances of you doing business with a shopper is close to 4x more during the holiday season than on regular days?

That means, the holidays are the perfect time for you to make a strong impact on prospective customers and increase sales. But think about this, what if you could do more than just finishing a sale? What if you could improve your retention rates and turn a one-time holiday shopper into a lifetime customer?

Running an online business, you must already be aware of the impact of retention on your profit margins but let me reiterate the fact that increasing retention rates by just 5% can increase your profits by 25-95%.

One of the best ways to retain your customers is to offer them a great customer experience. This can ensure they will be coming back as regular customers, even after holiday sales. However, it is not as easy as it looks. This is because your CX efforts are often hindered by the existing post-purchase gap. And can turn out worse during busy times like the holiday season.

Post-purchase CX Challenges That Can Deter Holiday Shoppers

The control of customer experiences is strong with you until you direct all efforts to make your customers hit ‘buy’. But what happens beyond the buy button?

All of this can lead to severe issues for your business in the form of:

10% of all parcels shipped are either delayed, lost, or damaged
Customers blame and penalize the brand they shop from and NOT the shipping carriers for delivery failures
1-in-3 consumers will switch to a competitor after just ONE bad post-purchase experience with a brand
> 40% of all customer support tickets created are either shipping, delivery, or returns related.

Taking measures to close this post-purchase CX gap will ensure a positive impact on your customers’ lifetime value and the retention rate of your business. Here are the following ways you can adopt to improve your post-purchase CX and turn a one-time holiday shopper into a lifetime customer.

10 Post-purchase Strategies to Turn a Holiday Shopper into a Lifetime Customers

1. Optimize delivery experiences

1.1 Proactively identify and resolve delivery-related issues

Order deliveries during busy times like the holiday season are highly error-prone. Therefore, start monitoring your in-transit parcels in real-time and stay in the know about parcels facing delivery issues. This ensures proactive and faster resolution of delivery-related customer issues and ergo, sets the stage for your holiday shopper to enjoy a great post-purchase experience.

1.2 Reduce customer anxiety with automated shipping notifications

Customers are always anxious regarding their parcel status. This is only worsened during the holiday season. Use this opportunity to turn the tide in your favor and effectively engage with your customers throughout the order delivery lifecycle. Keeping your holiday shoppers informed via timely email and SMS alerts about their delivery status helps you reduce their anxiety levels and revives their trust in your brand.

1.3 Make order tracking self-serve to reduce delivery-related support tickets

Significantly reduce time-consuming (and expensive!) ticket volume raised by anxious holiday shoppers. Enable self-serve order tracking for your holiday shoppers directly from within your website or app. Your support reps will now have time to focus on more pressing issues that could hurt customer satisfaction. Your support reps can also give you a hand on product usage guidance or boosting sales via upselling.

1.4 Offer custom-built branded tracking experiences

To ensure seamless brand experiences in the order delivery phase, start taking complete control over every customer interaction. Offer brand consistent order tracking pages over the dull and off-brand tracking pages provided by the shipping carrier. Such beautiful and branded tracking experiences drive customer delight and keep your brand on the top of the supposedly one-time holiday shopper’s mind.

1.5 Leverage order tracking moments to increase sales and reduce unwanted returns

Make the tracking experience more than just transactional. Run post-purchase marketing campaigns on order tracking pages and double your chances of driving repeat sales. You can also consider featuring relevant product usage information and support channels to reduce the burden of unwanted returns for both holiday shoppers and yourself.

1.6 Get customer feedback around delivery experiences

Capture customer feedback after every order delivery to know how your holiday shoppers feel about their delivery experiences. This can help you understand the detractors of a great CX and make necessary changes to perfect your post-purchase strategy. Also, using this data to consistently direct efforts to improve your CX largely promotes brand credibility.

2. Enhance your returns process to make it hassle-free

2.1 Offer easy-to-initiate returns

The first step to hassle-free returns is to be transparent and establish trust with a clear returns policy. The best ploy is to keep it balanced between being holiday shopper-friendly and meeting your objectives. You can extend your customers’ confidence to keep shopping with you by making returns effortless via fast and easy initiation.

2.2 Communicate throughout every step of the returns process

Similar to deliveries, send proactive updates on returns requests, via automated status notifications and a live returns tracking page. This eliminates customer anxiety and keeps holiday shoppers in the loop of their returns effortlessly.

2.3 Reduce returns by encouraging repeat purchases

70% of all returns are size and fit related — meaning you don’t have to give your holiday shopper a refund for almost three-fourths of returns initiated by them. Get smart by incentivizing customers to opt for exchanges and store credit options rather than refunds. Encouraging your customers to shop with you again instead of cutting them off with refunds helps you retain both holiday shoppers and the revenue they bring in.

3. Keep a close watch on delivery issues

Make sure your deliveries are on-time by keeping a close watch on possible issues during the holiday season. This can help you captivate a regular holiday shopper to spend more with your business in the coming days by reducing their frustrations. Also, this data at hand works as a bonus in evaluating your carriers’ performance and making informed shipping decisions, which can ultimately lead to lower shipping costs during the already expensive holiday season.

Implementing these ways might seem too much to do right before the holiday season. But trust me, they’re not. Delivering these stunning post-purchase experiences for your shoppers ultimately helps you strengthen customer relationships and foster brand loyalty.

And if you’re looking to be an early bird and get this all done even before the holiday shopping season arrives, here comes an all-in-one platform built to deliver phenomenal post-purchase CX and measurable results.

Provide CX Excellence Beyond the Buy Button with Lateshipment.Com

Our feature-packed Delivery Experience Management platform helps improve shipment visibility and drive customer delight post-purchase.
Our customer-first Returns Experience Management platform makes returns effortless and efficient — all while retaining revenue.
Our Automated Parcel Audit and Shipping Refunds solution recovers dollars in the refund claims and enables you to make data-backed shipping choices.

Bottom Line

Holidays are the time of the year when companies try to maximize their profits from one-time shoppers and gain loyal customers for the rest of the following year. If you play your cards well with your post-purchase at this time, you will be able to increase the satisfaction of your customers and keep them happy with every order.

Which of these ways are you looking forward to implementing for your own online business to turn a holiday shopper into a lifetime customer? Let us know in the comments section!

Meanwhile, feel free to check out LateShipment.com or write to us at sales@lateshipment.com

The post 10 Ways to Turn a Holiday Shopper into a Lifetime Customer appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

How to Avoid Delivery Delays During the Holiday Season

Ian — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 08:21:59 +0000

The world of eCommerce experienced a new phenomenon caused by COVID-19. The holiday season further adds more challenges to it in the form of sudden increase in online orders, shortage of in-stock items, and delivery delays.

Shipping carriers such as UPS and FedEx, have learned from experience and are preparing for the increased load. But they aren’t the only ones who should be taking measures to prevent delivery delays. It is the hands of eCommerce retailers as well.

Let’s delve in deeper and find out what causes delivery delays and how to avoid them when shipping overseas.

Impact of Delivery Delays

To some extent, delivery delays are inevitable when sending a package to a faraway destination. They are more likely to happen if you’re delivering gifts to a different continent as in the case of shipping to Europe from the USA. But it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t strive to prevent them.

Delivery delays cost a lot in the long run. They deal a blow to the reputation of the retailer.

Customers are less willing to buy from the same shop if they have experienced shipping delays. The negative feedback also makes it harder to attract new clients.

Not to mention extra costs. They might add up when you have to compensate the customer for a late package. You may also need to deal with cancellations or returns because the parcel took too long to arrive.

How to Avoid Delivery Delays

While some of the factors that impact package delivery, such as weather conditions and global events, are beyond human control, you can still take measures to minimize the risks. Here’s what you can do before the holiday season surges.

Adjust delivery expectations

The best way to deal with customer dissatisfaction over delivery delays is to establish realistic delivery expectations. Don’t wait till the peak of the holiday season. Start preparing your customers in advance.

You can put a banner on your website with the delivery times for the holiday season, especially for international shipping.

The key is to kindly inform and encourage the customer to order sooner to ensure that the goods are delivered on time for holidays.

Some of the international shipping companies, such as FedEx and UPS, have already posted their holiday season shipping schedules. You can follow their example and inform your customers beforehand.

Use multiple carriers

It’s comfortable to work with the same international shipping company that has delivered your packages for a long time. But when the holiday season arrives, your usual carrier might be overwhelmed with the increased volume of parcels. It’s a good idea to partner with more international parcel service providers to ensure that all your packages are handled on time.

If you’re shipping to Russia or Eastern Europe in general, consider partnering with a shipping company that specializes in delivering packages in this region. You can also cooperate with local delivery experts to take some load off your main carrier. Try to ensure several ways of transporting your goods to the client.

Track your packages

International package tracking has several benefits. It’s good for both the client and the retailer. The customer will feel more relaxed with the possibility to check on the parcel from time to time.

You, as the seller, can also take advantage of parcel tracking. You can observe where the packages are being held up and take action in advance.

Proper package tracking can even lessen the burden on customer support. Some clients might not be in a hurry to send inquiries about late packages if they can see at which point of the delivery chain their goods are delayed.

Prepare in advance

The holiday season comes every year at the same time. It’s very convenient because you can anticipate the increase in demand and make preparations beforehand. It’s best to learn from past experiences.

Analyze the most common causes of delivery delays from your personal experience. Try to identify the issues and fix them. Or have a solution ready, if they reappear this holiday season.

Take control of your delivery management

It may be difficult to control everything when shipping overseas during the holiday season. But you don’t have to do this alone. Consider crafting delightful delivery experiences with a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com

Delivery experiences from end to end consists of different aspects such as:

Enabling your customers to track their orders in real-time
Resolving delivery delays even before they happen
Delighting your customers with branded tracking pages
Engaging with your customers via automated and customized shipping transactional notifications
Collecting customer feedback to know how their delivery experiences fared.

Apart from all these aspects, an important factor i.e always overlooked while choosing a carrier is their delivery performance. Especially during times of high volume such as the holiday season or the pandemic period, shipping carriers have been known to have struggled to deliver on time amidst supply chain limitations.

Check out LateShipment.com’s ‘2021 State of Holiday Shipping in the US’ – an unbiased trend analysis and forecast report for UPS and FedEx from an on-time delivery performance standpoint in retail parcel shipping.

The post How to Avoid Delivery Delays During the Holiday Season appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

2021 State of Holiday Shipping in the US

Sashank Ravindranath — Sun, 05 Dec 2021 07:27:21 +0000

The pandemic has largely disrupted holiday shipping in 2021, with a surge in online purchases, record shipping costs, port congestion, and inventory shortage.

Not to forget, the heavy weightage that has fallen on the operational efficiency of shipping carriers, raising concerns over their package-handling capacity and their ability to meet on-time delivery promises. Indeed, you can anticipate your customers to meet with stockouts and longer delivery timelines from all carriers this Holiday season.

FedEx Corp. is forecasting a 10% increase in holiday package deliveries over the previous record peak season in 2020 while UPS is also taking efforts like hiring 10,000 seasonal workers.

While carriers who are well aware of this demand, are responding with more fulfillment and distribution capacity besides hiring temporary workforce. They are also levying additional surcharges to meet the demands of delivering residential packages amid volume surges.

Before you start worrying over skyrocketing shipping bills, know that navigating through the holiday shipping season with mitigated damage from delays can help you save on shipping costs!

We at LateShipment.com have crafted our 4th annual report, which gives you detailed unbiased insights on delivery performances and expected delay rates during the 2021 holiday shipping season. This can give you a headstart in your process towards making data-backed decisions to optimize their supply chain during the critical Holiday season and beyond.

Let’s take a deep dive into it.

An Analysis of Shipping Performance by FedEx and UPS in 2021 Right Before the Holiday Season

The following section is the result of a trend analysis conducted on packages shipped during the 2021 Regular Operating Period (Jan 1 – Oct 31). You will find a detailed breakdown of package delays by UPS and FedEx across key States, Cities, Service-types, and Retail Categories in the United States.

In 2021, parcels shipped through FedEx witnessed Holiday-shipping- season-like delays while UPS performed considerably better than in 2020.

States, cities, and regions

States

During the regular operating period of 2021, UPS Packages shipped to Texas faced the most delays with 10.3% of packages delivered late. While 15.34% of packages shipped to Illinois via FedEx faced the most delays.

Cities

When it comes to cities, packages shipped through UPS to Houston faced the most delays at 8.9%, followed by New York at 8.24% and Los Angeles at 7.7%.
Among key cities, packages shipped to Miami, Chicago, and Houston through FedEx faced delay rates of 13.8%, 13.6%, and 13.5% respectively.

Regions

Among the West Coast – Holiday packages shipped to the State of Washington through UPS faced the most delays at 13.64%. And packages shipped to Oregon through FedEx faced the most delays at 25.66% followed closely by Washington at 23%.
In the Central Region – packages shipped to Arkansas and Louisiana through UPS recorded the highest package delay rate at 10.49% and 9.27%. And packages shipped to Louisiana and Arkansas through FedEx faced high delay rates of 25.65% and 25.48% respectively.
Amid the East Coast – states in the US that witnessed the most package delays were South Carolina for UPS, recording a delay rate of 8.2%. And Maine for FedEx with 19.88% followed closely by Georgia at 19.19%.

Service types

UPS Ground Services recorded a delay rate of 10.36%.
FedEx Ground services faced a package delay rate of very similar to the 2020 Holiday shipping season at 19%.
UPS Express Services – 9.9% of packages shipped through Next Day Air service were delayed.
FedEx Express Services – 14.6% of packages shipped through 2 Day service were delayed.

Retail categories

In the 2021 Holiday shipping period, the Electronics category saw a delay rate of 14.44%, while the Sports and Health, and Fitness categories witnessed package delay rates of 10.5% and 10.7% respectively with UPS.
When it comes to FedEx, the Jewelry category observed a delay rate of 14.4% while the Sports and Apparel categories witnessed package delay rates of 13% and 11.3% respectively.

With all our findings in the regular operating period of 2021, we have forecasted the on-time delivery performances of FedEx and UPS in the Holiday shipping period. This can help e-commerce retailers such as yourself stay aware of possible delays with the busy season to come.

Holiday Shipping 2021 Predictions, Trends & Insights

Holiday retail sales are likely to increase between 7% and 9% and E-commerce sales particularly will grow by 11-15%, YoY, during the 2021-holiday season. – Deloitte

With an unprecedented surge in online orders during the Holiday season, along with freight constraints, warehouse capacity issues, and insufficient workers, there would be an immense strain on shipping carriers to ensure timely delivery of Holiday orders.

Retailers and shoppers alike should brace themselves to face delays due to shipping network congestion, labor shortage, and COVID-19 outbreaks in some parts. There will also be stock availability issues.

Average package delay rates during the 2021 holiday shipping season to be between the range of 16% to 20%.

UPS’ on-time delivery performance will be 2x better than FedEx (based on their 12-month track record) during the 2021 Holiday season
Densely populated urban cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, etc. to face record package delays, even as high as 25% to 30% during the 2021 Holidays.
Popular e-commerce service types, Ground and Express services offered by both UPS and FedEx will remain affected, resulting in delivery delays irrespective of the service type consumers choose for their Holiday orders.
With unusually high congestion affecting every type of transportation network, both air and ground shipments are expected to face significant delivery delays.
Expensive and fast services did not really matter! 25.2% of FedEx Overnight shipments and 11.2% of UPS Next Day Air were delayed during the 2020 Holiday season.

Delays are expected to be more than the previous years due to the added burden of the ongoing supply chain disruptions. If you’re looking to be one of those retailers who are looking to win, you will need to take measures to mitigate the impact of delivery delays on customer experience and loyalty.

Let’s see how you can do just that.

How E-commerce Retailers Can Prepare Themselves to Counter Delays in the Holiday Shipping Season 2021

The surge in online orders will see retailers and shipping carriers grappling to meet customer expectations around frictionless shipping, delivery, and returns experiences.

The shift to e-commerce is here to stay but a negative order delivery experience will have a long-lasting impact on your relationship with customers; making post-purchase customer experience (CX) key to your business’s success during this Holiday season and beyond.

But why is post-purchase CX so imperative?

The post-purchase CX mandate

Focusing on your post-purchase CX strategy is critical because it helps you:

Establish trust and buyer confidence with clear shipping and returns policy, thereby fostering loyalty
Improve customer satisfaction and increase loyalty by proactively resolving delivery issues
Reduce customer anxiety by meaningfully engaging with customers during the “Order Delivery” phase
Drive customer delight post-checkout with memorable, on-brand tracking experiences
Boost revenue from repeat purchases by leveraging your customers’ order tracking moments
Increase conversion, repeat purchase rate, and retain revenue by optimizing product returns on your store

As evident here, numerous benefits emanate from a well-thought-through post-purchase customer experience strategy for your online retail business. It’s time to move on to the next part — HOW to optimize the post-purchase CX?

Here’s how.

7 Strategies to Ensure Post-purchase CX Success

Taking measures to close the post-purchase CX gap and provide customers with a frictionless delivery experience can cement you as their preferred brand.

Adopting the following ways to improve your post-purchase CX will ensure a positive impact on both your customers’ lifetime value and the retention rate of your business.

1. Proactively identify and resolve delivery-related issues

Third-party shipping services are highly error-prone. Monitoring your in-transit parcels in real-time and being in the know about parcels facing delivery issues will ensure proactive and faster resolution of delivery-related customer issues.

2. Reduce customer anxiety with automated shipping notifications

Effectively engaging with your customers throughout the order delivery lifecycle will strengthen customer relationships and foster brand loyalty. With timely email and SMS alerts, keep customers informed about their order delivery status, including critical delivery issues.

3. Offer custom-built branded tracking experiences on your online store

To ensure seamless brand experiences, every customer interaction should be owned by the brand. Default order tracking pages provided by shipping carriers are dull and off-brand. Providing brand consistent order tracking pages on your store drives customer delight and increases brand loyalty.

4. Make order tracking self-service to reduce delivery-related support tickets

Over 30% of customer support tickets created are shipping-related, with most tickets being WISMO (Where Is My Order) inquiries. Addressing such tickets can be both time-consuming and expensive. Enable your customers to track their orders from within your website or app to significantly reduce customer support inquiries.

5. Leverage order tracking moments to increase sales and reduce returns

On average, customers track their orders 6 to 8 times before order delivery, that’s 6-8 additional marketing touchpoints with customers post-checkout. Boost repeat sales with product recommendations on order tracking pages, besides providing relevant product usage information to reduce returns.

6. Get customer feedback around order delivery experiences

Capture customer feedback around their delivery experiences after every order delivery to understand the detractors of a great post-purchase experience and make necessary changes to improve.

7. Optimize your returns process to make it hassle-free while maintaining profitability

Be transparent and establish trust with a clear returns policy. Make product returns effortless for your customers while providing return methods that encourage exchanges and store credit options to ensure revenue retention.

Implementing all of these strategies just as the holiday shipping season arrives won’t take long. You can make use of a post-purchase solution such as LateShipment.com to do the heavy lifting for you.

How Lateshipment.Com Can Help

Our feature-packed Delivery Experience Management platform helps improve shipment visibility and drive customer delight post-purchase.

Our customer-first Returns Experience Management platform makes returns effortless and efficient — all while retaining revenue.

Our Automated Shipping Refunds solution brings better performance accountability to shipping carrier services by recovering millions of dollars in refund claims.

LateShipment.com seamlessly integrates with over 600 shipping carriers and business tools that include E-commerce platforms, Order Management Systems, CRM, and Marketing Automation tools to help you craft delightful post-purchase experiences, at scale.

Visit www.lateshipment.com to find out more.

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6 Tips to Prepare Your Dropshipping Business for the Holiday Season Surge

Ian — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 12:44:43 +0000

The holiday season is right around the corner, and apart from candied days, happy moments, lots of festive food, and there’s a high demand for gifts. This means a huge opportunity for your dropshipping store to cross your sales target and break your revenue records.

In 2020, the holiday season eCommerce sales in the US are projected to be $135 billion.

This shows how holiday season purchases still hold immense value despite the pandemic and can be a game-changer for your dropshipping store.

Dropshipping is gaining momentum and slowly becoming a more preferred choice than traditional eCommerce businesses as it helps businesses profit by selling products online without managing inventory on their own.

Combine it with the holiday madness, and you’ve got yourself a perfect strategy to double your revenue and to take your dropshipping store to the next level.

But, before we get into our toolkit to prepare your dropshipping business for the holiday season, let’s understand what dropshipping is and why exactly you should invest in it, now more than ever.

What is dropshipping?

Dropshipping is a method to fulfill orders by listing products online and passing them to a third-party supplier responsible for shipping them to the customers.

This business model does not require the store owner to keep a stock of the products but rather get involved in other aspects like management, customer service, and store maintenance.

While we’re talking about dropshipping, it’s safe to say it’s not a get-rich-quick-scheme.

It may look like a great way to make recurring money as you’re just listing and selling products. But, you still need to put in a lot of work in creating a properly functioning store, marketing it, taking care of listings, and customer service, above all.

But if you have a solid dropshipping strategy, it can take off your business profits massively.

Before you start dropshipping, it’s best to know some pros and cons:

Pros of dropshipping

Great source for building a passive income: Once you’ve listed the products, started marketing them, and have organized your processes to work on auto-pilot—you can earn money with little to zero further effort as orders will be placed and fulfilled automatically.
No inventory management worries: Since a supplier takes care of inventory and shipping, you can focus on marketing your store and getting more visitors to your website: more visitors, more sales, more profits.
Low overhead costs: You don’t have to maintain a brick-and-mortar shop or a warehouse for your products. There’s also no need to hire a full-fledged team to manage the store; you can hire a few freelancers on a project basis—and this way, you won’t have many overhead costs.
Lots of scope for experimentation: When you’re the supplier and seller, you need to take care of launching a new product line, but with dropshipping, you can introduce a whole line and if it doesn’t take off, simply remove it from your store. Since you’re not buying wholesale or committing to someone, you can experiment with different products and see what gets you sales.

Cons of dropshipping

Lots of competition: Dropshipping requires low capital investment initially, making it an easy entry point for anyone who wants to start a store
Low-profit margins: There’s only so much you can make by selling third-party products, and the expenses of creating and managing a store along with advertising hardly allow high profits
Minimal control over products: Since you’re just coordinating the efforts, and the supplier is sending the products to your customers, you hardly get to see the product condition or packaging. This gives you little to no control over the quality, which significantly impacts customer loyalty and store reputation
Hard to build your brand: When customers receive the product, they only care about the product, and not the shopping experience since you’re just the messenger. This makes it difficult to build retention for your business and build a sustainable brand for it.

6 top tips to prepare your dropshipping store for the Holiday season

Now that you’ve understood dropshipping from its roots, it’s time to understand how to prep your store for the holiday season. Consumers wait for festive sales because just for the gifts and discounts, hence the surge would be high during these times. This means your store needs to be ready to accommodate a high amount of visitors, checkouts, payments, and orders.

So, let’s fail-proof your dropshipping store and set it up for ongoing purchases for the holiday season with these 6 preparation tips:

1. Talk to your suppliers in advance

Managing the status of your inventory will possibly be the most difficult yet important aspect to handle. Suppose you suddenly start getting a massive number of orders, and your supplier is not prepared for it, you could end up losing customers, or worse, providing a bad customer experience.

Delays in orders, unavailability of a product even if listed on the store, poor packaging owing to order influx are some ways things could go wrong. So, the first step you should take to prepare your store is to have a conversation with your suppliers.

Quite often, dropshipping stores work with multiple suppliers, which makes this step even more crucial. Talk to them about how much they can accommodate and set up a process for the organization.

For example, you could use Google sheets to manage inventory and add them or hire a virtual assistant or intern to help manage the process.

This should be done weeks before the holiday season begins, so you have a clear understanding of what needs to be taken care of and a fallback plan if anything goes wrong.

2. Review your policies

You cannot have your standard store policies running during the holiday season if you don’t want to exhaust your operation on sorting out exchanges, returns, and other order issues.

To avoid the hassle, clearly state store policies telling users how to proceed with refunds and returns during sales. Not only will this ensure consumers are informed about your policies, but it will also instill trust in your store and shows you are committed to an excellent customer experience.

Here’s what you should clarify during the holiday season:

Returns and refunds

Many stores don’t offer returns or refunds during holiday sales.

This is because these products are already discounted, and engaging in returns or refunds can get expensive given the shipping and logistics involved. However, if you still want to offer them, ensure transparency on timelines and processes.

Shipping and taxes

Ask your suppliers if their method can handle surge orders and how much time it would take to ship and deliver them. It would be best to keep a buffer time.

For example, if you generally ship orders in 24 hours, mention you’ll ship in 48 hours. This way, the supplier would have enough time to accommodate the surge.

Similarly, be transparent about the shipping costs, and check with the supplier if the earlier rates can continue to stay or if you need to revise them.

3. Develop an advertising plan and budget

You’ll indeed see loyal customers buying from you during holidays, but you’ll also acquire many new customers. To maximize the results of your efforts, it’s best to prepare an advertising plan and budget before the season kicks in.

91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands and stores that provide relevant offers and recommendations—which makes advertising crucial.

Before you lay out your plan, it’s essential to assess your most profitable channels. Understand where you get the most customers from—organic search, paid social media promotions, email marketing, and social media channels.

The holiday season is not the time to experiment and invest in new advertising channels. Instead, you need to double down on methods that have worked best for you in the past and optimize them for better results.

Here are some steps you can take to do this:

After assessing your advertising channels, create and allocate a budget to different channels
Create an advertising strategy that allows you to prioritize channels as per past traffic and conversions
Hire a team or assign tasks to an existing team of full-time employees or freelancers so you can put your strategy into motion
Set Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the effectiveness of your efforts like traffic, sources, conversions, channels, clicks, etc
Create great content, and use a solid social media strategy to build buzz around your sale and store.
Use innovative strategies like contests and giveaways, partnering with influencers, and creating a loyalty program so you can promote your holiday sale in the best manner.

Get your advertising strategy in motion well ahead of the holidays. This would provide you with time to create awareness around your store.

Once you launch your deals, people would come in for the familiarity and purchase.

4. Plan your holiday site theme

Holiday sales are not just about listing products at slashed prices on the website. It’s also about creating a memorable store experience for the consumers, so they’re pulled towards making a purchase and referring them to their friends.

Refreshing your website with a holiday theme is one of the best ways to show your store is ready to bring in some festive cheer. If it’s Christmas, customize your store with candy canes, snow trees, and red and white colors to help customers relate to the holiday. Such personalized experiences can go a long way in building customer retention.

In addition to the theme, you can also festively stack your products or bump up those related to the holiday like streaming devices, loaf pans, candles, new dining sheets, and winter clothing for Thanksgiving.

You can also use data from your previous sales and festive store surges to study customer behavior and see how you should optimize and organize the store for more sales.

5. Learn about your top-selling products

Not all products sell the same, and if you can identify and bump up your top-selling products, you could end up making higher sales.

More than offering a range of products, curating and positioning your best-selling products will help you drive more conversions and make the consumers curious to explore your store further.

To discover these products, here’s what you can do:

Study customer purchase history for the past 9-12 months and pick the products with the highest sales. Identify if the product would be relevant during the holiday season, and include it accordingly.
Analyze your previous holiday season purchase history, and cherry-pick those products which sold like crazy. Consider bringing them in again or including an upgrade to those products to push sales.

Once you’ve made a list of your top-selling products, you can position them strategically throughout the website and run promotions on them to attract more people.

Alternatively, you can also study Google trends, communities, and industry reports to understand potential best-selling products that you can also get supplied and listed on your dropshipping store.

6. Conduct a load test to handle the traffic surge

The holiday season can put a lot of pressure on your website regarding increased site visitors, fast checkouts, overburdened servers, and glitches in third-party integrations.

This can show errors to your customers or lead to a slow load time, among other issues which can severely impact their shopping experience, and thus your sales.

The best way to avoid this is to conduct a load test to ensure your site servers have enough capacity to handle sudden spikes in traffic

This will allow you to assess how your website will react to traffic surges and give you an idea of the potential bugs that can cause problems. You can use load testing tools like JMeter and LoadView to help you out with it.

Once you identify issues after running the load test, you can make improvements and optimizations to create a seamless shopping experience for your customers.

Wrapping up

The holiday season offers massive scope for eCommerce stores to ramp up their profits. With dropshipping, you can take it even further with innovative marketing strategies, sales promotion tactics, website optimization, and product experimentation.

Unlike regular eCommerce store owners, you don’t have to worry about the products so that you can optimize the store and overall experience for more sales.

Focus on personalizing the shopping experience for your customers with holiday themes and promotions, which can pull them in further for making purchases.

You can turn the holiday season into a highly profitable quarter for your dropshipping business, but only if you are prepared for it. Use this article as a checklist to prepare your store for the festive surge, and get ready to welcome happy shoppers!

This is a guest post by Hazel Raoult

Hazel Raoult is a freelance marketing writer and works with PRmention. She has 6+ years of experience in writing about business, entrepreneurship, marketing, and all things SaaS. Hazel loves to split her time between writing, editing, and hanging out with her family.

The post 6 Tips to Prepare Your Dropshipping Business for the Holiday Season Surge appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

Know Why Your Christmas Packages Will Be Late. Hint: Santa Isn’t To Be Blamed

Joelah James — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 09:32:11 +0000

Are all your Christmas packages shipped out?

Wait a minute…

What about all those last minute buyers who are still browsing your site? Them that frantically try to pick a present for the relative they forgot about till now.

Or if you’re one of those last minute people reading this, yes, you certainly should panic a little. Especially if you had forgotten and speed ordered your kid’s present. Grab your boots. Physical shopping ain’t that bad.

Christmas is less than a week away, and packages meant for the occasion need to get there on time. No matter what.

On going through the data accumulated since the beginning of this holiday season, we realised there were specific areas bound to experience more delays than the rest.

Areas where delivery congestions were happening more often than not.

What if your business was shipping to that area in the last minute? Then your package is definitely not reaching the customer on time.

That’s where data comes handy. What you’ll find below are a categorized list of areas that have consistently faced delays or other delivery exceptions since the holiday season began (November 26, 2018- December 20, 2018).

If you’re shipping out to any of these areas, then you better be on the lookout. Your package may not make it to its destination on time.

State of delivery delays in specific states

So which states are hotspots for the most number of delays? Where would you need to carefully monitor your packages?

Of all the states in the US, the following have witnessed the most number of delays for FedEx shipments.

As you can see, states like New York, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin, Utah, Massachusetts and Maryland sported the highest recorded number of delays ranging from 10%-12%.

For UPS shipments, the following states saw a high rate of delays.

With UPS, the highest delay percentage ranged from 7% to 9%, which shows a noticeably better performance that FedEx so far. States with the highest number of delays include Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, Virginia, Tennessee and Florida.

States like New York, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Georgia have faced a considerable number of delays with both FedEx and UPS shipments.

On close inspection, you can see how a majority of these states are densely populated.

Cities with close calls

Let’s get down to cities.

Where would you have to guard your package and keep replacements ready for high risk zones?

Here’s the top seven you need to watch out for.

Looking at specific cities, Miami, Los Angeles and Denver faced the most number of delays at 8-9% while shipping with UPS.

Other cities with a high percentage of delays include New York (8.05%), San Francisco (7.91%), Dallas (7.82%), Brooklyn (7.19%) and Philadelphia (7.03%).

For FedEx shipments, the cities with markedly higher delay rates include Washington, Salt Lake City and New York with delay percentages of 11%.

Other cities that saw a high rate of delays for FedEx shipments include Los Angeles (10.88%), Cincinnati (10%), Miami (9.67%), Portland (9.06%) and Seattle (8.36%).

As of now, UPS seems to be on the fast track this holiday season, delivering better performance than FedEx in most parts of the US.

If you would like more insight on understanding and overcoming delivery congestions this holiday season, you can read here.

For more predictions on holiday specific shipping, here you go.

In case your current shipping strategy is more of a pain than a well oiled machine, we’ve got you covered on that front too.

Retailers and shoppers alike need to be aware of these areas that face high congestions during Christmas time so that nobody gets disappointed when a package doesn’t turn up.

Go on ahead and make alternate arrangements well in advance folks!

May the force be with your package.

The post Know Why Your Christmas Packages Will Be Late. Hint: Santa Isn’t To Be Blamed appeared first on Lateshipment.com.

The Ultimate Retailer’s Checklist For Holiday Season 2018

Joelah James — Wed, 26 Sep 2018 16:47:47 +0000

As the shopping bug begins to bite people across the world, retailers need to step up their game in time for the holiday rush. What you do not want to do is miss out on something important in the crazy schedule. A consolidated holiday checklist of all the important things you need to tick off on your calendar can help you be better prepared. By the time you’re done ticking off every item on this list, you’ll be holiday ready!

Data Data Data

Trust me when I say data is the most powerful tool in your arsenal. It can help you in multiple ways, especially when it comes to the holiday season prep. You can use data from the past few years, taking into account the changes you have made and why (floral prints and bell sleeves might come into fashion again!), and create a complete strategy.

Consider Starbucks’ Pumpkin Spice Latte that is available only during a certain time of the year. The idea is to make consumers associate that particular product with the season and crave it (they nailed it, considering how it is their most popular seasonal drink!). The coffee mogul initially got the idea from competitor Dunkin Donuts and their Pumpkin Donuts which was available only in the fall!

Ask yourself the following questions.

What were your bestsellers? (those are your special snowflakes)

Was there any major flop? If yes, why? (put yourself in a customer’s shoes)

Did you run out of some unexpected hot sell? (didn’t see that one coming?)

Did a specific promotional campaign do particularly well? (using it again is not a crime against creativity)

Did customers consistently return any product? (might want to look into that one)

Answering these questions will be all the more easier if you’ve got extensive data on your hands. Your entire holiday season inventory can be double checked, orders to vendors can be placed in advance, and product defects if any can be fixed in time! Besides, you can focus on the best target group for your business, and employ your best marketing strategies to reach out to them well in advance.

If you’re looking for efficient tools to manage or sort out your inventory, we’ve got a list of the best ones you can use right here.

Build you own Holiday castle

Stores that have specific themes for the holidays build their entire strategy around it. Everything from the marketing emails they send to the kind of packaging they use, reflects this chosen theme. It works really well, as it definitely increases brand recall among newly targeted customers and gives existing customers something new to look forward to.

Check out this ad by Nike for last year’s holiday Black Friday sale. Simple, minimalist, and succinct, it targets Nike’s huge loyal fan base. There simply is no need to announce the percentage of discounts offered, or the special promo codes to use. The ad spells out the brand’s confidence in its product and reach.

With a majority of shoppers shifting to the convenience of online shopping from the comfort of their homes, it’s a big deal to create the wow factor the minute they enter your online store. Minimalist, theme centred, and easily accessible sites perform extremely well as compared to ones with slower loading times thanks to heavy imagery or content.

Check out the Adidas ad for the same. It certainly is more verbose for one.

Another important thing to remember is to make the mobile version of your site run smoothly as over 64% of shoppers use their mobile phones or tablets to shop. If your store has a separate app, that’s great too!

Make sure your IT team is on call all through the holiday rush to immediately deal with any tech issues that may arise. You definitely do not want your customers moving on to check out another site because yours had glitches in it.

Your holiday theme can be consistent across all platforms, and you can personalize your emails to understand customer behavior better. Tracking all marketing assets can show you the problem areas customers face, or specific areas on site that lead to drop offs, and you can concentrate on fixing them before the rush hits. Introduce a loyalty program if you don’t already have one, as you can never go wrong with exclusive member only deals.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going

Remember that cringe worthy moment when your competitor put up something huge and extravagant that completely put your efforts to shame? Well, let me tell you there’s no harm in learning new things. The task before you now is to figure out how your competitor achieved their goal, and what made it so different from yours.

Did they have a bigger product marketing team working full time?

Did they throw in freebies like free shipping that you couldn’t afford?

Or was there some new technology they risked experimenting with?

The thing here is, watching and learning from peers will help you go a long way in choosing the areas you want to compete in. There is absolutely nothing wrong in borrowing ideas from a peer’s last year theme or promotions if they were exceptional.

Check out what Walmart has done for their Halloween promo!

People are going to be comparing prices left, right and centre once they start shopping. Run through the pricing offered by competitors. Try to offer Free Shipping as much as you can. Atleast at some minimum cart value.

When it’s holiday season, the tough certainly do get going. Surviving in the brutal retail landscape is no piece of cake. Earn your place by paying close attention to prices, shipping, customer experience, site design and ease of access.

The art of communication

When was the last time you successfully nailed a negotiation with your shipping partner and felt on top of the world?

Your shipping carrier will be one who delivers on your promise of an efficient last mile. No matter how great all your products and overall strategy may be, you need the guarantee of an exceptional last mile delivery to achieve the targeted level of customer experience.

In order to negotiate the best deals with your carrier, you need to know your stuff. We’re talking shipping terms, previous contractual clauses, the discounts offered to peers, and the like. If you need more information regarding negotiating shipping contracts, you can read this post.

Records of excellent profits in your previous quarters will make shipping carriers vie for your account. So all you have to do is arm yourself with the right data and kill that negotiation!

What’s the shipping plan?

First things first. Don’t ever surprise the customer at checkout with your shipping prices. Ever!

That’s just asking for cart abandonment, and that’s not what we’re aiming at.

It is definitely possible for you to offer free shipping and still make profits. You simply might not have a choice at times, especially if all your competitors are offering free shipping in their stores. Try assimilating the shipping cost into the product cost as much as possible. Or else, go for a minimum order value that would qualify the customer for free shipping.

If you’d like to know more on how to offer free shipping without going broke, you can read here.

The magic of wrapping paper

This might seem like a tiny thing, but it has proven results. The unwrapping experience is an important tactile pleasure a customer enjoys before witnessing the product that was hitherto seen only through a computer/ mobile screen.

Your packaging needs to suit whatever grand holiday plan you’ve come up with. It’s got to be strong enough to withstand the transit to a customer’s doorstep, while being aesthetically pleasing at the same time. Not asking for much eh?

If you’re packing fragile items or oversized ones, you’ll need special packaging materials. Stock up on plenty of those way before the rush hits. Buying in bulk will always be cheaper than rushing to a store after you run out of materials mid holiday rush.

Don’t crimp on the small things that let you customize/ personalize your packaging!

If you’re packaging odd shaped items, and need some help, this can help you.

Your staff could be your best brand ambassadors

How good is your rapport with all the staff on your payroll?

Feeling comfortable and happy in the workplace will help the members of your staff advocate your brand even outside. Offering special staff discounts and vouchers doesn’t hurt either.

The holiday season is when your customer support team and marketing teams are fully swamped, and you need to bring in more staff just to handle the rush. So if you can turn all your existing staff into brand ambassadors who will be well versed in handling customer queries or issues, then you can save on more than half the cost of hiring new holiday recruits.

You’re gonna be fielding calls from customers right up till day their package is supposed to arrive. Prepping all your staff on how to answer these calls or just be helpful to irate customers will be a huge plus when the pressure starts getting to you. Make sure you strategize staff training into your holiday schedule.

It all boils down to ensuring your staff have a great working atmosphere that will put them in the holiday season cheer with minimal or no effort.

Rate your shipping carrier

Alright. Time to be honest.

How would you rate your shipping partner on a scale of 1 to 10?

Wait, what criteria would you rate them for in the first place?

Yep, you’re going to need extensive data on carrier performance to handle that.

This is where services like LateShipment.com come in. You can get all the data you need to gauge carrier performance and hold them accountable. But hey, that’s not even the best part. The best part is all this data is readily available and free for any shipper who needs it!

You need to ensure that the shipping partner you choose for the holiday season is highly capable of handling the rush and working well under pressure. They form a key link between you and your customers, and providing a fulfilling customer experience depends on them.

What you can do is to divide your shipments between different carriers (either regional or domestic) depending on your varying shipping needs. Keep in mind that speed and efficiency are the things to look for, and not just economical options.

Automation is efficiency

If most of your ecommerce store’s processes are already automated, good!

If not, it’s high time you got into the automation gravy boat.

Let me give you a few instances of where automation can come in handy.

Consider how much easier order fulfilment would become with the right set of inventory management and fulfilment tools! (for more about best automation tools/ services you can read here)
Managing that big warehouse space becomes less of a mission impossible conundrum and becomes actually manageable when you use a warehouse management tool.
Holiday season packaging can be more time and labor consuming than any other time of the year. Automating this process can save plenty of time and let you allocate the man power to other areas like sales where it will be much needed.

Automation, data science and machine learning can help you offer your customers the best. Say for instance, there’s a customer who tried to order a particular item from your store more than once. You could offer to help them with the checkout process. The following email also offers free shipping over $50! The customer often ends up buying more than they planned, and all that remains is to get it to ‘their doorstep on time.

Stick to timelines

As you well know, there’s plenty of holiday prep to do.

Remember that not everybody shops last minute, and a vast percentage of the population begin creating their wish lists months in advance.

All your promotional campaigns, time oriented offers and shipping vouchers should coincide with this. Analyze customer behavior from previous years, figure out when they start browsing for holiday supplies or presents, and give it to them at the right time. They’ll love you for it, and your store will gain a definite competitive advantage!

Fix the holiday timeline in advance and ensure that everybody sticks to it. Create set timings for inventory stocking, content updates, offer releases and campaigns. Everything.

This will help with minimizing cart abandonment and ensure better customer retention.

Hope this holiday checklist helps you get ready for this season way better than any other. Wishing you the best of holiday magic!

The post The Ultimate Retailer’s Checklist For Holiday Season 2018 appeared first on Lateshipment.com.