“Life
is filigree work. What’s written clearly is not worth much. It is the
transparency that counts.”
–
Louis Ferdinand Celine
The
French author couldn’t be more apt. The world is busy shopping
online. The businesses that enable these online shopping malls are
burning the candles at both ends in trying to keep the heart of these
online shopping websites running – the backend.
They
are aggressively increasing the bandwidth of the user capacity on
their websites so their esteemed users don’t have unpleasant shopping
experiences and increase their time spend on the website, ultimately
shopping more and more.
As
we have seen, one of key deciding factors in the online shopping
game, apart from massive deals – is the shipping.
The moment
we see the shipping charges at the billing, more often than not, we
just close the browsing tab and google the same product – to buy it
elsewhere.
Can
you imagine the frustration of the business owner? The user graph
depicting all positive signs of making that purchase and then
suddenly vanished into thin air. Close, but deal not closed.
What
if the online shopping website had not shown the shipping charges on
the website? What if the website had acquired the zip code of the
user and slyly added the shopping cost in the product cost
itself?
Of
course, we might cross check the product on another website and if
the pricing is almost the same as the one you have been lingering on
– then your inclination will be toward going with the website that
you have spent the most time on.
There
is no denying that there are some souls who are loyal to a website
regardless of the prices being higher than on other websites. But the
point in concern is –
are
the shipping charges kept transparent? Both by businesses that ship
and the carrier companies that carry goods from one place to another.
Real-time
shipping rates:
Customers deserve to know their shipping rates. The best way to go
about is to include a real-time shipping costs calculator widget.
This way the customer knows what he is paying for. Such clear and
transparent manner of knowing and understanding shipping costs will
make the customer more trusting toward the shopping website.
State
costs upfront:
When the customer has clicked on the product and the product appears
large with all of its pictures and item description, the cost of
shipping (if any) has to be stated right next to the price of the
product. The customer should not get a rude shock and see the insane
shipping charges added during the checkout. That is just not done.
However, that is not what is followed with devotion by the online
shopping portals.
Combos:
If there is a minimum purchase value required to be eligible for
availing free shipping then that message should be endorsed on the
website.
Despite
the dense audience fragmentation and stiff competition, there are a
number of ways to gain trust and loyalty of online customers. The
reward is in the attention to details – one of them being
transparency in shipping charges.
