It’s a well established fact that repeat business and recommendations are essential to a company’s ecommerce success. There has been lots of debate around what impacts these including loyalty programs, product variety, discounts, lowest prices, and shipping.
Recent research shows that shipping plays an oversized role in customer satisfaction and brand reputation. Comscore conducted a study commissioned by UPS that found the top 11 factors that impact consumer satisfaction with online shopping. 4 out of 11 factors directly related to logistics and fulfillment showing the large role that logistics has on your brand and customer satisfaction. They also found that consumers put equal weight in shipping cost and product cost when deciding who to purchase from.
Customer Satisfaction: Shipping Plays Major Role
The Comscore report also found that 58% of consumers reported free and discounted shipping as the top attribute they would like to see improved by retailers. Free shipping and receiving the product as expected were found to be the top two factors considered when a consumer is determining whether to recommend an online retailer. In fact, this is so important to shoppers that 70% have reported adding more to their cart in order to cross a free shipping threshold.
Shipping costs are also one of the top reasons for cart abandonment with 56% of those surveyed saying they have stopped an order when shipping costs were higher than expected.
Estimated delivery dates play a huge role in building consumer confidence in a retailer. 60% of online shoppers want to see estimated shipping included on their check out screen. But how long are consumers willing to wait for shipping?
Only 20% of consumers expect shipping in under 3 days but 50% expect delivery in under 5 days. These percentages are only going to grow as Amazon continues to offer faster and faster delivery times.
This information, combined with the restrictions of transit times, paints a clear picture of opportunity for retailers. By selecting the proper fulfillment location and provider, retailers can increase their chances of return business and consumer recommendations drastically. This is no secret, retailers know they need to step up fulfillment. In fact, 70% of retailers state they want to improve their fulfillment capabilities.
And the stakes are high. The booming ecommerce environment means there will continue to be evermore options for online shoppers. Research indicates that the majority of consumers are not willing to forgive shipping mistakes. 29% of shoppers state they will abandon a retailer all together for just one incorrect delivery and 62% report being much less likely to shop with a retailer if a purchase is not delivered within 2 days of the promised delivery date. Even more risky are the holiday peak seasons with 68% of shoppers saying their expectations on correct and on time delivery are higher during the holiday season.
Late deliveries can impact more than just online sales though. 17% of shoppers will abandon a retailer all together for just one late delivery and that number sky rockets to 55% abandoning the retailer after 2-3 late deliveries. This is tough for retailers considering most of the time they lose all control of the package once it is handed off to the parcel carrier. Setting reasonable consumer expectations is extremely important.
Christopher Morgan Fulfillment has access to more than 600,000 square feet of professionally managed, secure, dry storage space, warehousing & distribution in Milwuakee and in all regions of the United States.
The choice is yours. To find out more about the warehousing options that we have available, give us a call today at 262-780-7296.
