Growing sales are an essential ingredient for business success but it is not the only critical element. What happens after a sale is made is equally important. If you fail to deliver your product to your customers’ expectations then faster sales will simply accelerate the number of problems that you encounter with fulfillment.
The Importance of Effective Communication
One of the most important elements of an ecommerce fulfillment service is effective communication. Your customer needs to know how long an order will take to deliver, how it will be delivered and when they can expect to receive it. These fulfillment details should be clearly detailed on your website with your shipping policies.
Using Online Order Tracking
Part of a successful strategy for product fulfillment is online order tracking. After your customer has purchased a product and completed their order they will want to know how soon they can expect their new purchase to arrive. For businesses that are doing a lot of sales this can result in an overwhelming influx of phone calls and email inquiries. To handle this volume of calls you may even need to hire additional staff. One way to overcome this problem is to providing individual tracking numbers for each order. Then on your website have a place where your customers can track their orders and see how their order is progressing. By providing online tracking you can significantly reduce the amount you need to spend on inbound customer service calls while at the same time improving overall customer satisfaction.
Competitive Advantages of Fast Delivery Times
Your customer should know before they complete their order how long it will take before they receive it. Fast delivery times can greatly help provoke your customer into taking action. An excellent example of this is Amazon with its same day shipping. This appeals to a consumers needs for instant gratification. If you do not have the resources to provide rapid shipping you may want to consider using an order fulfillment service. Because of their relationship with shippers and in many cases and multiple warehouse locations they can often offer faster shipping times than your company would normally be able to provide.
Whether To Offer Free Shipping
Another serious issue facing fulfillment is shipping. There is a serious question whether you should offer free shipping or not. Many companies choose to offer free shipping because it can offer them a competitive advantage over other businesses in their industry. If your profit margins can support free shipping is can be a powerful marketing tool. However it is crucial to understand exactly how free shipping will affect your company’s profitability before you choose to offer it.
Conclusion
Most entrepreneurs are natural sales people. This is a fantastic trait to have for an online start-up because getting sales is essential for growth. However this propensity for sales can also be something of an Achilles heel. Product Fulfillment is often neglected in entrepreneurial businesses which can lead to poor customer satisfaction and even up destroying an otherwise successful business. Make sure that you don’t neglect this vital piece of the online ecommerce puzzle by contacting a reliable company like Allpack Fulfillment.
