Los procesos de cumplimiento desempeñan un papel fundamental en la experiencia general del cliente.
Anyone in the e-commerce business knows that order fulfillment can be a daunting task. After all, it involves all the processes that a placed order goes through before it arrives on your customers’ doorsteps. Plus, it’s a huge factor that affects the overall customer experience.
Receiving, packing, shipping, and delivery—these all make up the e-commerce fulfillment process. And because there are so many steps, there are sure to be roadblocks along the way.
According to an article from Forbes, fulfillment is at the ‘epicenter’ of e-commerce enablement. And with e-commerce sales in the U.S alone projected to reach $1 trillion this 2022, a business without a good fulfillment system will not get a slice of this pie.
If fulfillment fails, your business fails. It’s such a crucial part of the entire customer experience so it’s a must to invest time and resources into ensuring that your fulfillment process is seamless.
Without a high-quality e-commerce fulfillment process, you risk losing your customers. In fact, this study shows that 69% of shoppers will shop somewhere else in the future if their order was not delivered within two days of the promised date.
The best thing to do is to know how to avoid these pitfalls so your e-commerce fulfillment process has room for success. Here’s a list of the top 5 fulfillment pitfalls that e-commerce brands usually face—and how you can potentially avoid, or solve them if needed.
Did you know 75% of today’s customers actually expect free shipping for online purchases?
We have huge e-commerce conglomerates like Amazon and Walmart to thank for this mindset. Of course, they can afford it.
But small and medium-sized e-commerce brands that are just starting out can’t afford to offer free shipping to everyone.
So what happens when potential customers expect free shipping and find out that they have to pay? There can be two scenarios:
In both scenarios, the lack of free shipping is acting as an obstacle for e-commerce brands to complete the fulfillment process. So how should this be handled?
Here are some possible solutions:
When Baloo Living received media attention, the store experienced a huge spike in sales, leaving the owner scrambling to fulfill all orders.
Aside from media attention, other causes of inventory problems include unreliable suppliers or delivery delays. The truth is, it’s normal for e-commerce stores to experience inventory problems.
Of course, you want to sell. But when you sell more products than anticipated, that can actually be a problem. This can create problems like out-of-stock products or low inventory levels—forcing your excited customers to wait.
While new stocks will be available eventually, this waiting period can cost you the sale. Most customers would not be willing to wait. Aside from the possibility of canceling their order, this may lead them to have a bad customer experience.
What should you do?
The probability of selling to an existing customer is higher than acquiring a new one. It’s also more cost-efficient to focus on retention strategies. However, companies could actually be losing around $62 billion annually because of poor customer service.
Here are more illustrations of how poor customer service can be your pitfall:
Today, a lot of e-commerce stores target the same audience groups—and it’s customer service that will set you apart. That’s because online shoppers want answers, and they want them yesterday.
It can be challenging to provide the same customer experience that shoppers would get in a physical store, but you can still be pretty close. Try out these best practices:
If you’re getting way more support tickets or inquiries than you or your team can handle, you may want to consider outsourcing your customer support entirely. This will allow you to focus on your business growth without having to worry about the avalanche of support requests every day.
Additionally, 75% of customers prefer human interactions compared to automation. In fact, 56% of consumers said that the most frustrating part of customer service experience is the automated telephone systems that make it difficult to reach a live agent.
With a dedicated support team operating 24/7 in place, you also won’t have to worry about manpower and training. Instead, you can catch up with the team every now and then for reports, recommendations, and alignment.
At this point, most e-commerce businesses and digital marketers already know that personalization is key to success.
After all, the numbers speak for themselves:
However, there can be too much of something. At some point, customers can be annoyed by the overwhelming amount of targeted ads they come across.
That being said, personalization is now more than just a battle of targeted ads. It’s more about forming 1:1 relationships with your customers—no matter which stage of the funnel they’re at.
Here are some ways to start:
As your business continues to grow, it’s all the more important to ensure that each stage of the customer journey flows smoothly.
Si bien la personalización es clave, existen herramientas que pueden ayudar a las marcas de comercio electrónico a obtener datos detallados de los clientes para poder ejecutar transacciones más rápidas, campañas hiperpersonalizadas y procesos de cumplimiento sin problemas.
Combine esto con un servicio de atención al cliente de primera clase y estará en el camino correcto hacia un éxito seguro. Al final, lo que lo diferenciará de sus competidores es la forma en que ofrece una experiencia de cliente increíble. No dudes en ponerte en contacto con LTV Plus si tiene alguna pregunta al respecto.
Mientras tanto, no olvides equipa tu tienda Shopify con las últimas herramientas eso solo ayudará a aumentar el crecimiento general de tu tienda en más de una área.