12 Actionable Tips to Improve Delivery for Your eCommerce Store

Over the years, we have delivered numerous eCommerce projects to companies in all niche categories. However, one thing we notice with most eCommerce projects we undertake is that companies often need to pay more attention to the significance of the delivery process.

Some companies don’t realize the extensive impact of delivery experience. And those who know the significance of effective delivery have no idea how to optimize it. So, here we discuss how eCommerce stores can improve their eCommerce store delivery in the most effective way possible.

Tips to Improve Delivery for Your eCommerce Store

You can do several things to improve the delivery of your eCommerce business. The top 12 things you should do to streamline eCommerce delivery for your online business.

1. Set Clear and Realistic Delivery Expectations

It is tempting to attract more customers and boost conversions by claiming next-day delivery. However, you must only make such promises if you are optimistic that you can deliver them. You may make a few sales by exaggerating your delivery capability, but a disappointed customer will unlikely return to your eCommerce store. 

The best approach is to be transparent with your delivery capabilities, even if your delivery is slightly slower than the competition. It displays accurate shipping time, tracking information, and other relevant details. However, you must prominently display same-day and next-day delivery options if available on your online business.

2. Provide Flexible Shipping Options

Another critical aspect of ensuring seamless eCommerce product delivery is providing customers with flexible shipping options. Your online store should serve the varying needs and preferences of the customers. 

For instance, you should have optional same-day or next-day shipping options for customers needing the product immediately. Besides that, you also need a standard shipping option for customers willing to wait a couple of days for the product delivery.

3. Partner With a Dependable Shipping Partner

You can have the best online store with advanced eCommerce store capability and fail to run it successfully if you lack a reliable shipping partner. Hence, finding a reliable shipping partner for your business should be a priority for any eCommerce business. 

Choosing a shipping partner based on their reputation is better than going with the lowest bidder. You should also ensure that your shipping provider can provide accurate tracking information and quality customer service.

4. Streamline Shipping Process With the Latest Technology

Many companies need to be more confident implementing the latest technology or software solutions because they worry about how it will impact their existing system. But not using the newest tech could put your online business behind the competition.

An eCommerce expert like Virtina can help you implement the latest tech solutions in your eCommerce store. Our experts can even create custom software solutions to optimize your internal and external processes, including label creation, order returns management, etc.

5. Extend Free Shipping Option 

One of the most effective ways to provide customers with a better delivery (and shopping) experience is by offering free shipping. It is an excellent way to boost customer satisfaction and help you cultivate loyal customers.

Moreover, customers are more willing to pay more for the product than the delivery. Hence, your eCommerce product pricing must always be strategic. For instance, pricing the product slightly or setting a minimum order value for free shipping can offset the money spent for sending free deliveries.

6. Ensure Timely and Effective Communication With Customers

Your eCommerce delivery will only improve if you facilitate timely and effective communication. Timely and accurate communication is critical in devising a successful delivery strategy for your online business. 

You can accomplish this by sending your customers regular updates regarding the order status. It should include all essential data, including tracking information and expected product delivery dates. Besides, the customer should be able to contact your business regarding any order-related concerns.

7. Optimize Your Order Return Process

There are various reasons why an eCommerce customer may choose to return a product they purchased. The customer may have accidentally brought the wrong item, color, or size, or maybe the customer did not like the product. 

Regardless of the reason for the return, it would be best if you facilitated this functionality on your eCommerce store. Let your customers easily access past order details and initiate a return by providing clear instructions. Furthermore, ensure you have a trouble-free return policy that benefits the customer.

8. Optimize Your eCommerce Packaging

Many online businesses need to pay more attention to the significance of packaging and pay a hefty price. Packaging is not just about using pretty boxes with branding all over them. While the aesthetics of the packaging is critical, the more necessary aspect of the package is to protect its content.

You can accomplish this by using the appropriate materials for packaging that can effectively protect the products during long transits. Make sure to wrap fragile items and use void fillers to prevent their movement inside the package. It helps you save money you would otherwise spend on broken products and order returns.

9. Use Inventory Management Software to Streamline Order Processing

The best way to streamline your eCommerce delivery is to use software solutions and simplify your internal and external processes. Integrating inventory management software can significantly order delivery or fulfillment for your eCommerce store.

The experts at Virtina can even build customized inventory management software to meet your unique requirements. We can even facilitate a hybrid dropshipping capability to your eCommerce store so you can let vendors or manufacturers send the product directly to the customer.

10. Regularly Monitor and Assess Your eCommerce Performance

Another critical element in ensuring a successful eCommerce business, including its delivery, is to monitor and assess its performance regularly. You must regularly monitor and analyze key metrics, including delivery time and shipping cost.

The assessment will help you understand the standard time it takes for you to deliver a product to customers. More importantly, it will help you identify areas of improvement and make the necessary changes to provide a better customer experience.

11. Prioritize an Exceptional Customer Support

Two factors are critical to an eCommerce business’s success; we are not talking about the website itself. Convenience and excellent customer support are the two aspects that can make or break your online business. 

Moreover, ensuring seamless customer support for an eCommerce store comes with several challenges. You can even use modern AI chatbots like ChatGPT to serve your customers better 24/7. However, you must still have the human touch to sort out escalations and ensure your customers are happy with your brand.

12. Optimize-assess-optimize and Repeat

One of the challenging things about running an eCommerce store is that it needs continuous optimization. It applies to every aspect of your eCommerce store, from design to delivery. Hence, it would be best to watch out for the latest tech developments in the logistics business.

For instance, eCommerce giants like Amazon now use innovations like drone delivery to their advantage. Similarly, you can optimize your eCommerce delivery capability with innovations like self-service lockers and local pickup options. However, you must ensure that your business model aligns with these trends and effectively meets customer needs.

Importance of Efficient Delivery for eCommerce Stores

For several reasons, ensuring efficient delivery for your eCommerce store is vital for your online business. While customers always love finding a good deal online, they are never willing to wait endlessly for product delivery. 

After all, purchasing online is all about convenience. If you fail to deliver the product to the customer as per your promise, you are essentially inconveniencing the customers. As a result, efficient delivery can impact customer satisfaction and even influence your brand reputation. 

Following are some of the compelling reasons for you to prioritize efficient delivery for your eCommerce store.

• Efficient and timely delivery leads to customer satisfaction
• Faster and more accurate delivery gives you an advantage over your competition
• It enables you to boost repeat business and boost customer retention rates
• Efficient delivery leads to a reduced cart abandonment rate
• It allows you to build a reliable brand image and encourage return customers
• Timely deliveries help you minimize inquiries made to your customer support team

Exploring the Relationship Between Delivery Experience and Customer Loyalty

It is no secret that every eCommerce brand sees a close relationship between delivery experience and customer loyalty. Product delivery (or receiving the product) is the most exciting part of an online purchase for a customer. Hence, the more fast and memorable the delivery experience, the more impact it will have on customer loyalty.

First of all, receiving a product on or before the promised delivery date significantly impacts customer satisfaction. The customer will likely buy from your eCommerce brand again if you deliver the product on time every time. That’s not all. Efficient delivery also tends to have a much more extending impact on customer loyalty, some of which are as follows. 

• Enhance customer satisfaction
• Boost trust and reliability in your eCommerce brand
• Impact brand perception
• Boost repeat purchases
• Increase referrals by word-of-mouth
• Minimize churn and cart abandonment
• Boost positive customer feedback and reviews

Key Challenges of eCommerce Delivery That Businesses Must Address

You will face several challenges when optimizing the delivery for your eCommerce store. While some of these challenges are easy to bypass, others may be more complex. Here are some primary challenges you will likely face with your eCommerce order fulfillment or delivery.

1. Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity is one of the most significant challenges your eCommerce store needs to address regarding eCommerce. Implementing an advanced cybersecurity framework can ensure better data safety for your eCommerce store. The expert team at Virtina can help you with the implementation and prepare your eCommerce store against possible vulnerabilities.

2. Delivery Speed Expectation

eCommerce customers expect faster delivery time, and these expectations only seem to grow. Moreover, leading eCommerce brands like Amazon offer next-day and same-day delivery to their customers. 

As a result, eCommerce customers expect the same delivery speed from every other online store. You must find a way to meet such customer expectations or offer something similar if you have limited resources or are operating from a remote area.

3. Last-mile Delivery

One of the significant challenges with optimizing eCommerce delivery is last-mile delivery. It refers to the last mile in the delivery process or the farthest distance the delivery partner has to go from the distribution center for delivery. 

The delivery partner must navigate various challenges, including traffic blocks, complex logistics, and more, to ensure accurate and timely delivery. Hence, you must optimize your online business for last-mile operations and meet customer expectations.

4. Inventory Management

Managing inventory for an eCommerce store is more challenging than you might think. It requires you to maintain multiple sales channels and manage their inventory level accurately. Besides, you may also face problems related to overselling or out-of-stock situations.

Such situations can often hit when you least expect it. It can ultimately lead to customer dissatisfaction and push them to cancel their orders. Hence, eCommerce businesses must invest in an advanced inventory management system that meets all their unique product management requirements.

5. International Order Fulfillment

Expanding your online business to other countries has many promising advantages for an online business. However, some complexities and challenges also go hand in hand with these advantages. 

It requires understanding relevant customs rules and regulations for specific countries and managing international shipping costs. 

Besides that, you would also need to handle complex cross-border logistics. You can simplify and solve these problems using customized solutions from an expert eCommerce developer like Virtina.

Final Note - Empowering Your eCommerce Store With Delivery Excellence

Delivery is the most vital part of an eCommerce purchase for a consumer. Optimizing the delivery process for your eCommerce store can have a long-lasting impact and even help you cultivate brand-loyal customers. 

However, you must implement advanced eCommerce capabilities, including real-time tracking, to optimize your deliveries. The expert team at Virtina can help you with this using customized software solutions that leverage advanced automation and AI capabilities.

Tips to Improve Delivery for Your eCommerce Store - Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)