Retail Edge: Stay Ahead, Embrace Estimated Delivery Dates

To reduce the uncertainty of delivery & compete effectively in the eCommerce world, retailers are increasingly expected to offer transparency in delivery dates.     

More often, companies provide standard shipping times; but they're not very helpful in figuring out when the item will be delivered. It’s difficult for shoppers to go ahead with the purchase decision seeing the standardized “5 to 7 business days” blurb. It’s one of the most complicated pieces of the puzzle for an average consumer to factor in various variables like weekends, holidays, cut-off times, etc., and - manually calculate an accurate delivery date estimate of his/her order.

Consumer delivery expectations for eCommerce are constantly shifting and becoming more demanding by the day. Your customers deserve better; they deserve a great online shopping experience at every step of their purchase journey.  

Set clear expectations with a delivery promise 

While free and fast shipping options are still table stakes, date-certain delivery is certainly gaining more prominence. ECommerce behemoths like Amazon initially invested in a delivery promise, which saw a demonstrative increase in cart conversion rate. With consumer expectations hitting an all-time high in recent times, shoppers are increasingly keen on buying from retailers who make delivery promises they can keep. 

Did you know that 83% of shoppers expect a guaranteed delivery date and yet just 40% of retailers show them on their online stores? Most eCommerce retailers deliver faster than the standard shipping speed range that they advertise. For instance, retailers can deliver orders within just 2 days, even with cheaper ground shipping methods, to customers who are geographically closer to their fulfillment centers. However, by not offering a delivery promise, they miss a major opportunity to merchandise that speed.

Having said that, it’s no easy task to arrive at an accurate EDD and make a guaranteed delivery promise; there are a lot of behind-the-scenes actions that take place in real-time to make a delivery promise and ensure that orders are delivered in time. Nevertheless, choosing the right eCommerce delivery platform like FenixCommerce would enable retailers to easily provide EDDs by applying artificial intelligence to more than 30 different variables across the 5 crucial data feeds (real-time info of product, inventory, customer, operations & carrier). All this would be done in real-time to display accurate EDDs on all the relevant pages.

How Estimated Delivery Dates can help grow your business

Let’s see how providing and meeting estimated delivery dates are key for eCommerce businesses to survive and thrive.

Improve conversions by providing accurate delivery estimates upfront - 

“Order within 1 hr 10 mins, get it by Sep 23 ”

This message with a simple yet effective brain technique creates a sense of urgency among shoppers and demonstrates its ability to improve conversion rates. By communicating EDDs upfront right from the product page, through cart and checkout pages, retailers can gain the trust of customers and improve conversions significantly.  

• Increase ROI with delivery dates in marketing emails - Delivery dates are a deciding factor for most customers when ordering online. Improve your lead generation rate by displaying EDDs for multiple delivery methods in the marketing emails - making it easy for shoppers to visualize how soon they can get their orders. This helps in driving traffic to your website and improves your marketing ROI.

• Reduce cart abandonment with EDDs in cart abandonment emails - As per a study commissioned by UPS, over 24% of online shoppers indicated that they have abandoned their shopping cart because an estimated delivery date was not provided. Recover your lost revenue by creating effective abandoned cart emails using accurate delivery estimates.

• Alleviate delivery anxiety with post-purchase delivery update notifications - A great post-purchase experience drives customer retention and builds brand loyalty. Reduce the delivery anxiety of your customers and offer a superior post-purchase experience by proactively sending post-purchase delivery notifications about their order status and updating them about any changes in delivery dates. 

Deliver on your promises and stay ahead of the curve

In the age of increasing eCommerce volumes and rising consumer expectations, delivery promises impact buying decisions and brand loyalty. FenixCommerce empowers you to stay ahead of the curve by setting realistic and deliverable expectations for your customers, time and again. 

Request a demo to learn how FenixCommerce enables you to increase your conversion rate by up to 19% and bring down ‘WISMO’ calls by up to 75%. Integrate your Shopify store with FenixCommerce to have fewer customer support calls, higher sales, and happier customers.

Do check out our Fenix intelligent delivery app on the Shopify app store