In the early days of E-commerce, it was much more likely that you would have had direct interactions with an online business. Before the advent of shopping carts and online credit card transactions customers would have been advised to call the online business phone number and place their orders over the phone. Packages may have arrived with a hand-written mailer and a note of thanks enclosed. As a customer you may have even been saddled with the task of sending a check and then waiting for the product to arrive once payment had cleared the bank. All in all it used to be quite a laborious task!
As Ecommerce business has expanded, so too have the methods of payment, with most payments moving towards an automated accounting system, but we have also seen the fulfilment of orders move toward a more automated function as well.
This is the typical order of product fulfilment with major online companies today.
1) Product is ordered through an online store using one of the standard shopping carts.
2) Autoresponder is used to confirm the order placement and payment information.
3) Order is added to a fulfilment center database.
4) Autoresponder is used to alert the customer to the successful shipping of the product.
5) Tracking information is provided to allow the customer to follow the delivery of their product.
There may still be room for human error, but this type of product fulfilment considers the needs of the consumer, uses current technology allowing for a more efficient means of follow through with customers.
Defining your shipping and fulfilment policy in your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) section may be a very positive way to help customers know what to expect from your ecommerce store. Check out our blog on How Fulfilment Service works? for more information. It could be that your online store provides customised gifts or services that may benefit from a personal interaction with your clients, but as your business grows, you may discover it is time consuming to keep up with every order personally, at which point a more automated delivery system may be in order like 3pl services.
Customer service is a vital and prized component to any Ecommerce business, so if a customer has to remind you to make a delivery, then it is possible that you will have lost that individual as a customer. If you make a mistake – make it right – make it better than right – and do it quickly. A reputation is hard to gain and easily lost. For example, if you miss a shipping request, it may be wise to send something else FOC with a note explaining that you apologise. This could go a long way towards regaining the customer’s trust and therefore retaining future business rather than losing their custom for good.