In this article, discover the 13 common e-commerce delivery mistakes to avoid, and how to turn them into opportunities to increase your customer satisfaction and boost your growth.
Delivery has become much more than a simple logistical step: it represents the only physical contact between an e-tailer and its customer, playing a central role in the online shopping experience. This importance is underlined by a striking statistic: 66% of customers consider delivery to be the most important factor in their online shopping satisfaction.
Yet, despite this vital importance, many e-tailers focus their efforts on SEO optimization, improving theuser experience (UX), or even payment options, sometimes neglecting the crucial aspect of delivery. As it turns out, shipping issues are among the top four factors in shopping cart abandonment.
The aim of this article is therefore to enlighten e-tailers on common delivery errors, and to suggest solutions for a more efficient and customer-friendly logistics strategy.
Defining marketing strategy and pricing
As an e-retailer, defining an effective marketing strategy and appropriate pricing is crucial to the success of your business. This involves not only understanding your customers’ needs and expectations, but also intelligently managing your delivery offers. Mistakes in this area can have a significant impact on your brand perception and profitability.
Mistake no. 1: Not highlighting the shipping details on your site
In e-commerce, the clarity and accessibility of information on delivery options are paramount. On the home page, carrier visibility is essential. They should be presented in a significant way, perhaps even more than payment card logos. For example, a truck logo accompanied by the offer “Free delivery” is quickly assimilated by the brain, as we process images much faster than text. This instantly helps the consumer to understand that delivery is free for orders over a certain amount, and to identify the reputable carriers available.
Finally, in the shopping cart, clearly present the different delivery options, including a progress bar indicating how much remains to spend to benefit from free delivery. This is a powerful incentive to buy. The difference between online and in-store commerce lies in the fact that the customer doesn’t leave with the product immediately. They have to wait, and often pay for that wait. Making this process transparent and straightforward is a key element in improving the customer experience.
Mistake #2: Not accepting the idea of sponsoring/offering delivery
A crucial aspect of online business is the perception of delivery costs by customers, particularly among the younger generations, for whom paying shipping costs is often a major frustration factor. This doesn’t mean, however, that you should systematically offer free delivery, as this has a real cost for your business. Rather, it’s a matter of striking a balance and understanding at what order value it would make sense to offer free delivery.
As for average transport costs, depending on the sector, home delivery costs between 5 and 7 euros for small orders, and delivery to a relay point around 4 euros. The notable exception is the food sector, where relay delivery is generally offered free of charge due to the substantial savings over home delivery.
Systematically offering free delivery is not a viable option for all e-tailers, but offering free delivery from reasonable thresholds (such as 39 or 49 euros) is a common and sensible practice.
Mistake #3: Offering express delivery for large orders
The express delivery offer is undeniably attractive to many customers, particularly in the current context where speed is often synonymous with quality of service. However, the idea that this offer should be systematically included for large orders deserves some thought. Offering express delivery by default for such orders represents a substantial economic effort for you, the e-tailer. What’s more, the perceived urgency of e-consumers to receive their products quickly is a myth that is gradually losing ground.
This trend suggests that express delivery should not be seen as an absolute must. While it should be part of your service offering to meet specific needs, you may want to reconsider the option of making it systematically free for large orders. Rather than allocating significant resources to this offer, it might be more strategic to use them to propose more economical and ecologically responsible alternatives, such as relay point delivery.
Defining the transport offer
Every transportation decision has a direct impact on the efficiency of your deliveries, the customer experience and, ultimately, your profitability. Let’s take a look at some common mistakes to avoid in order to optimize your transportation strategy.
Error no. 4: Failing to adapt carriers to order types
As an e-tailer, it’s imperative to adapt your choice of carriers to the specific nature of your products and the requirements of your orders. For example, if you sell porcelain, a delicate product, it’s essential to choose a carrier that takes care of packages and is renowned for its delicate handling of goods. Conversely, if you sell larger, sturdier items, such as bathtubs, a standard delivery service like Colissimo may not be suitable.
It is also important to consider the mechanization of carriers’ sorting and delivery processes. A parcel that does not meet standard pick-up conditions may incur additional costs or mechanization surcharges, as it cannot be processed automatically.
Error no. 5: Displaying the names of your carriers at the time of customer payment when you’re doing volume business
When you’re managing a large volume of orders, it can be strategically advantageous not to specifically display the names of your carriers when the customer makes payment. This approach gives you significant flexibility in assigning orders to different carriers according to various criteria such as geographical location, order type, or even order origin. This strategy lets you play with specific carrier assignment rules, optimizing your costs and delivery efficiency.
At Shippingbo, for example, our TMS (Transportation Management System) incorporates a sophisticated algorithm that enables you to establish these carrier mapping rules automatically. This makes the process completely transparent to the consumer, and relieves your warehouse team of the task of manually determining which carrier each order should be assigned to. This automation and discretion in carrier selection not only simplifies your logistics operations, but also ensures a consistent and reliable customer experience.
Error no. 6: Displaying the names of your carriers at the time of customer payment
If you have sufficient order volume to allow you to diversify your transport purchases with different carriers, the “white label” option could be advantageous. This practice, common among the major marketplaces, consists in not specifying the name of the carrier when choosing the delivery method. It offers you greater flexibility and the possibility of negotiating with several carriers to obtain the best rates, without tying your brand image to a specific carrier.
On the other hand, if your order volume is relatively low, it’s preferable to clearly display the name of the carrier when choosing the delivery method. This transparency can boost your customers’ confidence, enabling them to make an informed choice based on their preferences or previous experience with certain carriers. What’s more, it means you don’t have to manage customer expectations regarding specific carriers when you can’t guarantee a variety of choices due to limited order volume.
Error 7: Not knowing the tipping weight
Each carrier has its own price scale, which varies according to parcel weight. However, these rates are not limited to the gross rate; they also include surcharges that differ from one carrier to another. It is therefore crucial to model your choice of carriers, taking into account not only their prime rates, but also the impact of surcharges, in order to determine the most economically advantageous “tipping point”. This tipping point is the point at which, depending on the weight of your parcel, it becomes more profitable to switch from one carrier to another.
Solutions like Shippingbo can make this task much easier. Its interface enables precise control and clear identification of the tipping point between different carriers. This helps you to make informed decisions about the most suitable and cost-effective carrier for each shipment, based on the actual costs you incur. By integrating this information into your logistics strategy, you avoid unnecessary cost overruns and optimize your delivery expenses.
Error no. 8: Ignoring billing by weight and volume
A common and costly error in managing e-commerce shipments is overlooking the importance of volumetric weight in invoicing. This notion is based on the fact that many carriers invoice according to package volume, not just actual weight. It’s important to understand that volumetric weight can account for a significant proportion – sometimes 30 to 50% – of the transport budget, especially for products such as clothing, cosmetics or high-tech products.
This ignorance of volumetric weight can have a major impact on your budget. Mastering this dimension will not only help you avoid unpleasant surprises, but also identify important cost-saving levers. As an online retailer, it’s essential to familiarize yourself with these billing practices to optimize your delivery costs and maintain your competitiveness.
Order execution
In the demanding field of e-commerce logistics, efficient order fulfillment is crucial. However, some common mistakes can compromise the smooth running of this process, impacting on delivery and customer satisfaction.
Mistake 9: Failing to prioritize order picking according to the cut-off point
If you work with several carriers, it’s essential to note that they won’t all collect parcels at the same time. Express carriers such as Chronopost and DHL, who provide fast deliveries (next-day delivery, H+1), will tend to come earlier to collect parcels from your warehouses.
The cut-off time, or the deadline by which the carrier collects orders, must therefore influence the order in which orders are prepared. Orders taken on by these express carriers must be prioritized to ensure that parcels are ready before they arrive. On the other hand, orders destined for carriers who come later in the day can be prepared at a later date.
This organization allows you to manage a later cut-off, which is often a competitive advantage. Most merchants offer, on average, same-day order-taking for shipment by noon. This means that if a customer places an order before noon, it will be dispatched the same day, even if delivery depends on the delivery method chosen.
Error n°10: Underestimating the importance of transferring responsibility to the carrier (in the event of a dispute)
When you entrust a parcel to a carrier, a transfer of responsibility takes place. Although you retain ownership of the goods, the carrier becomes responsible for the physical integrity of the package. This covers loss, breakage and similar incidents.
It is therefore essential to formalize this transfer of responsibility. This can be achieved by asking the driver to scan all parcels one by one during collection, or by handing over a delivery slip and having the driver sign for acceptance. What’s more, parcels can get lost or damaged within the carrier’s network, especially given that a parcel is handled several times and may pass through different distribution centers. In this context, it may be a good idea to take out parcel insurance.
Performance and cost monitoring
It’s vital to maintain a balance between the quality of the service you offer and controlling the associated costs. In this section, we’ll look at some common mistakes in managing your logistics partners and assessing transport costs.
Mistake #11: Not challenging your carriers on quality
To effectively challenge your carriers, focus on concrete aspects such as the number of late deliveries, the volume of delivery-related customer complaints, or incidents such as breakages. This data will provide you with a real, objective perspective on the performance of your logistics partners. It’s also a good idea to actively gather feedback from your customers about their delivery experiences. This information is crucial for assessing the quality of the delivery service and identifying areas for improvement.
Mistake #12: Not challenging your carriers on costs
In the current context, where carrier price increases have been a palpable reality between 2021 and 2023, it is crucial for e-tailers to reconsider their negotiation strategies with their transport service providers. These increases, although justified by inflation and network saturation due to the explosion in e-commerce volumes, have led to a high price level for the majority of e-tailers in France.
However, the situation is changing. Today, carriers, seeking not to lose their customers, are in a more conciliatory position. At the end of 2023, there is a real opportunity for e-tailers to renegotiate their rates, not only to cancel the increases scheduled for 2024, but also to obtain significant reductions.
In addition to traditional price negotiations, exploring alternatives such as relay point delivery offers can also prove fruitful. When well negotiated, these offers can be particularly attractive and effective, both in France and in Europe, offering additional leverage for rapid savings, even when dealing with existing carriers.
Error no. 13: Not taking all supplements into account when calculating rates
One of the most common pitfalls in managing e-commerce shipments is overlooking surcharges when calculating freight rates. These additional charges, which can include fuel costs, various fees, or surcharges for specific deliveries, can account for a significant proportion of your transport expenses, sometimes as much as 30-40%.
Choosing a carrier based solely on its base rate can be misleading. For example, an apparently cheaper carrier may end up costing more if its surcharges are higher. What’s more, the comparison becomes complex with variables such as volumetric weight, used by some carriers but not others. Without a thorough analysis of these elements, you run the risk of missing out on potential savings or ending up with unforeseen costs.
Towards an optimized delivery strategy
Success in the competitive e-commerce sector requires careful attention to many aspects, and delivery logistics is an integral part of this. As we’ve seen, there are several common mistakes that can undermine the effectiveness of your delivery strategy, negatively impact the customer experience, and affect your profitability.
By avoiding these thirteen mistakes, you can not only optimize your delivery process, but also strengthen customer loyalty and improve your brand image. Remember, every detail counts: from the way you present delivery options on your site, to the way you manage your partnerships with carriers, to the careful management of delivery costs.
Solutions like Shippingbo can be invaluable allies, giving you the tools you need to move forward effectively in the complex world of e-commerce logistics. With a strategic approach and an in-depth understanding of delivery issues, you can turn what was once a challenge into a real competitive advantage for your business.
