As an e-tailer, a solid logistics strategy is more than essential. From order preparation to delivery, get inspired by best practices to improve your processes and communicate effectively with your customers for maximum satisfaction.
2022 marked a peak for e-commerce with sales of 146.9 billion euros. However, this growth has exacerbated competition and raised new challenges, such as inflation and rising energy costs.
If you want to stand out from the competition, you need to meet customer expectations as effectively as possible. With this in mind, we have conducted a survey of 300 e-tailers to offer you a glimpse of the 2023 e-commerce landscape and help you refine your strategy.
In this article, we’ll explore 4 of the best logistics practices being implemented by e-tailers for 2023, which you can use as inspiration to maximize your own online business.
Turning to a hybrid logistics strategy
A hybrid logistics strategy combines the advantages of internalization and outsourcing to optimize the supply chain. This approach makes it possible to manage flows from various internal or external storage points (logistics provider, fulfillment platform, etc.). To implement this approach, certain steps need to be taken.
We need to identify which aspects of the logistics strategy should be internalized, based on in-house capabilities and know-how, and which segments can be advantageously outsourced.
Establishing partnerships with reliable external logistics providers is essential. These partners can complement the company’s in-house capabilities, offer specialized services or help penetrate new markets without major infrastructure investment.
According to our study, only 11% of e-tailers have opted for hybrid logistics management. Yet there are many advantages to it, not least the agility it brings. By combining internal and external resources, the company can react more quickly to variations in demand, supply chain disruptions and market opportunities.
But a hybrid logistics strategy also implies good organization, which raises a number of questions. How do you manage the flow of orders to different storage points? How to ensure that stock is available at a partner’s warehouse? How can real-time stock information be passed on to all sales channels?
Optimize preparation in line with your logistics strategy
Optimizing order picking is a multi-faceted process that requires careful planning and the use of appropriate technologies, especially during Peak Season. For efficient picking, you can adopt the following practices:
- the use of technology enabling more efficient warehouse management, such as WMS
- automation such as picking and moving robots, PDA picking tools or automated sorting systems can considerably speed up the preparation process and reduce errors
- automatic stock updating also helps avoid preparation errors
- integrating true reverse logistics into your strategy to ensure that returned items are quickly reintegrated into your inventory.
However, the key to effective preparation lies in an efficient, proactive team of preparers. But what are the strategies for this? How many preparers should be hired? How can they reach their peak efficiency?
Multiply the delivery options in your logistics strategy
Multiplying delivery options is an essential logistics strategy for any e-tailer aiming to offer a superior customer experience. Our survey reveals that, on average, e-tailers offer their customers more than 3 types of delivery.
In addition to the multiplication of delivery methods, customers are looking for flexible deliveries: to their home, to their workplace, to their favorite store… A multi-carrier strategy, i.e. working with several carriers, is a key logistics strategy for diversifying delivery options. Each carrier has its own advantages in terms of speed, reliability, geographical coverage, delivery mode…
What’s more, customer expectations are not only evolving, but also highly varied, as not everyone has the same needs. Whether in terms of price, place of delivery, date and time of receipt… Offering a wide choice of delivery options is an excellent way of boosting customer satisfaction, but it also raises new questions. How many delivery methods, and therefore carriers, should you choose? How can you reduce transport costs when you have multiple transport contracts? How can you access the delivery information of each of your transport partners?
Customer communication at the heart of its logistics strategy
Effective communication with customers is key to the success of any business, especially in e-commerce where face-to-face interaction is absent. To establish a relationship of trust with your customers and boost their loyalty, there are a number of strategies to consider.
Adopt proactive communication, providing your customers with information before they even ask for it. This starts with effective communication on your sales channels, particularly about delivery, estimated lead times and returns.
Secondly, your customers’ need for communication arises during the life of their order, from processing to receipt. This means notifying your customers. Notifications can be sent by various means, such as SMS order tracking, or via e-mail, or even via instant messaging applications.
In addition to notification, your customers need to be able to turn to accessible, responsive customer support for their questions. Responsive, easy-to-reach customer service is essential for answering questions and solving customer problems. However, beware: if you rely solely on your after-sales service, you run the risk of seeing it swamped with questions, becoming much less efficient and, in time, leading to growing customer dissatisfaction.
So you need to ensure good communication throughout the life of the order, but also upstream and downstream: how do you do this? How can communication processes be automated? Which communication channel to choose? How can you prevent your after-sales service from being overwhelmed?
Improve your logistics strategy with Shippingbo
In conclusion, in the face of increasing competition and ever-higher customer expectations, logistics strategies are becoming the cornerstone of e-commerce success. Regardless of the logistics model you choose, you need to ensure the efficiency of both your preparations and your deliveries.
Finally, by focusing onimproving your logistics strategy and concentrating on the customer experience, you can not only sustain your e-commerce business, but also see it flourish. But all these strategies raise their own set of questions, which is why we interviewed over 300 French e-tailers to find out about their best practices!
Discover ALL the results of the study by downloading it below!
