Discover how fast, reliable delivery can boost your e-commerce growth. Improve your shipping times and reduce your logistics costs to build customer loyalty and stand out from the competition.
The delivery experience is a key element in e-commerce performance. Today’s consumers expect a fast, reliable delivery experience, worthy of an excellent e-commerce TMS. Delivery has thus become a key competitive factor for companies seeking to stand out in an increasingly competitive market.
As a result, being able to offer fast, reliable delivery can make all the difference when it comes to customer loyalty, having a considerable impact on your growth. That’s why, in this article, we’ll explore the different ways you can improve your shipping and delivery times, while reducing your logistics costs. We’ll see how well-managed logistics can become a real growth driver for your company.
Fast, reliable delivery: a key factor in improving your e-commerce performance
According to one study, it is possible to increase sales by up to 5% by improving the promised speed of delivery by one day, and by up to 15% by improving this promise by three days. What’s more, offering a free delivery option can boost sales by up to 12%.
Background and challenges
In today’s e-commerce market, the post-order phase, and above all the delivery experience, are crucial phases, accentuated since the COVID-19 crisis with the emergence of a large number of buyers. The key issue is customer loyalty. According to a study by IFOP, at least 1 in 4 buyers will not use a site again if the delivery experience is poor.
The challenges are many, and almost 9 out of 10 e-tailers (86%) said they needed to improve oroptimize the e-commerce delivery currently available. There is therefore a real economic stake at stake, as well as unmet customer needs, which necessitate a search for a better delivery experience, for both end-customers and shippers.
These challenges include delivery speeds, where a promise of speed is essential. There’s also the need to provide package tracking and visibility/transparency of the shipping process (from collection to delivery). Competitive pricing is also important, especially with inflation a daily concern. Complaints management is another crucial challenge, and it’s important to reduce their frequency through processes and tools that offer greater visibility. Dedicated customer support is also essential to provide customers with the information they need in no time. Finally, living up to your customers’ expectations and delivering a flawless customer experience is the key to ensuring their loyalty and commitment.
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Amazon Shipping
Amazon Shipping is a solution that enables French e-commerce players to meet today’s shipping and delivery challenges. Launched in June 2022, the service offers fast, reliable delivery management using Amazon’s network and logistics infrastructure, as well as its proven technology. Amazon Shipping is already one of the largest parcel networks in France, with unrivalled experience in optimizing the e-commerce customer experience for both shippers and receivers. Amazon Shipping’s mission is to support French retail and e-commerce players in their growth, by offering an alternative for parcel shipping that will create a more positive customer experience, at the right price.
But how do you ensure fast, reliable delivery?
The consumer’s delivery experience begins as soon as they receive their order in the warehouse: it includes both the preparation stage (carried out by the merchant) and the delivery stage (carried out by the carrier).
It is therefore imperative to :
- Shorten shipping times
- Optimize delivery times
- Reduce logistics costs
Reduce shipping times
The first step to fast, reliable delivery is to reduce shipping times. To achieve this, it is essential to centralize omnichannel orders in real time. This standardizes order management, while taking each source into account. Orders are retrieved in real time, for example at 8:00 am, and immediately transmitted to the warehouse at 8:02 am. Stocks are also updated in real time, enabling efficient order tracking. What’s more, automatic follow-up notifications ensure smooth communication with customers, providing them with reliable, secure data. An omnichannel OMS is therefore the ideal tool for managing this part of the supply chain, especially Shippingbo’s.
Then, to efficiently manage orders from different sales channels and support unlimited growth, it’s advisable to adopt simplified multi-warehouse management, thanks to Shippingbo’s Omnilogistics OMS. This standardizes order management while taking each source into account, ensuring real-time consolidated stock updates across all sales channels, and orchestrating orders across different warehouses. You can also easily deploy in-house or outsourced warehouses, while remaining in control of your logistics strategy. Last but not least, you can easily organize your transport plan with your own contracts or those of your forwarding agents.
Finally, it’s important to optimize order preparation and make it reliable. Shippingbo supports various picking processes, such as PDA picking, burst sorting, Pick and Print, fixed and mobile beehives, BtoB/pallet orders, event orders, etc. Picking sessions can be customized, enabling Amazon Shipping orders, for example, to be grouped together. Intelligent picking sends relevant notifications to the consumer (email or SMS) to guarantee reliable preparation, with a picking control function. Carrier allocation is automated, and multi-carrier labels are printed from a single interface, in the right format, without human intervention.
Finally, it’s essential to manage peaks in activity effectively, to ensure efficient order processing. This can be achieved by providing additional resources in terms of personnel and order processing tools, in order to adapt quickly to an increase in demand.
Optimize delivery times
To meet customers’ growing expectations for fast, reliable delivery, there are several levers you can use to optimize delivery promises and times.
- Use a fast delivery service (D+1 or D+2): by choosing a carrier offering fast, reliable delivery, you can offer your customers a faster, more satisfying delivery experience.
- Get a cut-off and collect late in the day (after 3pm): to increase your chances of meeting your delivery deadlines, it’s important to collect parcels as late in the day as possible. This allows same-day orders to be processed and dispatched quickly.
- Use a service that delivers on Saturdays and Sundays: for orders placed on weekends (Thursday/Friday), using a carrier that delivers on weekends can optimize delivery times by up to 2 days.
- Reduce safety margins with a high-reliability service (>95% minimum): by using a carrier offering high delivery reliability, you can reduce safety margins and ensure that delivery deadlines are met.
- Offer a dedicated promise of fast, reliable delivery by destination: by offering a dedicated promise of delivery by destination, you can offer a more personalized delivery experience tailored to the specific needs of each customer.
As a result, Amazon Shipping is a solution for reducing delivery times and optimizing delivery promises. With its logistics network, Amazon Shipping offers high reliability in line with delivery commitments. The service guarantees up to three home delivery attempts, with rescheduling possible in the event of absence. Delivery times range from 24 to 48 hours, with a delivery promise reliability of over 98%. In addition, Amazon Shipping offers individually defined promise granularity for each package, ranging from D+1 to D+2, etc. Amazon Shipping also delivers 7 days a week, including Sundays and public holidays, all year round. Shipments are collected daily, saving time and optimizing delivery times.
Reduce logistics costs: preparation and delivery
Reducing logistics costs is essential for any company wishing to maximize profits. One way of achieving this is toautomate carrier allocation using transport mapping. This method consists of establishing shipping rules for each order, based on predefined criteria such as weight, package dimensions, delivery address, total order price and order source.
Examples:
| Shipping rules | Application example |
| The weight and/or dimensions of the package/volumetric weight* *volumetric weight from premium pack onwards | I assign carrier 1 for all parcels up to 3 kg |
| Delivery address (zip code, department, city, country) | I assign carrier 4 to deliveries to the Pyrenees, because I know that he has the skills to deliver there, so I won’t be overcharged. |
| Total order price | For larger baskets, I guarantee quality of service. For example, I don’t hesitate to assign carrier 5 to orders over 50 euros. |
| The source of the command | I know that marketplace 1 is very demanding in terms of delivery times so I assign the most efficient carrier to these shipments (example: Amazon Shipping). |
The automation of shipping rules saves time by relieving preparers of a strategic decision, while offering a better quality of service to the consumer. What’s more, transport mapping helps to control transport costs by associating the right transport cost with the right parcel, resulting in substantial savings. Finally, Shippingbo’s “transport mapping” functionality enables you to prioritize preparation sessions according to the carrier cut-off. This means organizing order preparation so as to respect carriers’ pick-up schedules. In fact, each carrier has a cut-off time for collecting parcels and delivering them on time. By knowing these times, it is possible to prioritize order preparation to dispatch them on time and avoid delivery delays.
Shippingbo, the benchmark solution for fast, reliable delivery
In short, logistics management is a key element in the success of an e-commerce business. To guarantee customer satisfaction, it is essential to optimize delivery times and control logistics costs. By using tools such as transport mapping and choosing the right carrier for each shipment, it is possible to streamline the preparation and delivery process while improving the quality of service offered to customers. The use of fast, reliable delivery services, such as Amazon Shipping, can also help improve delivery times and shipment reliability. Ultimately, a strategic approach to logistics can help companies stand out from the competition and grow their business with confidence, while offering a fast and reliable delivery service.
To find out more, watch our webinar on the subject by clicking on the image below!
