If ecommerce companies can find the right mechanisms to cut costs, maintain efficiency, and keep customers happy even during high-stress seasons, they will see an increase in revenue
Keeping customers happy is about more than optimising the supply chain and maximising fulfilment. It’s about predicting customer needs and ensuring they remain informed
Businesses can maximise their profits during the holidays if and only if they prepare for certain major stressors
Customers at home prepare for the festive season by scrolling through ecommerce websites while collecting holiday bonuses. Businesses prep for it a little differently. Any good ecommerce business knows to brace itself for the onslaught of festive orders. A truly successful ecommerce business, on the other hand, learns to ride that tsunami straight to sky-high profits.
Granted, it’s not an easy process and it requires an in-depth knowledge of consumer behaviour as well as logistics solutions. However, if you can find the right mechanisms to cut costs, maintain efficiency, and keep customers happy even during high-stress seasons, you will see an increase in revenue.
Here are some insights into these mechanisms, as well as some unique tips and tricks to help you deal with the festive season.
What The Festive Season Brings
Festive season expectations can change depending on the exact week and the part of the world you are in. However, any business operating at the time, whether selling lamps or paper turkeys, is dealing with a completely different set of expectations. Businesses can maximise their profits during the holidays if and only if they prepare for the following major stressors.
High Order Volumes
The number one thing every online selling business can expect during the holiday season is a surge in order volumes. This can be due to a variety of factors, including increased gift-giving (offset by varying preferences), a larger population to serve, as people tend to travel to or with family during this time, and increased spending, as holiday bonuses are commonplace.
A surge in order volumes doesn’t necessarily mean a surge in fulfilment. That is dependent on how well you manage this sudden (but predictable) overflow in order volumes.
High Customer Expectations
For customers, holidays like Diwali and Christmas are all about frivolity and fun, not saving money. The unfortunate downside of these seasonal spendthrift habits is that the expectations of customers rise dramatically during this time frame. Even if you offer products at a discount, customers will still spend more than their average purchasing budget.
With customers upping their spending, their demands follow suit. This means delivery delays, failed deliveries, and incorrect deliveries could be treated with hostility. A bad holiday shopping experience may affect your customer retention in the long run.
High Costs
Once you’re aware of the high order volumes and customer expectations, all that’s left to do is calculate the costs. Those costs will appear to be extravagant. You’ll need to anticipate customer desires and prepare specialised packaging options, faster delivery times, and round-the-clock customer service.
You’ll find that the most effective way to manage these costs is to invest in logistics technology that improves the shopping experience and maximises fulfilment. This will cut down your overall losses immensely.
Best Shipping Practices For the Holidays
When dealing with a surge in holiday orders, the best shipping practice to investigate is the use of tech services. A wide range of innovative solutions has had an impact on all aspects of ecommerce logistics, from sourcing your supply to ensuring timely and successful delivery. These are some of the most important functions of your supply chain that technology helps to optimise.
Storage Space
Before the arrival of the festive season, you may find it more effective to collect your stock in advance. However, without efficiently managed storage space, you could find yourself facing more losses. This is where Warehouse Management Services (WMS) can help you. These enable you to track where all your stock is and how it’s being distributed.
Inventory Management
Once your stock is properly stored, you still need to keep an eye on individual units, or at least types of units. Enter the Inventory Management System (IMS) which, as you can guess, tracks how your inventory has been stored and delivered. The most effective use of an IMS is in stock forecasting, which lets you know when a product is out-of-stock before a customer places an order for an unavailable item.
Packaging & Shipping
From the moment an order is placed, customers become acutely aware of every second passing until its arrival. This means the process of “manifestation” becomes extremely important during the holidays. A good multicarrier integration system can automate this process of allocating a carrier, creating the order, and prepping it for shipping.
Returns & Returns Visibility
You can expect slightly higher returns during the holiday season. A returns management system can help you create an easy self-service portal for customers to place return requests and track returns. Advanced software will automatically filter approved and rejected return requests based on your return policy. This same system can help ensure that returned orders arrive safely and that customers receive their refunds as soon as possible.
How To Meet Customer’s Holiday Expectations
Keeping customers happy is about more than optimising your supply chain and maximising fulfilment. It’s about predicting customer needs and ensuring they remain informed. At the end of the day, all customers want is to be treated respectfully and know that their money is being well-spent. These are a few small practices that ecommerce brands can use to meet customer expectations:
Display EDD Of Orders Regularly
Nothing is more important to customers during the holidays than knowing when their orders will arrive. Delivery a day later makes the whole thing moot. That’s why Estimated Delivery Dates (EDD) are so vital. They must be calculated precisely using advanced algorithms and displayed both before and after purchase.
Send Real-Time Tracking Updates
Customers who check the status of their orders do not want to know where it was yesterday or even three hours ago. They want to know where it is right now. And if you can tell your customers that, it could be the difference between you and your competitors. API integrations can be used to accelerate the receipt of delivery notifications from carriers, and push notifications to ensure that your customers are kept up to date at all times.
Personalise Communications
Few customers believe they alone are special to your business. However, imbibing them with that feeling each time you send a communique their way can make a huge difference. Everything from order confirmations to tracking updates should be personalised to increase their appeal. Today’s customers appreciate the effort and the aesthetic value, particularly during festive times when gift-giving is the norm.
Final Tip: Enjoy the Festive Season Yourself!
If you plan ahead and set up your operational systems in advance to deal with the holiday boom, you’ll be able to sit back, relax, and let your business do the work for you.
