Delivery delays and shipping setbacks: how retailers can build resilience
shared from internetretailing.net
As the cost of living continues to rise, consumers are becoming increasingly frugal. To combat this, retailers have been busy focusing their efforts on cutting costs. However, they now face another challenge – carrier disruption.
While arguably it’s consumers who are directly impacted by postal disturbances, in the long-term, the biggest impact is on retailer’s profit. Customer frustration can be detrimental to merchants, leading to a rise in the demand of costly returns, a drop in retention and loss of loyalty.
In light of the news that even more strikes may affect Royal Mail services around key upcoming retail dates including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, retailers must put methods in place to ensure as little chaos is caused as possible. Broadening shipping partnerships, promoting hybrid shopping, offering real-time customer alerts and adjusting return policies can help brands remain resilient.
Hybrid shopping: the best of both worlds
In May 2020, the demand for Click and collect, also known as ‘buy online pickup in store’ (BOPIS), increased by more than a whopping 554% – likely due to Covid-19 restrictions. Despite all restrictions now being lifted, this shopping method remains popular, with more than a third of consumers (36%) regularly buying products online and picking them up at a store.
Why? Click and collect is fast, convenient and reliable, eliminating the risk of missed deliveries. What’s more, for retailer’s, hybrid shopping is far more cost-effective method than shipping products plus, it drives both online and foot traffic. A win-win.
If more shoppers depend on click and collect orders, retailers can cut back on their shipping dependence and limit the impact of any carrier disruptions. Some ways retailers can encourage hybrid shopping during periods of carrier disruption include offering personalised deals and discounts, unique perks via loyalty programmes, or cutting fulfilment time to hours rather than days.
However, as in-store traffic rises, it’s vital to take an omnichannel approach to customer insights by understanding how the digital experience (DX) translates in the brick-and-mortar shop. Just examining online customer journey metrics can be deceiving. While they may look strong, that doesn’t necessarily mean the in-store experience is up to scratch. For example, if shoppers are forced to face long click-and-collect queues once arriving at the store, they’re unlikely to use the service again, even if their DX was shopping experience is smooth from beginning to end, online and in-store.
