The better the shopping and delivery experience on an e-commerce site, the more likely it is that customers will buy from that store again. All thanks to relevant and appropriate information at the end of the purchasing tunnel.
Keeping customers informed at the right time: a key challenge.
The relationship of trust prevails in e-commerce: the buyer chooses a product, gives his or her personal details (first and last name, postal and billing address…), communicates a means of payment (Paypal account, credit card number…) – in short, he or she is in control. But once the order has been paid for, he loses that control and awaits delivery.
Customers need to be reassured in the same way throughout their user experience with the online store. They want to know what stage of delivery their order is at, how long it will take to receive their parcel, where they are at any given moment… If these questions are not answered quickly, they can lead to anxiety, and even mistrust of the e-tailer. The concept of reassurance is based on the e-tailer’s ability to reassure its customers, to reduce their doubts about its ability to deliver the product in good condition and on time.
A number of criteria may make it necessary to implement a reassurance approach:
- Product value. A smartphone, a laptop, a piece of jewelry… No (or few) worries when you leave the store with it, but when it comes to delivery… Will the product arrive in good condition? Is there no risk of theft?
- The expiration date of the product. Cheese, meat, fruit and vegetables… Since these products are perishable, how can you be sure that they will arrive well before the best-before date? Will the cold chain be respected?
- The size of the order. A piece of furniture, a bicycle… they all take up space. The carrier has to deliver the package without damaging it.
- Urgency. Products advertised for delivery within 24 hours must actually be delivered in less than 24 hours.
- Affect. Much more subjective than the other criteria. A product may have a particular importance for the customer, independent of its price. For example, a customer may want to receive a piece of clothing as soon as possible.
Reassurance begins on site…
To reassure the consumer, precise and explicit information must be provided on the site before the order is finalized. In particular, this means enriching a page with the following information:
- the way products are packaged: bubble wrap, secure and/or neutral boxes, polystyrene chips, air cushions… This type of protection, which reassures the consumer, is worth mentioning.
- Detailed shipping stages: How long will it take the e-commerce site to process the order? How many hours or days to prepare it? To dispatch it? At what price? This information must be entered at the start of the order tunnel.
- points of contact that will enable customers to find out the status of their order: the customer service telephone number, e-mail, a specific website, etc., while doing everything possible to ensure that customers never have to use them!
… and continues from order to possession.
Even if there are no hard and fast rules, and communication with customers must be adapted to each individual e-tailer, we can nevertheless identify situations in which communication is useful, or even essential.
1/ Order dispatch. This information, sent by e-mail, should include the list of products ordered, the delivery terms and date, and a link to the order details in the online store’s customer area. Clicking on the latter will ideally display the order preparation and delivery status.
2/ Delivery pending. If this is chosen, in the case of delivery to a collection point, or if the recipient is absent when the parcel is first presented at home, and the parcel is diverted to a collection point. In this case, it is essential to send the customer the most complete information possible, specifying, for example, which collection point the order is waiting for him at, what its opening hours are… Even if the carrier has already provided some of this information.