The fulfillment process will make or break your online business. This process involves all of the following key steps:
Receiving orders from customers
Processing and preparing the orders for delivery
Shipping and delivering the orders to your customers
Optimal fulfillment means you’re easily getting from point A to point C with minimal stress for your customers. They’re not constantly nagging you for order updates, leading to an incredible customer experience. HubSpot explains that a positive customer experience promotes loyalty, retains customers and encourages customers to advocate for your brand.
In other words, if you can improve your fulfillment process, you’ll get more sales from your online store and can drive business growth! With that in mind, let’s look at the best ways to improve this process from to to bottom.
Optimize Customer Ordering
Your business website should make it as easy as possible for customers to place orders. Three key implementations will improve the ordering experience for them:
Making your site work on mobile devices
Offering one-click ordering options
Providing multiple payment methods
This means that no matter what device they’re using or how they want to pay, your customers can swiftly and effortlessly place an order. One-click orders work when customers create accounts on your site and encourage loyalty, but the multiple payment methods is arguably the best idea.
Use PayPal, Apple Pay or Shop buttons on your website so customers can click them and use pre-loaded details to execute an order immediately. It means they’re not filling in loads of forms and can get it done a lot faster.
Work With Experienced Fulfillment Companies
The trickiest part of fulfillment is going from an order to delivering the products. You need to have a warehouse full of goods, automated ordering systems that process every order, picking systems that help you find where the orders are located, and so on.
There’s a lot to manage and almost too much to do alone. This is why the most successful online stores use fulfillment services to streamline the process. Partner with a company that handles everything after an order is placed, ensuring your products are shipped as quickly and efficiently as possible.
Moreover, these companies use the latest technology to allow customers to track orders and stay updated. They get loads of information, which keeps them happy!
Offer Easy Returns
You may think that the fulfillment process ends when a customer receives their order. However, you can improve your fulfillment with an easy returns policy. Work with your fulfillment provider to allow customers to send back any items they don’t like or that don’t fit.
Almost 66% of shoppers are much more likely to buy from your online store if it offers free and easy returns. They see your business as low-risk, which encourages them to buy multiple products and send back what they don’t need. Make your returns process as simplified as possible and you’ll see many more happy customers flooding through your digital doors.
Online stores are wildly competitive, but targeting the fulfillment process helps you move a step ahead of the competition. Streamline it as much as you can, boosting customer satisfaction rates, and growing your small business.
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