September 29, 2014
In our last post, we discussed how your ecommerce shipping strategy can help you gain more customers.
Once you have more customers, you should think about capitalizing on per-customer sales. Let’s take a look at some ways to facilitate this goal.
Earning more money per customer
To do this, it is helpful to first understand what deters customers from buying. By identifying pain points, you can offer ways to avoid these obstacles while building sales boosters into the solutions.
For example, let’s look at something customers hate universally: high shipping fees. The perception of high delivery fees is a significant barrier in getting customers to complete purchases – they are also primary reason buyers shop around in search of vendors offering shipping deals.
One good solution for helping buyers avoid shipping fees while simultaneously increasing your profit is to offer free ecommerce shipping at a certain sales thresholds – essentially a free shipping reward for customers who purchase more. According to comScore, three out of four shoppers add items to their carts in order to qualify for free shipping. By offering free shipping and implementing the requirement that customers buy more to save more on shipping, you’ll see your per-customer sales increase. And remember, you can afford to absorb the shipping costs yourself since you will save money by optimizing your shipping and logistics strategy.
Speaking of affordable shipping costs, another way fulfillment providers can help is by giving you the keys to shipping options – and price breaks – from different carriers ranging from private companies like FedEx and UPS to public entities like the United States Postal Service. More carrier options translate into more service-level options with regard to both time and money, allowing you to cater to your customers’ shipping requirements. Fulfillment providers are always able to negotiate better rates with carriers than you’d find standing in line at the post office.
In summary, the trick to increasing per-customer sales is to reduce your own shipping expenses by roping in a shipping partner to increase your per-sale margins. From there, pass your savings on to customers by tinkering with shipping promotions, which will drive up your order volumes and profits per sale.
The next part of the series explains includes a case study that explains how outsourced shipping equates to added time and business opportunities. We’ve also combined the entire series into a handy guide, which you can download for free.