Consumer Experience a Growing Key to E-commerce Success

Consumers continue to adapt and adopt new behaviors around online shopping, but what never seems to change is their desire for cost savings. A new e-commerce consumer study from Ryder found that while free shipping and returns continue to reign supreme, there are still plenty of opportunities for shippers to capitalize on these trends and grow their e-commerce business.

A big area of focus for many shippers has become the customer experience. Shippers are asking not only, “How do we get this customer, but how do we make this customer a customer for life.”

“It’s five times cheaper to keep a customer today than it is to go out there and obtain a new one,” says Jeff Wolpov, SVP for e-commerce, Ryder. “If we go back a couple of years, you would have seen it’s all about customer acquisition. It was all about how do we get more business?

“Now it's changed, and what we’re seeing is how do we retain these customers?,” he adds. “How do we get more share of their wallet? How do we become their brand of choice? And what do we need to do to really connect and make them a part of our community?”

How you achieve that differs from product to product, but ultimately, it’s about creating a brand that resonates with consumers.

“If that brand is meaningful, you are willing as the consumer to pay more for that brand,” says Wolpov. “We’re seeing a lot of our brands with a huge focus on building that allegiance, building that community, establishing that communication, and making sure that they are fulfilling their promise every day.”

Keeping costs down while meeting consumer expectations

Free (64%) and fast shipping (20%) are still the primary decision-makers for e-commerce orders, but the options are growing for shippers when it comes to meeting consumer expectations without blowing the budget.

To meet these demands, Wolpov suggests looking for shipping alternatives that bring shipping closer to the customer, such as implementing ship from store or Buy Online Pickup in Store (BOPIS) fulfillment models. These methods continue to grow in popularity, with only 29% responding they still haven’t used BOPIS, curbside pickup, or remote pickup. It also can lead to increase sales, with almost half (45%) of respondents saying they often end up making additional purchases when picking up or returning an online order in store.

“What we found is people are willing to slow it down for a better price, and they’re willing to slow it down if they know that it’s their other shipping methodology,” says Wolpov. “We are seeing people that are willing to slow it down as long as you communicate.”

Another simple but effective solution is incentivizing the customer to buy more goods for free shipping, or even rewarding loyal customers with free returns. This strategy really works, with the study finding 71% of respondents added more items to their online shopping carts to qualify for free shipping.

“That’s a win-win,” says Wolpov. “A smart brand and smart retailers are trying to figure out how you can exceed the customers’ expectations, while still trying to save money.”

How to attract and retain more customers

According to Wolpov, prevention is the cure to customer attrition. Attracting and retaining loyal customers comes down to a few key priorities:

Being able to identify why a customer didn’t come back
Understanding the reasons for returns and focusing on quality to prevent that return in the future
Offering incentives for loyal customers
Considering a brick-and-mortar location

“If can learn why, what you’re doing wrong, why you didn't exceed that customer’s expectations, that will just make you better, make you more effective and allow you to do that,” says Wolpov.