Shipping experience is tied directly to a customer's return probability. A bad shipping experience will kill any business faster than a torpedo. All it takes is one negative shipping experience, and a customer is gone for good.

Fortunately, there are methods and processes you can apply to ensure that every customer has a positive shopping and shipping experience.

This article will cover five ways to effectively manage customers' shipping experience, making them customers for life.

5 Ways To Improve Shipping Experience

Shipping Upgrades

Asides from speedy delivery, another efficient way to improve your customers' shipping experience is to offer gifts, discounts and coupons along with the order. This will prompt them to visit or purchase again. Who doesn't like a gift?

Also, offering free shipping can positively impact the shipping experience. Stats show that delivery fee is one of the top reasons for cart abandonment. There are two ways to offer free shipping. The first way is by building the shipping costs into the prices of the products.

The second way to implement free shipping is to offer free shipping for orders up to and above a specific range. The second option also increases the customer's purchasing power and revenue for your business. These strategies can significantly lower the number of cart abandonment cases while also improving sales.

In case you want to win the hearts of conscious consumers, you should consider green delivery. Your eco-friendly delivery strategy may include using carbon-efficient transport such as electric vehicles or bikes, more efficient planning of deliveries or grouping together orders from the same area. Since consumers want to reduce their carbon footprint, they are actively looking for companies that are doing the same.

Customer Support

Providing top-notch customer support throughout customers' purchase and delivery lifecycle will result in a positive shopping and shipping experience. Provide tracking information and status updates automatically when shipping things to customers. Provide an anticipated delivery date and inform customers when their orders are in the mail.

It's more likely that customers will have a positive experience and return to make additional purchases when you communicate with them frequently about the progress of their orders. There shouldn't be long periods of non-communication and updates about customers' orders and packages. If need be, you can integrate a chatbot for a quick resolution. This goes a long way in showing that you prioritise your customers, which leads to a good shipping experience.

Have a Refund/Return Policy

Remember, you're not a dictator; rather, you're running a business. You can avoid returns, but not completely. Having a customer-focused refund policy will improve their shipping experience.

Build your clients' confidence by making it easy to return items for exchange or refund. Drafting a perfect policy that works for you and your clients is an excellent place to start. Your consumers should be able to begin a refund and ship orders back without any additional inconveniences; therefore you must offer an easy-to-understand policy.

There is a direct relationship between a positive shipping experience and a return/refund policy. It makes customers more likely to make another purchase from you in the future.

Keep Your Promises

Don't state what you cannot fulfil. If your website or store says "delivery in two days", be sure to have their products delivered to them in under two days. If there's a delay or change to this timeline due to unforeseen situations, communicate with your customers early with a new date for deliveries. Don't go AWOL on them. Your customers shouldn't be calling you to find out the status of their orders.

The simplest approach to avoid these loopholes and improve customers' shipping experience is to dispatch orders as soon as they are received or outsource your delivery to order fulfilment services.

All day long, order fulfilment businesses send out goods, and daily postal deliveries are made to their warehouses. This means your packages will be sent out sooner, which can typically shave an entire day off the delivery window. "Happy customer, happy life."

Add a Personal Touch

Let your customers know that a human is behind their interactions. Even with automated messages add a personal touch to them. You can do this by:

• Sending a "Thank You" note after purchase and attaching a note to the delivery package;
• Use relevant emojis during communication;
• Remember important details about customers and send personalised gifts (works for small businesses with a small and well-known customer base).

These create a lasting impression with the customers and guarantee a positive shipping experience.

Conclusion

Every customer is important. The one-time purchasing customers, the returning customers, and the window shoppers are essential to the sustainability of any business. And enhancing their shopping experience until the final moment they receive their products is a surefire way of making a good impression.