Written by Raúl Carrión
Índice
When we analyze the conversion funnel of many e-commerce companies, it is common to find that a significant number of users abandon the purchase when they discover the additional cost of shipping costs associated with the order. That is why any improvement in this aspect will result in a direct increase in the conversion rate of our e-commerce.
We are going to analyze several actions to minimize the impact of shipping costs that, when properly combined, will help us to turn shipping costs into an advantage over our competitors.
Inform at all times of the minimum shipping costs.
Not all potential customers have the time and inclination to complete a shopping cart to find out what shipping costs are associated with their order. Therefore, informing from the home page of the approximate cost will help us to increase the number of completed baskets.
Negotiate with suppliers
As our order volume increases, we must negotiate better conditions with our transportation suppliers. The more business we generate, the more strength we will have to negotiate. We should not be lazy.
Offer several transportation alternatives
Our customers must be able to choose between at least two shipping alternatives:
- Urgent service (24h): where speed is a priority, for example for last minute gifts.
- Economic service: fearlessly extending the delivery time for those occasions where the priority is the minimum cost.
Shipping costs above a certain amount
An essential strategy in all e-commerce.
We will always find a threshold at which we can offer free shipping, no matter how high it is.
This value should be adequately promoted in the online store and if possible, the e-commerce shopping cart should inform the customer of the amount that remains to be added to the cart so that shipping costs are free.
With this action we avoid losing customers who do not wish to pay shipping costs and we increase the average order value.
A further step in this strategy is to have an e-commerce platform capable of recommending to the customer which products to add to the basket so that shipping costs are free.
For this purpose, the platform must calculate the difference between the amount that ensures free shipping costs and the current amount of your shopping cart. Then offer the customer one or more products that add up to this amount, taking into account the products already added to the customer’s basket:
- To avoid repeating products
- To choose these products among the products related to the products in the basket.
Store pickup
If we have one or more physical stores, we can incorporate the possibility that the user can pick up the order in order to save shipping costs.
This option is especially interesting when our business model is very local or when we have an extensive network of points of sale.
Annual fee
In the event that our products are consumed on a recurring basis throughout the year, we can design a one-time, annual shipping fee.
The customer makes a one-time annual payment and acquires the right to have no shipping costs on orders during this period.
Large e-commerce companies such as Amazon have already implemented this strategy.
Subsidize part of the shipping costs
The usual option is to pass on to the customer 100% of the shipping costs invoiced to us by our shipping company. However, if our profit margin per product allows it, we can take over a percentage of the shipping costs, offering cheaper shipping costs than those of our competitors.
Those few euros can make the difference between buying or not buying.
Free shipping with your first purchase
On previous occasions we have commented on the fundamental role of trust in online sales. Its influence is such that it can make a user prefer to buy the same product in an e-commerce with higher shipping costs just because he/she has previously purchased and the experience was satisfactory.
A good way to achieve the previous step that generates this situation is to create a promotion that gives free shipping costs to new customers. If our products are likely to be purchased on a recurring basis and the service is acceptable, a percentage of users will buy again at their own expense.
Thanks to the possibility of measuring results almost in real time in our online store we will always be in time to adjust these actions to maximize their effect. I invite you to try and keep improving your online business.
