Back to school, Black Friday, and the winter holidays are the next sales promotion campaigns for the e-commerce industry. Because of the pandemic context, campaigns in 2021 will have to continue to focus heavily on online customers, as they did last year. Those who run a business that relies on online sales must be prepared to manage these campaigns as effectively as possible, while also focusing on one of the most important aspects of online sales: managing product delivery.

Owners of online businesses realize that this is a huge opportunity to attract more customers, but it is becoming increasingly difficult to identify the competitive differentiators that ensure success. That is why, through a partnership with Innoship, Simplify enables you to benefit from all of the integrations and innovations required to grow your online store.

Whether it’s integrations with inbound transport services, ERP systems, marketplace integration, or courier integration – Innoship, partnering with Simplify will provide you with a comprehensive package of services that your online store requires to thrive.

So, in the following series of recommendations, you will learn how to differentiate yourself from the competition and how to quickly implement a delivery strategy with minimal effort.

  1. Implement the “Personal Pickup” delivery option at checkout to provide customers with over 5,000 delivery options

Elefant.ro is a great example of check-out in our market. This has been seen in previous years’ trends, with 2020 confirming that this delivery option is rising to the top of check-out preferences.

The major online retailers in Romania, such as eMAG, Decathlon, Flanco, FashionDays, Elefant, Libris, Cărturești, and others, declare that over 15% of deliveries are made in fixed points (lockers or work points) throughout the year, with the percentage increasing significantly in the autumn.

As a result, both customers and your online store benefit from the personal pick-up delivery option:

  • You benefit from a lower return rate, fewer complaints, and lower delivery costs (delivery in locker has a lower cost compared to home delivery).
  • Customers benefit from convenience, comfort, and security. The order is delivered to the nearest delivery location without requiring any interaction with other people.
  • Couriers also ensure greater on-time delivery efficiency by handling multiple parcels at a single delivery point at the same time.

How can an online store benefit from this delivery option?

From a technical perspective, implementing these delivery points with personal lifting is becoming easier. The majority of Romanian e-commerce platforms already provide direct integrations. Furthermore, delivery management platforms such as Innoship allow you to easily implement and manage a variety of delivery options provided by local and international couriers.

The most popular suppliers for these delivery points are:

1. Lockers:

  • SameDay – +1500 lockers, also known as EasyBox, are available nationwide. By the end of 2022, the network expects to have over 2,000 points.
  • FanCourier, DPD, and GLS each have more than 50 such delivery points and are constantly expanding their networks.

2. Working points:

2. Create the best courier mix for home deliveries

We understand how important the quality of the customer’s shopping experience is, which is why timely product delivery lowers return rates and increases buyer satisfaction. If you currently use one or more couriers, we recommend that you define a new home delivery strategy for the end of the year.

Because each online business is unique, it is difficult to develop a universally applicable delivery strategy. However, depending on how orders are distributed to couriers, the areas where improvements can be made can be identified based on your product, customer, and courier mix.

In this regard, Innoship Free Analytics, a free analysis service, assists you in determining what the key points are and how you can improve your delivery performance.

With Free Analytics, you can evaluate the delivery performance of the country’s largest courier companies, Cargus, DPD, FAN, Sameday, in real time, on the same platform, based on indicators that are relevant to your business, such as on-time delivery, as promised by courier, rate of return per courier, average duration of cash refund, and many others.

As a result, you gain access to an advanced tool for analyzing your deliveries that is easy to use and fully automated.

Furthermore, you can get the first results in just two steps:

  1. You can sign up for the Innoship platform right here.
  2. Enter the couriers’ credentials.

So simple!

Beginning the following day, your account will be loaded with delivery details from the previous three days. Every day, your data will be automatically evaluated. You can view the map at the regional level and evaluate the performance of your deliveries. A consultant will also contact you, and the two of you will analyze all of the options for improving the delivery process. As a result, you will turn the shopping experience into a competitive advantage that will accelerate your company.

3. Optimize deliveries based on your company’s needs

Use regional couriers

If your warehouse is in Bucharest or Cluj-Napoca, you can use a dedicated courier in these areas, that provides both quality and cost advantages, such as:

  • București: BookCourier, TeamCourier, Sinapseria etc.
  • Cluj: Transilvania Post, Sinapseria etc.

Use specialized couriers for large items

Use specialized couriers for large items

If your product portfolio is diverse and you have large items that require more careful handling, we recommend using a bulky product courier, such as SMP Courier, Gebrüder Weiss, or Pallex.

Use smaller but effective options for international sales

If you already sell internationally or plan to do so, it is a good idea to learn about consumer preferences in the countries of interest, how couriers perform in these countries, and the experiences of similar companies in this endeavor.

You should also be aware that, in addition to the two well-known and easily accessible international delivery companies (DPD and GLS), there are at least 5 additional options that can provide you with comparable benefits.

Every sales season, as well as every stage of your business, necessitates a different set of actions and strategies, but one constant remains: the consumer experience. The happier and more satisfied your customers are, the higher your online store’s sales will be.

Therefore, we encourage you to test a new order delivery strategy as a competitive differentiator and thus contribute to the growth of your company.

Try Free Analytics for free