The customer experience of an e-commerce purchase is a much different from the retail experience, but it is still an opportunity to develop your brand and cultivate customers. Since there are much fewer touch points and less in person communication, delivering a well branded package is important in developing your brand and customer base. Below are a few tips to improve you e-commerce fulfillment to impress your customers and drive repeat orders.
1. E-commerce fulfillment should be heavily branded and there should be a lot of though put into the customer experience. Many times your website and packaging are the only experience your customer will have with your brand. Be sure to leave a lasting impression with high quality, well thought out packaging and fulfillment
2. Communicate with your customer. Fulfilled e-commerce packages are a great way to include additional collateral or offers to increase cultivate your customers. A great way to do this is with a customized shipping notification e-mail. Alternatively including collateral or coupons with the product will help improve the users' experience and this collateral will most likely have multiple touch points and could remain in the customer's house for some time. Well thought out packaging is also a great way to provide instructions on how to use products or direct customers to tutorial videos.
3. Well designed beautifully fulfilled packages are great, but careful attention should be paid to ensure the product is packed correctly to reduce the risk of damaging the product. Broken products will disappoint customers and will add additional costs of product replacement and shipping. Packaging and fulfillment should focus on product security, but in doing so design elements should be incorporated.
4. Get your product to your customer as soon as you can. Fulfilling and shipping products quickly will help boost your brand and credibility as well as help compete with other outlets like retail stores and amazon. Many times shipping cost make it expensive to have products arrive quickly, but be transparent about this and provide options for expedited shipment.