6 Ways to Up Your E-Commerce Game With Shipping Data

What do Amazon and eBay have in common?  They’ve been able to link together all parts of their business operations and use them to create a holistic customer experience – both online and offline.

What’s more interesting is how they’re able to do that – with shipping data.

When you think of shipping, you may assume it’s isolated as a backroom operation. However, some of the best e-commerce businesses have realized early on that shipping is essential to nearly every part of their business, and have given it first-class status.

From improving the customer and seller experience to driving sales and preventing fraud, here are some ways to use shipping data to improve your marketplace operations:

Empower customers to track orders

By keeping your buyers self-sufficient enough to manage their own tracking, you’ll reduce the operational crunch on your business. According to Amazon, “approximately 40% of buyer contacts are about shipment status. There is a strong relationship between contacts and tracking, with the rate of contacts being almost twice as high for shipments without tracking.” By answering questions before your customers ask, you can both improve customer satisfaction and decrease customer support overhead.

Communicate fulfillment time

This metric calculates the amount of time between when an order is placed and when a tracking number reaches the customer. In a recent consumer survey by Shippo, 71% of shoppers expected to receive notice that their shipment is on its way within 24 hours of when they click “Buy.” It’s important to let customers know that you have done your best to make the process go as quickly as possible.

For instance, as a best practice, eBay recommends that their sellers ship the same day the buyer purchases. They keep do this by collecting tracking numbers from sellers, and sending a shipment notification to the buyer as soon as they receive the number.

Ensure on-time deliveries

Are your sellers sending packages off with the correct shipping service level for it to get there the day it was promised? What should their target be? As a benchmark, Amazon’s on-time delivery target is  >97%. In Shippo’s consumer survey, 85% of people said that they would be hesitant to order from a business again if their shipment arrived later than the quoted delivery date. On-time deliveries have massive potential to influence your customers’ satisfaction rates.

A simple way to keep track of whether your sellers are fulfilling properly is by auditing their tracking number. For instance, Shippo’s API allows you to gather information such as service level and estimated delivery time just from the tracking number.

Decrease cart abandonment

Take a look at your overall cart abandonment trends, evaluating them over time. Look closely to see whether any drop-offs occurred in areas of shipping-related communication. By identifying shipping related issues, you can increase your number of completed orders and potentially increase the average value of your orders by using free shipping to incentivize your customers to buy more.

Establish clear return policies

According to the UPS Pulse Survey, only 50% of customers are satisfied with the information available to them about making returns and their actual ability to make a return. It may sound counterintuitive, but a crystal-clear, easy-to-access return policy may be the push that your customers need to make a purchase decision.

Here’s an example of a clearly outlined policy by Amazon, organized by item type. Set customer expectations early by clearly outlining what your return policy is and how to access it.

Prevent fraud 

One of the oldest tricks in the book is shipment rerouting. A purchase is made with a stolen credit card, and the package is sent to an undeliverable location. The fraudster monitors the undelivered shipment and asks it to be rerouted to their location. You’ll want to keep a close eye on any rerouted shipments to make sure that they’re not coming from orders that have been charged-back.

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Shipping data is crucial to Amazon and eBay’s success – and it can be the key to yours, too. Figure out how shipping can help your marketplace operations to ensure that they are hitting your business goals and making both your customers and sellers happy. Look for hidden opportunities, inefficiencies, and course-correct to find what works for you.