One of the most common reasons for refusing an online purchase is the high cost of delivering the goods. Here are a few strategies that you can use to reduce the established prices for order delivery, agree on favorable terms of bids in order to maintain your customer base and not lose sales revenue.
Setting Delivery Rates
Customers do not always expect free delivery of their order, but they definitely want to know what they are paying for and be sure that everything is fair. Many stores offer free delivery in case of purchase of goods for a certain amount, for example, 3000 rubles and above. This is a good way to arouse the interest of customers in the assortment of their store and avoid loss of profit, while it is worthwhile to clarify that when ordering products worth less than 500 rubles, the buyer pays for the delivery.
Knowing the terms of delivery, buyers dramatically change their behavior, they may be less likely to make purchases in your store, accumulating goods in a basket for a certain amount, but in the end this will not affect your total income. Some customers, wanting to purchase something, attract their friends and acquaintances in order to reach the set amount at which delivery will be free. You get additional advertising and new customers.
Transparent communication
It is very important to initially consider the cost of delivery within the framework of profit, so that, if necessary, you have the opportunity to adjust your pricing policy until you reach the point that guarantees good profit without losing customers.
Regardless of what basic delivery rates you set, strive for transparency when communicating with your customers. On the other hand, fast delivery at a fixed price is also an incentive for many people to make a purchase.
Make the delivery information comprehensive, understandable, with a clear display of your shipping costs. Do not be afraid to tell why such a price was formed.
Shipping cost reduction
How can you make the shipping cost affordable, not have a big impact on your profits, and keep customers happy and contact your store again? There are two ways:
- First of all, make sure that your product and its packaging do not significantly increase the delivery rate.
- Second - spend time looking for the best delivery partner with a discount and bonus program.
Let's look at each option more closely.
Proper packaging = lean delivery
When it comes to product delivery, details can be of great importance. A gram or two here, a centimeter or two there, and suddenly it turns out that you have exceeded the size or weight of the economical shipping rate and you will have to overpay, choosing the more expensive one. That is why accuracy is so important.
For example, you sell cosmetic oil, your customer has purchased a whole range of products that can fill a medium-sized box, but you only have large or small boxes. As a result, you pack the goods in a large box, use more packaging materials so that the oil containers do not hang inside and break. As a result, you overpay for weight and dimensions, and in fact all this could be avoided if you had a medium-sized box at hand.
Of course, not everything is so literal, but the bottom line is that you must be sure that you have all the necessary packaging options that may be required to send your product category. Speaking about efficiency, one should not miss another point that should be taken into account when determining the cost of delivery - this is the type of packaging chosen. The cost of a cardboard box and its weight is higher than the use of plastic film, so if possible choose the second option.
You can also use fun mail supplies. Wrap your products in bright tissue paper or add a colorful card to pleasantly surprise your customers and establish themselves as an attentive seller without increasing shipping costs. If you sell goods in glass containers, it may look sophisticated and environmentally friendly, but glass is a very fragile material. Here you need to think about safe packaging so that you do not have to reimburse the buyer for the purchase price and incur losses or sell the goods in different containers.
Delivery
In Russia, the following types of delivery of goods.
1. Delivery by courier within the city. This is the best option for aspiring entrepreneurs. If the customer base consists of residents of your city, the goods can be quickly delivered on their own. The advantages of this type of delivery are obvious:
- quick refund and exchange of goods;
- additional profit on the implementation of paid delivery;
The only minor flaw is the loss of time.
2. Delivery by Russian Post. This option is used by all online stores in our country, since the Russian Post has an extensive geography and allows for a small fee to deliver the order to anywhere in the vast homeland and beyond. This is a major advantage.
Russian Post services are suitable for people who are just starting to take their first steps in online sales. To send goods you do not need the status of an individual entrepreneur, you do not have to be a legal entity, you can not only send products, but also receive money for it directly at the post office.
However, the Russian post has its drawbacks:
- long delivery;
- a high probability that the order itself or money from the buyer will be lost along the way;
- long lines, because employees perform a lot of different operations to send an order or receive it, sometimes it takes a lot of time.
3. Courier services. The most popular of them is SDEK. This is one of the largest goods delivery companies in Russia, with an extensive network of points of delivery of orders and courier service in almost all major cities of the country.
Convenient payment for the buyer
You can offer the client the following payment methods:
- Bank card. To start accepting payments in this way, you need to do two things: register in the payment system and connect the system to your store.
- By cash to the courier or at pickup from your office / delivery point.
- Electronic Wallets. The most popular electronic wallets in Russia are Yandex.Money, Qiwi and WebMoney.
- Bank transfer To do this, a check is sent to the client by mail indicating the account to which the order amount must be transferred.
- C.O.D. The option is only for shipment to Russia, but the goods will be delivered wherever the courier can reach, even to a distant village in Siberia.
If you intend to carry out sales with delivery, do not neglect the mentioned tips. There are many companies on the modern market, and the buyer has the right to choose the one with which he likes the conditions of cooperation most. Be this company.