How to get transparent shipping options right
The shipping aspect of ecommerce can become a pain point or barrier to entry for buyers, but with a little care and attention, you can transform a possible issue into a positive advantage for your business. The key is to offer transparent shipping options, and here’s how to do it right and why it’s so important.
Image courtesy of Artem Podrez. Published on: August 4th, 2020 Source: Pexel.com
The importance of trust
When purchasing online, customers have several specific information they need in order to finalise their purchase decisions. These include the cost of the shipping (including different service levels, so they can make their own trade-off between speed of delivery, and cost); timeframes, and access to information during the shipping process.
Nothing to hide in your transparent shipping options
When you choose Bob Go as your order management and fulfilment partner, you’ll be ideally positioned to gain the trust of your buyers. You’ll also be able to make a convincing proposition to new buyers – that is, people who may previously have been reticent about making online purchases.
Here’s how Bob Go can help you deliver transparent shipping options:
- We’ve partnered with South Africa’s leading courier companies to offer competitive rates and maximum flexibility.
- We let you show rates at checkout so your buyers can see exactly what they’ll be paying for those courier services, before they have to part with any cash
- We automatically generate shipping update notifications for both you and your buyers. In these ways, we answer the most pressing questions that buyers have: how much will shipping add to the cost of my purchase, and when can I expect to receive my purchase?
Faster, smarter fulfilment
Because Bob Go offers holistic order management solutions, you can build a transparent ecosystem that encompasses not just shipping, but the entire way that you run your online business (whether it’s a side hustle or your main source of income).
Intuitive integration of multiple platforms (including your Bob Shop account) means an end to stock management headaches, and eliminates the risk of inadvertently selling something that you don’t have in stock. Again, this shows buyers that you can be trusted – and this trust will be reflected in the ratings that you receive. This is the start of a virtuous circle: better reviews mean that more buyers will feel that they can trust you.
We’ve made shipping easier and quicker, which means less paperwork and hassle for you – and a
more seamless online shopping experience for your buyers. Once they’ve seen how the transparent shipping options that you offer work, they’ll feel comfortable buying from you again – and
recommending your online store to friends and families.
The importance of trust
Think about the relationships that matter most to you: parents, siblings, children, your significant other… at the root of all of them is trust. Trust is a two-way street – it needs to be mutual. Trust can also be broken if one party is deceitful or less than honest, and rebuilding it is much harder than earning it in the first place.
The same rules apply in business – and when it comes to ecommerce, offering transparent shipping options matters more than almost anything else (except perhaps product quality and truth in advertising).
To see how Bob Go can help you provide transparent shipping options, how to get them right, and why they are so important, visit https://my.bobgo.co.za/register today.
