Oct 11
10
“The customer is always right” is age old adage heralded by many, and still rings true today. But what used to satisfy customers is now no longer enough. More and more etailers are going to increasing lengths in order to make shopping more convenient for cash and time-strapped shoppers this Christmas.
A recent announcement from high street retailer Aurora, the umbrella company of fashion stores Oasis, Warehouse and Coast, states that they will deliver clothes almost as fast as a pizza delivery man. The fashion giants have promised to deliver their clothes in less than 90 minutes from ordering.
Aurora’s finance director Richard Glanville says the service has already proven successful: “In this economic environment, people are more likely to buy a dress on a Friday for a Saturday wedding. A couple of years ago people planned a dress like that for months in advance. But there is now much more ‘buy-now-wear-now’ than before.”
And Aurora aren’t the only ones. More and more ecommerce websites are focusing on their delivery processes as the most important way to ensure customer retention. Many etailers offer several different delivery choices. ASOS even offer the same day delivery, while Amazon are looking to make deliveries through secure drop boxes. There is an apparent trend across the market to enable customers to get what they want when they want it.
Guy Mucklow Postcode Anywhere’s Managing Director said: “Getting deliveries out quickly is a vital part of the buying process. Customers’ expectations are changing rapidly, demanding more for less. Consumers are no longer happy to waste time, waiting at home for a delivery. They expect to know when there items will be delivered. Of course for a courier visiting up to 100 addresses within a tight schedule, meeting a pre-agreed time window isn’t always easy.
“There are however, route optimising tools that can re-order delivery points for you. It cuts down on the time it takes to manually plan deliveries and the fuel cost of making them. More importantly it can schedule delivery windows so you can let your customers know when they can expect their delivery.”
In the end, it may be your service, not the product itself that prescribes whether or not you retain your customers. If you give the customers what they want, when they want, the way they want it, you are more likely to turn them into a satisfied customer.
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