Expensive shipping costs, longer than usual delivery waits, no simple returns policy – these are all reasons that admittedly, have influenced even my own purchasing decisions.
Yet every time we simply hit ‘X’ to close the checkout window, there is a merchant wondering why they have all these abandoned carts.
Our online shopping habits are very much dictated by numerous factors. Shipping costs, delivery times and return policies can hugely influence whether a consumer will press the all important ‘checkout’ button or whether they’ll leave that cart hanging like my colleagues leave me when I go looking for high fives.
Customer fulfilment expectations when shopping online
In a recent study, 61% of UK customers will abandon their online shopping carts if the shipping fees are too high. In addition, more than half of Brits think that same-day delivery is important. The importance of a next-day delivery option is also pretty significant with 62% expecting to have this available and 55% expecting to choose specific two-hour time slots.
Getting the products to the customer is one thing, but the process of the product being returned is also important to consumers. According to a study by FinancesOnline, 80% of UK consumers abandon their cart because of a poor returns policy.
This puts a huge amount of pressure on merchants and their fulfilment processes. Many business owners find that getting a third party fulfilment service on board helps them to achieve expectations and also takes a weight off their shoulders when it comes to admin.
Third party fulfilment solutions for shipping
Our EKM platform offers a wide range of third party integrations that help make the busy day to day running of your business a little bit easier.
ShipStation is one of our fulfilment partners, helping ecommerce merchants efficiently manage their orders by importing, organising, processing and shipping. Their automation features help retailers shave hours off the fulfilment process and save money offering access to the lowest rates from the top courier companies.
What can ShipStation do for EKM online shop owners:
- View, sort and filter orders
- Access top courier services and the best rates
- Batch print hundreds of labels
- Customise user settings to better suit your business requirements
- Access ShipStations mobile app and run your business on the go
- Marketing tools with branded tracking pages, confirmation emails and custom packing slips
Through the use of automation, Shipstation can help make your products available to more customers and enable you to offer the best delivery experience for all your customers. Combine this with the support of our expert teams at EKM, you’ll be right on track to reducing those abandoned carts and growing your successful online business.
We understand that to many entrepreneurs, your business is your baby, and getting third parties involved can be a little daunting. We carefully select our partners and only integrate with services that we believe will benefit your online business. You can take a look at all of our integrated partners in our Official EKM Partner Directory, where you will find information on each third party integration as well as reviews, key services and useful links.
If you are currently running an online business and are eager to learn more on how to reduce abandoned carts, we have a useful blog on how to increase checkout conversions that may offer you some handy tips!
If you are thinking of setting up an online shop with EKM, start your free 14 day trial and get your successful online shop up and running today!
