When transacting online, customers expect a smooth, quick and unfettered service from the moment they enter the site to the fulfilment of their request, whether it’s a banking or shopping experience.Zane Zietman, chief operating officer of Digital Planet, leaders in providing industry with e-commerce solutions, says that while the front-end of online stores are usually efficient, it’s the processes behind the scenes that might not live up to customers’ expectations.
Zietman says that consumers expect the delivery and fulfilment of their online request to be as easy and seamless as their front-end experience. “Customers shop online for convenience, and to stay loyal, they require a seamless shopping experience. It’s no use providing customers with a user-friendly site, where it’s very easy to complete an online shopping form but the delivery takes weeks. It leaves you with a big problem,” he says.
A recent survey by Ipsos on behalf of PayPal and FMB revealed that 85% of online shoppers expected fast delivery of items purchased, while 82% said flexible delivery options were key drivers for making transactions online.
Zietman says that e-tailers need to pay high attention to their logistics operations to ensure they can efficiently deliver on their promise, and offer customers some delivery options, such as collection at a store or delivery to the nearest post office.
“The focus of online sites has been on the development of the user experience (UX), but often little attention is paid to the operations behind the scene, which includes such processes as inventory control, warehousing, picking and packing, couriering, as well as track and trace of the product and communication with the customer on progress,” he says.
According to Zietman, there is a fine line between promise and delivery, and online merchants should focus on under-promising and over-delivering. “In that way, they will get the balance right and manage their customers’ expectations, and in turn manage their brand reputation. In the end, it’s all about customer service,” he says.
To avoid operational failure, Zietman recommends ensuring a smooth supply chain, using automation as far as possible to minimise inaccuracy, inefficiency and lack of good inventory control. “It’s very important to ensure visibility and transparency along the supply chain to track and trace goods, and have the internal capability to do this and communicate it to customers.”
He adds that there is nothing worse than a customer ordering a product and expecting delivery, only to find out it’s out of stock or an end of line item. “This can easily be corrected in the backend by having a good automated inventory control system that integrates with your main e-commerce solution to ensure that this doesn’t happen and stock is updated in real-time.”
According to Zietman, these software solutions are readily available and do not require months of integration time and money as is often the perception.
“Most e-commerce sites rely on third party courier companies to fulfil delivery requirements,” says Zietman, “so it’s vital to have a service delivery contract in place so that you can ensure that the goods are delivered in a predetermined time. In addition, efficient reverse logistics processes that are well communicated to customers go a long way to creating peace of mind. This is a very hands-on process that is not automated as it requires the collection, return and replacement of goods, but is a critical component of e-commerce.”
Zietman says that at Digital Planet, most of their customers have self-service portals, which encourage customers to initiate the service and verify their own information in order to speed up the processes, rather than rely on the vendor to do so.
E-tailers need to understand the operational gaps in their service offering in order to determine how smoothly their processes will work, and what they need to do to correct them. “The operations of your e-commerce site must mirror the business systems and processes of an organisation, and integration is key to this.”
Zietman advises to keep it simple and streamlined and ensure there is no disjoint between the customers’ expectations and operational efficiency and processes.
“The proliferation of e-commerce sites worldwide is driving retailers to restructure their business frameworks to become more customer-centric and adapt to a one-on-one experience with their customers. This in turn has a huge impact on backend supply chain processes. For example, retailers are adapting to picking an individual product from a pallet, rather than a whole pallet.”
Zietman says that if retailers get the user experience right in an online environment, it’s a huge market opportunity to convert customers into brand advocates.