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When potential customers finally
decide to purchase a product or service from your website, the last thing you want them to do is abandoning their
shopping cart. Here's a few ideas on 'How to Improve your Ordering and
Fulfilment System'.
And check my email bag. It contains interesting feedback.
Hope you enjoy this newsletter.
How to Improve your Ordering and Fulfilment System
An user-friendly ordering and fulfilment system will reassure customers and
increase your credibility. Once you gained their trust and provided them with a
positive experience, customers
are more likely to place another order with you
rather than purchasing from a new provider.
Order Forms
- Let customers use the same order form for multiple purchases. On one
occasion, I had to complete three order forms when booking three nights
accommodation merely because the dates were not consecutive.
- Provide options for multiple shipping and billing addresses. Customers may
want to separate business and personal purchases or buy gifts to be sent to
different addresses.
- Leave sufficient space on your order form for writing suggestions, special
requests or comments.
Payment options
- Give multiple payment options e.g. credit card, cheque
or bank transfer.
- Offer alternative remittance methods e.g. internet, mail, fax or phone.
Currency converter
- Provide a currency converter adjacent to prices to enable visitors to
assess value. Link to free
x-rates.com currency converter.
Shipping & delivery
- State shipping and handling costs before customers are required to enter
personal and financial details. This will allow potential customers to assess
the total cost of the product and then take an informed purchasing decision.
- Provide various delivery options e.g. Standard, Express or Overnight.
- Supply shipping methods according to their preferences in regard to price,
speed, security and tracking capabilities e.g. Swift CD uses a table to layout
the different shipping options. Each method gives an estimated delivery date,
the cost and whether it includes a tracking system.
- Create your own shipping formula to differentiate yourself from
competitors e.g. Williams Sonoma, a retailer specialised in home furnishings,
provides a 'white glove' delivery service for selected products. The service
includes the delivery, unpacking, inspection and assembly of the item.
- Provide an order tracking system to enable customers to check the status
of their online order.
Promotions
- Offer conditional delivery promotions such as free shipping based on:
- Value of order e.g. 'free shipping for order over...'
- Item e.g. 'free shipping on selected items'
- Type of shipping e.g. 'free surface shipping'
- Destination e.g. 'free nationwide shipping'
- Quantity e.g. 'free shipping for 3 CDs or more'.
Personal touch
- Pay special attention to packaging. Let your customer feel it's Christmas
when they receive your well-presented parcel.
Be prepared, a satisfied customer will return for more!
© 2006 Henriette Martel
Adapted from the book
200 Marketing Ideas for Your Website
by Henriette Martel.
Email Bag
Subscriber Adam from Canada wrote in his feedback "I thought
that you dropped the ball". My article
'24 Ways to Create Compelling Headlines for
Your Sales Letters' in the last newsletter did not go down too well!
He wrote:
"Should I now trust your advise on writing headlines for my email newsletters if
I have to worry about having these same emails getting tagged as spam?
Furthermore, there were only 3-4 titles that you had to put a "*" into anyway.
I would have felt a lot more confident about your article had you simply removed
the headlines that were triggering spam filters and not mentioned them at all.
Or better yet, why not use their shortcomings to further educate?
"Imagine if instead you had grouped them at the bottom and said something like,
"In print media, headlines like these would be great too, but one of the
realities that online marketers must face are the technological issues
surrounding email and spam. These otherwise good headlines are rendered poor
choices because their use of monetary amounts can provoke spam filters to
classify them the same as a headline like "Make $$$ fast!" and other such junk
mail titles. For this reason, it's best to avoid such phrasings when marketing
online."
Good points!!
These headlines do work well on websites. Unfortunately, I failed to mention
that they are not all meant for email newsletters because of spam filters.
Thankyou very much Adam for your feedback and understanding
"Everyone has an off day, and I'm chalking this gaff up to that". But
he also
wrote "I will be looking forward to your next issue".
Feedback is important to me ... it keeps me on my toes!! And
I feel privileged when people take time to email me their feedback.
Feedback and suggestions
are most welcome. Send to
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