You shouldn’t be surprised as factors like customer loyalty and buying decision are directly related to your shipping policy. Earlier people were happy with free delivery, whereas delivery time was considered secondary. These days everything is important. Customers not only look for free delivery, they also want quick delivery.

The E-Commerce vendors should also wake up to this new market demand and plan their shipping strategy accordingly.

1. Understand your business objectives

In order to offer a better delivery experience, first of all, you need to understand your business objectives. For example, if you are selling a product which is uncommon customers may not want one-day or two-day delivery.  They must rather be looking for safety and certainty.

2. Offer value

Offering value to your customer is extremely important and it shouldn’t be compromised at any stage of the buying process. Always put customer expectations on top.

3. Don’t minimize cost at the cost of customer loyalty

Some of the E-Commerce companies make a grave mistake of finding cheaper delivery options, but at the same time they forget that it might affect customer loyalty in the long term. They may lose the customer base as result. Customers do not want poor services especially in this competitive marketplace, even if you offer free delivery.

4. Offer the combo of both low price and high speed delivery

The concept of low price and high speed delivery is not new. With the competition heating up across the E-commerce market, more and more customers are now looking for cheaper delivery and at the same time they also want same day, one-day or two day delivery. With plethora of options available in the market, if you are not providing the combo of both these benefits, the customer might switch to some other product or E-Commerce store.

5. Go for multi-step and multi-vendor shipping arrangement

In order to optimize delivery, go for multi-step and multi-vendor arrangement, where in you will be able to reduce costs as well as delivery time. Finding a strategic mix of both will lead you to success. With plenty of opportunities available in the market, finding the right mix is not difficult.

You can find many local delivery partners, who can help you avail the best local delivery solutions as well as large shipping companies like FedEx and UPS, which will help you in rapid delivery across major cities.

Choosing a single shipping partner is not an ideal solution in today’s business conditions. For example, if your customer is in a remote location, you can break the shipping into two or three parts. You can send the product to the city nearest to them utilizing the services of your major shipping partner, whereas you can find a local shipping partner, who would leverage his local shipping capabilities to transfer the shipment from the nearest city to the door step of the customer.

6. Optimize and plan delivery options

With increasing competition, you can find many delivery partners, who would help you in achieving one day or two day delivery targets. Their delivery vehicles run day and night in some areas and you can leverage their strength for local deliveries.

7. Minimize cost using technology

In order to minimize cost, you can go for different options such as shrink-wrap pallets. You can also adjust prices with your shipping partner according to weight and volume factors. Proper tracking of consignment will also help you reduce cost.

Sometimes customers make false claims of receiving broken items or not receiving a product at all. Modern technology helps you track your shipment in real time using video surveillance that reduces the chances of any goof up by the delivery guys and also customers making false claims.

It will also help in improving customer service as the customer would be able to track the shipment online. It will also help them to make sure that they are available at the mentioned address at the time of delivery. Tracking can be enabled across the entire supply chain. The technology also helps the customer in receiving automatic updates about shipment.

8. Review your policy every six months

You should review your shipping policy every 6 months in order to minimize costs and make your delivery even more efficient. This way you will not only be able to reduce cost but would also be able to improve customer loyalty.

Make sure to consider and implement these steps so that your delivery improves drastically.   It will improve your customer base and sales.

Most payment gateway changes are driven by a business’ need to support additional payment options or to accommodate growth. In some cases, merchants come across payment gateways that have more advanced features, are more professional looking, or offer a better experience for the customers.

If you are wondering how to switch payment gateways and the effect switching gateways can have on merchant’s billing, then you are at the right place. Good news is that switching payment gateways is an extremely simple process and in most cases do not have any impact on the billing process.  If you are switching payment gateways, here are few steps you need to follow in order to ensure a seamless transaction

First and Foremost, Check the Payment’s Gateway Compatibility with Your Store

Regardless of the reason for switching gateways, the first thing to ensure is that the payment gateway in consideration is actually compatible with your e-commerce store. It can get very problematic to find out that the gateway doesn’t work for your store after you have made the transition.

Review the Payment Options You will Be Adding or Removing

Moving on to the latest and most advanced payment gateway can bring great perks for your store, such as the ability to include payment wallets or direct integration via API. However, this can also mean that you will have to lose on some features that the new gateway may not be having. Therefore, it is important to evaluate what is being added or removed during payment gateway switching and weigh the pros (and cons) to be fully aware of what you are signing up for.

Consider the Change in Fees Structure

Most payment gateways charge a certain amount of fees. This can be on a monthly or yearly basis or on a commission basis where you pay a small transactional fee for every payment processed. Before making the transaction it is important to do the math to evaluate any increase or decrease in the fees. If the fee is absolutely going to decrease than the decision is easy.

However, an increase in fees is not always a bad thing. Sometimes an increase in fees can bring positive changes for your business. If you are getting access to more payment methods and to a gateway that is more secure and user-friendly, the switch is going to be worth it and you are more likely to get the money back in the long run.

Take Customer’s View Points in Consideration

Have you lost customers because they were unable to make payment through the current gateway? Or have your customers asked you to integrate additional payment methods?

In the end, it is the customer who is going to use the payment gateway and considering customer feedback can go a long way in improving the customer’s payment experience. If you have not collected any feedback yet, you can begin doing that now. Using social media pages like Facebook or Twitter to get customer’s can help you hear your customer out.

Plan for Any Possible Downtime

Once you have made your mind to switch the payment gateway, the final point to consider is whether changing gateways will bring any downtime for your store? If you don’t have provision to try out the new gateway prior to launch, you will need to figure out the best time to have a downtime. This should be the time during which you receive the lowest of traffic and sales.

The key is to think of a time that will have the least impact on the shopper. Instead of rolling out errors, you can create a landing page to inform your visitors that your store is temporarily down and will be back to service soon.

During this downtime, you can make the transition, test the gateway and take everything live. If you do have a test version of your store, test the new gateway thoroughly and by making demo transactions before deploying it for your store.