One Weak Link

I am a marketer, and we, the marketers, especially in the B2B world, are focused on new customers and retaining and growing current customers. We focus on the customer journey in every aspect, as each part is critical if you want to delight the customer and ensure repeat business. This means for e-commerce companies, delighting the customer cannot stop until the package reaches the customer’s door at the right time, is secured, and is in great condition.

The focus on the entire e-commerce logistics process should be part of your customer communication strategy. We all know the logistics process starts at the purchase from the shopping cart to the first-mile pickup to middle-mile transportation and finally, to last-mile delivery until it is ultimately in your customers’ hands. There may be short warehousing stops, but that is the basic equation.

Now your brand needs to be prevalent throughout the process which is why communication is important to reinforce the brand. You need to generate brand trust. It all starts at the purchase where your company should already have your delivery partner integrated with your e-commerce platform. Most e-commerce companies have an omnichannel approach to communicating, so this should continue. Your company should be communicating via multiple channels like email, SMS, Mobile apps, WhatsApp, voice, and the web. Your customers will want to pick and choose the channels of communication they see fit, so you will want to ensure you have or are working with solutions that enable these options.

To continue building trust in your e-commerce brand you must provide transparency about the package’s journey to the customer. Partners that cannot do this seamlessly really do put your brand in danger. Customers want to know where the package is from first to the last mile at all times. This provides them with the convenience they require and expect. Real-time updates are the foundation of the e-commerce company and their customer, these real-time updates, driven by scans of the e-commerce packages, are the bedrock to great communications and insights for the customer.

Some additional components for the delivery equation are the ability to schedule, adjust drop-offs at the delivery address, contactless delivery, and as well a functionality called geofencing (location triggers) that generates a countdown to delivery communications. All of these should be driven across the entire journey regardless of your mode of transportation whether all ground or with air middle mile constant communication ensures a great customer journey. But anyone misstep in the linkages of the process will ruin a great customer experience.