With shoppers getting more and more comfortable with making online purchases, eCommerce has seen a rapid surge all over the globe. However, with one in 20 online orders resulting in a failed delivery, failed deliveries have become an infuriating aspect of eCommerce.
For an eCommerce business to become successful, it must deliver the right product to the right customer on time as missed deliveries result in dissatisfied consumers not thinking twice before switching to a rival eCommerce store.
Read on to know how failed deliveries can affect your eCommerce business and what you can do to reduce the instances of missed deliveries.
Challenges of Failed Deliveries:
Whether the reason for the failed delivery is the incomplete address of the buyer, traffic or roadblocks, failed deliveries can affect an eCommerce business to a great extent.
Below are some facts about how failed deliveries affect a business:
1- Negative brand Image resulting in the loss of consumers.
While making a purchase online, consumers expect their package to reach their correct address on time. Thus, an unsatisfactory delivery experience, even if it is due to the carrier’s fault, can result in a loss of trust in the brand.
A missed delivery means that the customer will lose their trust, and it will likely be their last purchase from the company. Also, there are chances that they would leave a negative review online, which would damage the reputation of the brand.
Considering many buyers check online reviews before making an online purchase, even a few negative reviews about the missed deliveries can deter prospective customers from purchasing from the company.
2- Lower profits.
A failed delivery can result in much more than a dissatisfied customer. There are various costs involved when it comes to re-arranging the failed deliveries. Every time a package does not reach the buyer on the first attempt, you will be required to send it again, which will result in additional costs.
These additional costs include shipping fees, refunds, and loss of employee time. The costs sustained from sending new products, and return logistics, add up to your overheads and can put a huge strain on businesses, thus lowering profits.
3- Environmental Concerns.
In the case of missed delivery in the first attempt, the driver is expected to make another attempt to deliver the purchased goods, which adds to carbon emissions. Numerous failed delivery situations have been investigated, based on several realistic home delivery failure rates.
How to Reduce Missed Deliveries?
If you feel that there have been too many failed deliveries and you cannot meet the customers’ expectations, then it is time to plan a strategy to meet your customers’ needs.
Making deliveries and collections safely.
Communication and transparency are critical for reducing the instances of missed deliveries. From the time the package gets shipped from the warehouse to when it gets delivered to the customer, the customer should be given a constant update about its status.
Also, even before making the purchase, the customer must be presented with the estimated time of delivery, so there are no false expectations. The aim must be to deliver the package to the correct address safely.
Drivers must be given proper training to ensure that all e-commerce deliveries are safe. This training will help make them aware of the regulations to drive safely and perform their job efficiently.
Moreover, they should also be trained to manage unexpected changes that can arise from time to time and impact their service.
Safety precautions training.
For a vehicle to operate efficiently, the driver should pay attention to its maintenance and repairs. Keeping a vehicle in good condition not only brings down the repair costs but also ensures that the vehicle is safe to drive.
Also, giving drivers training about how to handle problems properly can help them reduce delays in deliveries.
Reduce the Delay in deliveries.
Unforeseen traffic conditions, roadblocks, or other real-world constraints can often lead to unavoidable delays from the delivery companies. However, intelligent route optimization software that takes real-life constraints into account before generating optimized delivery routes can solve the issue and predict the correct delivery window.
Achieve a Significant First-Time Delivery Success Rate with Norma:
Indeed, training drivers can play a huge role in reducing the instances of missed deliveries, but they still need help. Therefore, businesses should use advanced technology to evolve their e-commerce delivery process.
A Route Optimization Software will help eCommerce companies to drastically reduce missed deliveries by generating efficient and optimized route plans. When using route optimization software, the driver is required to follow the optimized plan, which ensures that packages will always reach the correct address.
An AI-based route optimization software like Norma creates the most efficient route plan and automatically converts addresses into locations. It will help you find solutions in case of incorrect locations. Furthermore, Norma ensures that you are always ahead of your competitors when it comes to customer satisfaction and delivery success rate.
Watch How an E-commerce delivery service in Egypt is achieving a 96% delivery success rate with AI.
For more information on how Norma can provide similar results to your delivery operations, feel free to request a one-to-one demo and one of our experts will be happy to call you back to discuss your requirements in detail.