Woo-hoo, spring is here and it’s time to really settle into the finer aspects of 2016! One of them is looking at what the top ecommerce shipping trends for this year will be, as RepricerExpress has seen enough of 2016 to determine what they’ll be. Buckle up your seatbelts, you’re in for quite the rid!
Trend 1: Drones Coming Soon to a Location Near You
They’ve been talked about incessantly — sometimes positively, sometimes negatively — but we really think drone delivery will become a reality in 2016. This will potentially and especially be the case for metropolitan cities, as they’re usually the first testing grounds for new innovations. And while drones have been bandied about as dangerous things (see: the one that almost knocked out skier Marcel Hirscher), they’re also being used in different and exciting ways (see: drone racing). Like them or not, drones are here to stay.
Trend 2: Faster/More Efficient Delivery Options
Okay, so maybe drones might not be an option for you, but one of the things we here at RepricerExpress see when we peer into our crystal ball is faster shipping, full stop. Buyers are no longer content to abide with Pony Express delivery times, as seen with things like next-day delivery and same-day delivery. If you can at all manage this, you must include faster delivery options in the checkout section. Your sales will thank you.
Trend 3: Different Delivery and Pick-up Options
We understand if you can’t make drones and same-day or next-day delivery work, but that doesn’t mean you should stop trying to seek out different options. One is to make sure the item gets to your buyer no matter what, as many consumers get easily irritated by seeing that package delivery slipped taped to their doors and having to pick it up elsewhere. I remember one time when I was at home and the mail deliverer didn’t even bother buzzing up, and simply left one of those slips at the front door. Avoid this type of annoyance by offering your buyers the option of having the product delivered to a nearby service centre so they can pick it up on their own schedule, instead of having to shuffle things around to accommodate the deliverer’s own window of dropping it off.
Trend 4: Let Your Buyers Choose the Shipment Option
This is closely tied to the previous points, but it bears repeating. If you’ve got multiple options for shipping and delivering available, you’ve got to tell your buyers about it. There have been countless instances where I’ve clicked off of one seller’s page because the only shipping option they offered was several weeks, while another seller promised to have it at my doorstep in a matter of days. Consumers might not always use the fastest option, but they’ll sure appreciate knowing it’s available.
Trend 5: More Fulfilment Options
Unless your inventory line is really small (e.g. you deal in rare, expensive and/or large items), look into getting a third-party to handle the fulfilment for you. It’s an investment on your part to speed up and make the fulfilment process more efficient, thereby helping out your buyers at the same time.
Trend 6: Increased Access to Free Shipping
We can’t tell you how many times we’ve stressed free shipping as one of the best perks you can offer to draw in more buyers, and we think 2016 is going to be a year where sellers start using this practice more and more. The world of ecommerce is only becoming more competitive and cut-throat, and using free shipping as a way to entice more consumers over to your side is going to start becoming a way of the future. And really, unless you’re selling super cheap items, it’s not that difficult to absorb the cost or massage it in other ways.
Trend 7: Free Shipping on Bundled or Large Orders
We briefly mentioned how free shipping might not be the best option if someone’s buying an inexpensively-priced product, but put in the incentive of free shipping on bundled or large orders. Not only will this motivate people to purchase more (i.e. spend X dollars to unlock free shipping), but it can lead to an increase in sales for you and the ability to draw in more consumers.
