Planning Your eCommerce Shipping Methods for the Holidays

Each year, more people turn to online shopping in order to make their holiday purchases without fighting crowds and long lines. That’s good news for your business, but to keep your customers happy, you need to choose the right shipping methods.

The right shipping method can make or break a sale and will keep customers coming back to your WordPress eCommerce site, and these tips can help you develop the best possible holiday fulfillment strategy.

Consider Your Business Peak Day

Before the holiday season begins, it is important to do some predications to forecast when your WordPress eCommerce site will be the busiest. If you don’t have experience in this type of forecasting, and external third-party logistics company can help to calculate your peak day. This will be completed using customer behavior and sales volume data from the previous years.

Information from your peak day analysis can help you to create a good fulfillment strategy for the holiday season. There should be a direct relationship between the money you put into marketing and the number of sales that you expect to make. The way that your customers react to your holiday promotions will ultimately affect your ability to send out orders on time.

Prepare for an Increase in Order Volume

There is nothing worse than receiving orders from customers and not being able to ship them. That’s where your peak day forecast comes in handy. If you are expecting to receive 5,000 orders that day, but usually only receive 2,000, you must be prepared. You need to have the means to scale so that you don’t jeopardize any of your holiday sales. Some ways to prepare include:

• Develop improved organizational systems
• Ensure product availability, and understand product visibility requirements in your warehouse
• Convert existing stations for packing into packing lines
• Predict inbound order volume levels
• Use technology to manage your inventory
• Hire extra help if needed, and understand your labor limitations

A close relationship with your third-party logistics company can help for you to prepare fulfillment operations before the busiest times hit your WordPress eCommerce business.

Implement Fulfillment Strategies that Will Improve Sales and the Customer Experience

Holiday fulfillment can lead to a lot of challenges, but it also provides opportunities to improve your brand. One smart marketing decision is often holiday packaging, as online shoppers are attracted to seasonal packaging and are more likely to recommend these items to their friends. Spending the extra time and money to create a beautiful holiday package can ultimately produce more sales, as when customers share their experiences with others, you’ll enjoy increased customer loyalty, brand awareness, and new client acquisition.

Need Some Guidance With Your WordPress eCommerce Website This Holiday Season?

The holidays are quickly approaching, and while it is important to think about the 2016 season, it isn’t too early to think ahead to next years. By documenting your failures and successes, you’ll be better prepared to forecast and make future improvements. Order fulfillment is a fluid process, and improvement is a process that can span across multiple sales seasons.

Cultura Interactive agency is an award winning Fort Lauderdale web design studio, and verified WooExperts for WooCommerce, that strives to create unique and attractive websites, develop strategic internet marketing campaigns and even generate a successful mobile app business plan for our clients.