How many times have we heard of people exclaim that a certain ecommerce company sells great products but that their Logistics leaves a lot of scope for improvement? With time, people realize that the shipping services, packaging and several other logistics factors are as important as the product itself. After all, your usual restaurant is not a favorite just because they have great food, right?
No one goes to a restaurant where the waiters are rude, however good the food is. Industry giants, especially the ones that have no inventory of their own have one thing right: logistics. They liaise with reliable shipping partners who deliver goods on time to the customer.
So, organizations know that brand building is also about logistics. When you sell something that is comparable with what your peer sells online, you need to make sure you stand apart with your logistics handling. And you also need to market that to your customers. With luck, this becomes your USP. It comes to a point where customers stick to you despite paying more because of your logistics reliability. For example, Amazon is a household name today not because of its competitive prices but because of its revolutionary delivery systems. One can order a product and get it the same day. Tomorrow, a drone delivery seems plausible with Amazon. People trust Amazon to deliver. Quite literally! So, logistics is definitely the new Brand Differentiator.
If you run an ecommerce company, these moves can help you build better logistics and thereby improve your brand:
Experts say 80 per cent of a company’s sales come from 20 per cent of its products. So, if you want to improve your overall reputation as an excellent logistics and operations seller, you need to focus on these high selling products. The rest, you can put on the back burner for a while. You can look at customer complaints with these product deliveries and look at resolving them first.
Periodically, do a Swot Analysis. A SWOT analysis is one that tests your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. This would help you understand where you lag behind in logistics and you can look at improvement in these areas. An external consultant can help you chalk it out neatly.
Have pilot projects where you scrap logistics ideas that do not work and enforce newer ideas. For example, it can be as simple as trying out a new shipping carrier for a certain product or area. If it works better than usual, it gives you an avenue to shift operations to a better carrier. You can try promoting free shipping for a minimum purchase limit. All these trial runs can be used as case studies.
Related Topics:
Unravelling the secret shipping strategy of top 5 established Brands
3 Game Changing Logistic Decisions for a Successful Online Business
