The holiday shopping rush is upon us, and shoppers are increasingly heading online to look for gifts. That’s great news for Shopify merchants, but it does present some challenges. To avoid customer disappointment and overcommitment, it’s important to add shipping deadlines for guaranteed delivery by Christmas.
Every year, some customers inevitably wait until the very last minute to buy their gifts for the holidays! No matter how many emails you send, or messages you add to your store and checkout. Some customers still miss or ignore cut off dates and make the purchase anyway. That leads to customer service hassles when they realise they’ve missed the deadline and won’t get their gifts in time for Christmas.
That causes lost time, money and chargebacks and can even result in bad reviews. All that effort could be better spent on maximising coveted holiday sales that many stores wait all year for!
These days, customers expect more and more from their online shopping experiences. They want flexibility and expect quick gratification. On top of that, customers are getting used to being able to guarantee the product they wanted is in stock. They also love being able to skip queues and avoid the mad rush of last-minute shoppers. Ultimately, they want convenience.
More and more stores are offering in-store pickup and some shoppers are put off when it’s not available. Big retailers like Target have had it for a while, other like West Elm have separate entrances just for pickup orders. It’s becoming big business, too.
In 2018, shoppers used store pickup options at record rates, and we expect to see another surge in 2019. CNBC reported that holiday season in-store pickup was up 47% in 2018 over 2017, according to data from Adobe.
On top of the increased demand, there are lots of upsell opportunities, and many customers leave having bought extra items. In the UK, New Look have said a quarter of their click and collect customers buy something else, spending £27 more, on average.
Same-day and next-day delivery is also something that has driven buyers online and towards the big players in the market - especially to grab last-minute holiday gifts. Now, increasingly sophisticated delivery services are available through our app for Shopify. It’s easy to integrate local delivery into your checkout.
Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery allows merchants to give shoppers myriad options for receiving gifts to their doorstep. It’s also easy to control what products are available for delivery and when. Merchants can also choose a selection of products to be offered only during a given window of time, making managing expectations around Christmas much easier.
More than 4,000 Shopify merchants already use Zapiet -Pickup + Delivery. Join them today! Get started with a Zapiet - Pickup + Delivery 30-day free trial!
