航运促进增长：无缝的端到端交付体验如何实现可扩展的增长

How building the right delivery experience canfacilitate scalable growth Introduction: a changingworld and rising expectations Online shopping is permeating every aspectof retail. Across Europe, ecommerce, as ashare of retail spending, is far above its pre-pandemic peak, and predicted to grow growby over 40 percent over the next few years.By 2027, European ecommerce is expected toreach $902 billion by 2027.1 Increasingly accustomed to this way ofshopping, consumers have developed certainexpectations from the ecommerce experience.Three in five shoppers, for instance, prefer tobuy from retailers that offer delivery optionswhich meet their needs – convenience, speed,or a mixture of the two.2Communication isimportant, too. Four in five consumers believeretailers should inform them of every stageof the fulfillment and delivery journey, with asimilar number expecting retailers to providetheir own tracking service.34 It’s important that retailers can meet suchexpectations at every stage of their growth:from increasing efficiency and flexibility tooffering a greater choice of delivery andreturns options and arranging relationshipswith multiple carriers to enable deliveriesworldwide. They require a delivery experience partnerthat will grow as they grow. A strategic partnerthat can provide an automated delivery andreturns process, access to a wide range ofcarriers across the globe and, of course, thetechnology that makes all this possible. Laying the foundations for growthwith flexibility and efficiency According to Eemeli Palo, ecommercemanager for Pikkuvihreä, a Finnish familycompany specializing in eco-friendly toiletsolutions, water purifiers, and composting,“Our smallest products fit in an envelope,while our biggest products, such as outhouses,require a pallet. Previously, when customersbought both, our old system would struggle tofind a sensible transport solution. As a result,we were missing out on fifty to a hundred bigorders a year.” As the company has grown, automating theprocess has saved them tens of thousandsof euros worth of shipments it would havemissed out on in the past. The company canalso now process ten times more packagetickets and shipping books in the sameamount of time as before. Where it previouslytook about sixty seconds to create a shippinglabel for a customer order, it now takes lessthan ten. Smaller ecommerce operations can find itoverwhelming to choose the right shippinglabel for a particular product. The challengeis further exacerbated by the fact thatdifferent carriers often require differentpackage sizes. Automating the book and print process cansignificantly improve efficiency. The abilityto generate booking and documentation assoon as an order is complete and identify theoptimum transportation solution for everyorder, no matter its size or shape, will not onlymeet customer expectations, but it can alsosave considerable time and money. A range of options to buildloyalty as the business grows As a company grows, it’s essential it continues tooffer a first-class delivery experience, including arange of delivery options. Indeed, half of shoppershave abandoned their online shopping cart due toa shortage of satisfactory delivery options.5 But,while research shows that almost half of shopperswill look elsewhere if they feel a retailer’s deliverytimes are too long, speed isn’t necessarily the mostimportant factor for all consumers.6 An academic study found that grocery customers werewilling to wait almost 11 hours longer for a delivery ifthe delivery window was one hour shorter. They wouldhold off for 7.5 hours if they could specify a preferreddelivery day.7In fact, almost a third of consumerssaid that the ability to specify an exact delivery slotcould mean the difference between shopping with oneretailer and another.8 Retailers are beginning to offer more sustainableoptions too. Greater awareness of climate concernsmeans most consumers today are willing to wait fordeliveries if it means reducing their carbon footprint.9It’s little surprise, then, that retailers are now offeringoptions such as ship from store and click and collect,as well as investing in electric fleets. Online shopping doesn’t end with a product’s delivery,of course. When one in five purchases are sent back,it’s important for retailers to ensure they also havea quick and easy returns process in place.10Andclear communication matters, too. Customers wantto know where their order is at every stage of itsjourney. Tracking is vital; using SMS, email, or in-appnotifications to allow customers to follow their ordersfrom the moment they’re packed to the moment theyarrive at their front door. Ensuring this entire end-to-end experience isessential. 2024’s consumers are sophisticatedmultichannel shoppers, who expect nothing less. International expansion:a springboard into new markets There comes a point in many businesses’growth when they will want to expandinternationally. To continue offering theircustomers the s