Are your customers abandoning carts because you do not allow them to choose delivery dates? Especially for businesses like bakeries, florists, grocery stores, customers would refrain from ordering online if they cannot select the delivery date. Well, what is the point of receiving a birthday cake after the day is gone? Right!
Businesses for whom delivery dates matter the most want to offer their customers multiple delivery options so that customers ordering from their store have a satisfactory customer experience.
But how can you do that?
If you have a Shopify store, you are lucky as you only need to integrate an order delivery date plugin that can solve all problems by adding more functionality to your store.
Let’s understand the challenges Shopify store owners face and then see how the plugin can help overcome them.
Challenges Faced by eCommerce Stores
Businesses understood customers’ choice to buy online and invested in an ecommerce store. The eStores offered the flexibility that customers wanted.
What next?
The biggest question customers have is when will their order be delivered? Mostly Shopify stores display a generalized message saying their order will be delivered in X number of days.
The customers have no clarity on when their order will be actually delivered. Such a scenario refrains customers from ordering online because there is no point in ordering the product if you do not get it when you actually need it.
Here are some major challenges that eCommerce stores face:
Lesser Transparency
Suppose during checkout, the expected delivery date is not visible or says something like “Your order will be delivered within 15 days” (even though you can deliver the order in two days, but your store does not have a feature that can calculate the delivery date or allow the customer to choose the delivery date). In that case, there are high chances the customer will not complete the checkout and find some other store that offers faster delivery options or allows them to choose their preferred date.
More Friction
As you do not have any feature that shows the delivery date, customers will head to your customer support. Customers often get furious as they might want the product before the date your website shows. There is a high possibility of back and forth in communication between customer and customer support. There are chances customers are not enjoying the overall experience, and they might not come back to you for the next purchase.
What is a Delivery Date Scheduler
In these times where same-day delivery and next-day delivery concepts are at its peak, not having a delivery date scheduler can be a major setback for your business.
A delivery date scheduler allows the customer to choose the delivery date for their order. This add-on is not limited to choosing delivery dates but also allows the customers to choose the time slots for delivery.
The next point explains why you need this plugin.
Why Shopify Stores Should Invest in a Delivery Date Scheduler
It is clear from the above point that this plugin will bring in more clarity for customers on when their product will be delivered. But for small and medium businesses, the concept of same-day or next-day delivery is difficult to execute because you might not have enough warehouses and inventory to make this possible.
Well, we have a solution for that.
There are two things that you can do to offer the same-day/next-day delivery option:
- If the customer orders from the area near your warehouse or store, where you can deliver the products in a day, for that zip code, you can offer the same day/next day facility.
- The second option is to offer a store pickup facility. If the user wants the product the same day, they can pick it up from the warehouse or your store itself. This Shopify delivery date scheduler offers features like a store locator where the customer can view the store location and decide if they wish to pick up the order themselves. They can select the pickup date and time and collect the order from the store.
Now that you know that this plugin can work wonders for small to large businesses let us understand the delivery date scheduler in detail to know what else it offers.
Features of the Delivery Date Scheduler
Here is how this plugin can add features to your Shopify store and help you scale the business:
Offer Multiple Delivery Option
After adding this plugin, you can offer three delivery options to your customers: Store pickup, local delivery (for nearby customers), and shipping. Customers like having options to choose from. They like to choose the options that best fit their needs. Offering multiple delivery options will lead to an increase in sales as customers that were earlier abandoning at checkout will now be satisfied with the options you have. Customer retention rates also increase because customers like to shop from stores that provide on-time delivery.
Delivery Date and Time Selection
The customers have full control over choosing the delivery date for both store pick up and shipping. You, as an admin, can customize the calendar with available dates and block the dates when you do not deliver, like weekends and holidays. Similarly, the admin can enter the time slots that work for their delivery partners so that customers can choose from the available time slots.
Highlight Icons and Text
The texts and icons are customizable. Admin can add a message like “Sorry, we do not deliver on this date. Select another date.” when a customer tries to select the blocked date. This is to inform the reason they cannot select the given date, rather than them assuming that the feature is not working. To have some sort of message after the user selects an entity helps them understand the website and flow. You can display a message like “Please choose preferable time-slot” after they successfully select the date. This informs them that their date selection is successful, and now they have to select the time slot for the same date.
Configure Shipping Rate
This plugin gives you two options to configure the shipping rates. The first one is static shipping rates, where you keep one standard delivery charge for each order. The second one is dynamic shipping rates. You can add rates based on the purchase value of the order or based on the location of delivery. If the customer orders goods of a certain amount, then they would be eligible for free shipping, or else they have to pay the said amount. Similarly, if the delivery location is in another city, state, or country, then the said amount of delivery charge would be applicable.
Order Processing Time
Not all products are ready to ship. Bakers need time to prepare cake, similarly, a florist needs time to make beautiful bouquets. You can enter the time required to prepare the order in the backend. For instance, if the customer selects the product on the 11th that requires two days to get ready for shipping, then they will be able to select dates from the 14th onwards as the 12th and 13th will be the order processing time. Thus, you can configure processing time for all the products, and automatically the calendar will show the available dates after eliminating the processing days.
Benefits
Order delivery date scheduler can help you manage delivery more efficiently and with more options for delivery. It improves the way your store’s workflow functions. Here are some more benefits that this plugin brings with it:
- Customers like to have options; it gives them the power to choose and select the options that work best for them. It improves the overall experience for customers, and they would certainly like to come back for the next purchase.
- The number of failed delivery attempts and returns due to failed delivery, even after multiple attempts, would definitely reduce. Customers can select dates they are available to receive the order.
- If you choose dynamic shipping rates, then offering free shipping after a certain order value intrigues users to buy more. This strategy is useful for increasing sales.
- As a store owner, you have a fully configurable backend to enable and disable options. Be it shipping rates, processing time, text, icons, etc.; everything is configurable and extremely easy to use.
Conclusion
The Shopify delivery date scheduler can change the way your online store functions. It brings in more clarity for both ends: customers and store owners. The conversion rate definitely increases as the customers who were abandoning the cart due to unavailability of the delivery date can now select the date and time of the delivery or can directly pick up the order from the store.
Such an omnichannel solution improves the overall purchase experience for your customers. If your customers are satisfied, there is a high possibility they would suggest it to their friends and family. Your sales would increase, and all this is possible by integrating an order delivery date with your Shopify store. You can find development companies that offer plugins with all such functionality. They will help you integrate the plugin with your Shopify store and provide guidance wherever needed.
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