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Introduction
No doubt, the brands’ approach to serving their buyers for a better customer experience is changing and so are customers’ shopping behavior. Among other expectations, the main one that the customers usually crave is an expected delivery date.
Your customers want to know when they’ll finally get the orders in their hands — and for good reasons! In this article, we’ll show you how estimated delivery dates benefit shoppers.
We’ll also provide you with some strategies, so you can communicate these expected delivery dates in a better way.
But first………
What Exactly are Estimated Delivery Dates(EDDs)?
Estimated delivery dates are the dates or date ranges that predict when the customer will receive the ordered items. You can show these estimated delivery dates in various places.
These are the checkout page, the product page, the order tracking page, and the order confirmation emails.
Estimated delivery dates are the main components to boost your sales performance and customer satisfaction rate because they help your buyers easily make the purchasing decision and increase their trust in a brand. We’ll talk more about this in the next section!
5 Ways Estimated Delivery Dates Benefit Customers
Estimated Delivery Dates have gained a new meaning for today’s eCommerce businesses. Here, we’ll break down all the benefits your customers will get from EDDs.
1) Helps them make the buying decision
Customers want the orders within their preferred time frame. If the delivery date exceeds the deadline, they might not purchase them. Why?
Say you want to give your wife a beautiful ring on your 1st anniversary. So, obviously, you’ll likely shortlist those rings that will arrive before or on that day. If it reaches the next day, what’s the point of gifting?
That’s why, when shoppers purchase something online, they want to have it on their hands before any particular occasion or period. EDDs help them here.
It shows them the approximate date when they will finally get the item. If it meets their criteria, they'll hit the buy button without thinking twice.
2) Provides them with peace of mind & reduces anxiety
After hitting the buy button, every customer thinks — when will I get my order? In fact, if they shop from any brand for the first time, they might even think of getting scammed.
Project44’s study shows the same. It claims that around 97.8% of customers want to know the date when their packages will arrive.
When you show the estimated delivery dates on relevant places like branded tracking pages or within the shipment notifications, it creates a sense of credibility among your shoppers, reduces their fear of getting deceived, and also improves their post-purchase experience.
3) Maintains transparency
Promised delivery dates set clear expectations for your customers regarding when they’re going to receive the items.
In fact, if any unexpected delays occur along the shipping journey because of weather conditions or regulatory restrictions, the EDD solutions send delay notifications to customers — showing the new expected date of delivery.
This level of transparency mitigates any further misunderstandings or dissatisfaction and makes them “worry-less” about their purchases.
4) Helps them plan their schedule beforehand
In a study by Numerator Psychographics, around 68% of shoppers say that they purchase online to save their time. This means most of your customers might be busy professionals.
This also means that your customers want their orders on time and organize their daily routines so they can receive the packages.
EDDs help them to do so. If they get to know when they’ll receive the item, they can easily plan their day — like taking a leave from the office or rescheduling their appointments.
5) Reduces customer service inquiries
Your customers don’t want to go back and forth with emails and phone calls and wait for hours to solve their queries.
They need instant clarity. However, among all the frequently asked questions to the agents, the most common one is – “When will the order arrive?”
Now, if you clearly show the EDD, it eliminates the headache of reaching out to a customer service agent for clarity.
How to Effectively Communicate the Estimated Delivery Dates for Improved Customer Satisfaction: 5 Simple Strategies
Now that you have a detailed picture of how estimated delivery dates benefit shoppers, let’s check out some strategies you can adopt to effectively communicate the estimated delivery dates.
1) Accurately calculate the estimated delivery dates
There’s a thin line between showing EDD and providing the most accurate EDD. After all, you’ll have to maintain the adherence rate by matching the anticipated delivery date to the actual delivery date. And the higher the adherence rate, the better.
Thus, accurately calculate the EDD after considering various factors that may directly or indirectly impact the expected delivery date. These are:
- Carrier performance
- The shipment type
- Inventory level
- Weather conditions
- And more.
However, if you don’t want to calculate the EDD manually (which is often error-prone!), go for an EDD API to pull off this process in the most accurate way.
2) Clearly display the EDD at various touchpoints
Most of the time, brands only show the EDD on the product page. Sure, it has its own significance.
But if you want to stay more transparent with your shoppers, it’s always a good idea to show the EDD in various places.
These include the checkout page, the order confirmation email, and the shipment notifications. In fact, you can also add it to the branded tracking page.
Here’s an example:
3) Offer different shipping methods showing the EDDs
If you’re offering multiple shipment methods, ensure to provide the expected delivery dates for each one.
It’ll help the shoppers make decisions about whether they should opt for the standard shipping service or for the expedited one.
The giant brand Adidas follows the same approach. It clearly mentions exactly how many days shipping to a metro city or a non-metro city will take:
4) Invest in an advanced technology that offers EDD API
No doubt, manually calculating the most accurate EDD is one of the most daunting tasks. Plus, showing them in relevant places at the right time adds another layer of complexity.
Don’t worry! You can delegate all these tasks to an EDD API like ClickPost’s advanced EDD solution.
As they are already integrated with carriers, they consider multiple factors, such as carrier SLA and uploaded SLA, and use a data science model to fetch the most accurate EDD. In fact, ClickPost’s EDD API has a more than 90% adherence rate.
Not only that, they automatically show these EDDs in relevant places, including the order tracking page, Thank You page, PDP page, and checkout page.
Hopscotch has seen insane results after opting for an EDD API. It used ClickPost EDD API and saw a 5% hike in its conversion rates.
5) Add a zip code prompter
Another clever way of showing the customized EDD to each shopper is adding a zip code prompter to the product page.
When your buyers enter the pin code, it displays the promised delivery dates based on the destination.
As a result, you can communicate the EDD in a more personalized way — instead of showing a generic expected delivery date that might not match the actual delivery date.
See how Puma pulls off this process:
Final Take!
Expected delivery dates, when calculated and communicated properly, can win customers’ trust, win their buy-ins, and make them loyal retainers. And we've already shown you how.
So, if you’re still thinking EDDs are optional, think again and give it utmost priority. In this process, if you need advanced technology, you can give a try to ClickPost’s EDD.
FAQs
1) What is the purpose of the estimated delivery date?
One of the main purposes of EDDs is to improve shoppers’ buying experience. Apart from that, estimated delivery dates also bring in indirect benefits like improved customer satisfaction rate, enhanced brand loyalty, and better customer retention rate.
2) Can Shoppers change the estimated delivery dates?
Yes, they can! Most eCommerce brands allow customers to change the delivery dates as per their daily schedules, which further improves their shopping experience.