Ecommerce retailers could unlock more than €2 million a year through better delivery management

Abandoned baskets, customer service costs, carrier rates, returns processing, and redelivery costs can erode more than 60% of ecommerce profits

Delivery management is one of ecommerce’s biggest opportunities to improve profitability, according to a new report from nShift. “The ROI of delivery management” report shows how a European retailer could unlock more than €2 million a year by running deliveries more efficiently and improving the customer experience.

nShift’s report pinpoints the four most common sources of margin leaks and explains how the right delivery management platform can help stop them. Abandoned shopping carts, customer service time and resource requirements, returns processing and failed deliveries can erode more than 60% of the profit margin on a typical online order. This margin leakage breaks down as follows:

• 24% due to abandoned shopping carts for slow delivery
• 18% on customer service and “where is my order” calls
• 12% in returns processing
• 8% because of failed deliveries

Done right, the delivery management platform can transform ecommerce performance, the report shows. This can include:

• Increases of up to 20% in checkout conversion rates
• Improved warehouse picking efficiencies of up to 40%
• Lower customer service costs for order tracking
• Reduced carrier costs from using the best carriers for each delivery

“Retailers scrutinize every penny they spend acquiring customers, yet many still accept avoidable losses throughout the delivery journey. Every abandoned basket, unnecessary support call and inefficient return quietly chips away at margins.

“Last-mile deliveries are the costliest part of the supply chain. With the right delivery management strategies in place, businesses can increase their profits, retain customers and accelerate growth.”

Jurgen Leijdekker, CEO, nShift

“The ROI of delivery management” provides a clear roadmap for retailers to improve every stage of the delivery journey, including interactive tools and checklists. It shows how leading retailers are using deliveries to drive ecommerce success:

• Improving delivery options at the checkout helped a Swedish health and wellness retailer increase average order values by 28%
• Adding multi-carrier automation meant that a European supplier of precision-cut metals reduced daily delivery administration by 75%
• Stress testing site load ensured that, during peak, a large Danish electronics retailer managed a 300% order surge with no downtime
• A fast-growing Swedish ecommerce business grew 40% YoY running multiple storefronts on one delivery backbone

Read “The ROI of delivery management” to find out more.