{"id":2054,"date":"2014-12-10T11:13:36","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T19:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webcentsmagazine.com\/?p=2054"},"modified":"2015-01-29T11:20:47","modified_gmt":"2015-01-29T19:20:47","slug":"3-holiday-e-commerce-policies-for-a-merry-q4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webcentsmagazine.com\/?p=2054","title":{"rendered":"3 Holiday E-Commerce Policies For A Merry Q4"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #339966;\">You may not think of your shipping or return policies as part of marketing&#8217;s purview, but contributor David Rekuc argues they can be as influential as ads or promotions this time of year. <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s here. Halloween has officially passed and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. At this point, retailers should be well on their way to nailing down a solid holiday strategy. But here\u2019s one area you may not have considered: the three policies that can make or break your customer\u2019s confidence at checkout. Shipping, delivery, and return policies often play second string to promotional and discount strategies, but they can be just as significant when it comes to influencing\u00a0actual sales. Here are some actionable tips to apply before the holidays:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Return Policy<\/strong>. Have a clearly marked return policy in cart and checkout<strong>. <\/strong>Customers are looking for your policy and, if you have it hidden, you need to change that. Returns are a part of e-commerce and an even bigger part of holiday shopping. You need to have a return policy you can proudly present to shoppers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Delivery Date<\/strong>. Display a projected delivery date. Very often, retailers list delivery as \u201ctwo to three days\u201d away, or something to that effect, and any possible delay before shipping occurs is glossed over. During holiday times, the difference between one day and the next can make or break the sale. According to research sponsored by UPS, customers want to know exactly when their packages are going to be in their hands, in the form of a specified date and day of the week. It\u2019s worth jumping through the technical hoops to put prospective\u00a0customers\u2019 mind at ease. Otherwise, they\u2019ll likely find a retailer that will provide that reassurance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Tracking<\/strong>. Make package tracking easy<strong>. <\/strong>Customers are going to want to know where their gifts are and will be hitting your site to find out. Make sure both confirmation emails and your\u00a0site are clear about where to go to find that information. If you don\u2019t, you\u2019re going to have an influx of unnecessary and time-consuming customer service inquiries to find basic order statuses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Free Shipping<\/strong>. Employ conditional free shipping<strong>. <\/strong>Using free shipping as a threshold to increase average order value (think \u201cFree shipping over $25\u201d), or in exchange for choosing a slower delivery method, can reduce the cost of free shipping offers while still keeping your site appealing to consumers. The infographic below shows that many customers say they are willing to add additional items to their cart or wait a little longer for delivery to qualify for free shipping. In fact, offering free shipping is an important consideration for retailers that want to remain competitive. The National Retail Federation\u2019s Shop.org reported\u00a0last\u00a0month that 92.3% of retailers polled planned to offer some type of free shipping\u00a0this season.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Email Alerts<\/strong>. Prominently display \u201clast day to order\u201d countdowns. In your emails, in a ribbon at the top of the site, in your shopping cart. <em>Everywhere.<\/em> As your customers get down to the wire, these countdowns help push a sense of urgency and avoid disappointment (for you and them) if they wait too long to purchase. You can even use an ad customizer to show this countdown in your paid search ads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Digital Gift Cards<\/strong>. Push digital gift cards late in the season<strong>. <\/strong>You may not be able to ship a package on December 24th\u00a0and get it there in time, but you can still send an email with a digital gift card. Once you start to hit a wall with sending actual products, ramp up your offers on gift cards.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most retailers know that shopping cart abandonment hovers around 67%, but shipping options, delivery notifications, and return policies can play a huge part in reducing cart abandonment. Click below to see the infographic from my company\u2019s\u00a0Ripen eCommerce blog offers a compilation of some of the most important shipping and return factors that seasonal shoppers consider when shopping online:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/marketingland.com\/3-holiday-policies-merry-q4-infographic-106252\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-2056 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/webcentsmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/12\/GivingFreeShipping3.png\" alt=\"3HolidayE-CommercePolicies\" width=\"200\" height=\"1134\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>by David Rekuc, November 4, 2014<\/p>\n<p><em style=\"color: #666666;\">Article and images courtesy: \u00a0Marketing Land, www.marketingland.com<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may not think of your shipping or return policies as part of marketing&#8217;s purview, but contributor David Rekuc argues they can be as influential as ads or promotions this time of year. Well, it\u2019s here. Halloween has officially passed and Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away. At this point, retailers should be well<a href=\"https:\/\/webcentsmagazine.com\/?p=2054\" title=\"Read more\" ><span style=\"color:#c92e2e;\">&#8230;Click to read more ><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":2059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2054","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-retailing","content-print"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>3 Holiday E-Commerce Policies For A Merry Q4 - webcentsmagazine.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/webcentsmagazine.com\/?p=2054\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"3 Holiday E-Commerce Policies For A Merry Q4 - webcentsmagazine.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may not think of your shipping or return policies as part of marketing&#8217;s purview, but contributor David Rekuc argues they can be as influential as ads or promotions this time of year. 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