Your monthly dose of e-comm news from Ingrid | September 2022

Closing the gap between checkout and delivery

One research report after another, we’ve been told that consumers expect a seamless shopping experience—from the moment they land on an online store to the point of unboxing their purchase.

We’ve also been told that, once they finalize the purchase, customers already treat the products as theirs. But, there is a lot that can go wrong between ‘purchased’ and ‘delivered'. Think of issues like lost parcels, broken items, or delivery delays. The problem is, even the smallest issue along the way makes anxiety kick in (there’s even a word for it: pre-parcel anxiety!). 

There’s a way to combat this unpleasant feeling, though. And it all starts with closing the gap between checkout and delivery thanks to proactive e-commerce order tracking. Learn how to improve your e-commerce order tracking, and why it matters →

The 90/90 rule

You might be familiar with the 80/20 rule or, in other words, the Pareto principle. Following this logic, 80 percent of your turnover comes from 20 percent of your goods, 80 percent of all complaints from 20 percent of your customers, and so on.

Now, here’s an even better rule to follow: the 90/90 rule. Especially during difficult times like these. Rising interest rates, decreasing sales, risk-averse venture capitalists, bans on fakes, overstocking, and high shipping rates… It can feel like it's been going on for a while now and you might be hoping that the turnaround is near.

The reality is: even if we’re “90% done” as the industry, there’s somehow still 90% left to go. It doesn’t mean, however, that there’s absolutely nothing to do about it when running an e-commerce business.

Ingrid’s Co-Founder & COO, Anders Ekman, shares his advice in an article for Dagens Logistik →

Ingrid Tracking

Have you tried the improved Tracking solution from Ingrid? It's a highly customizable widget for displaying relevant tracking details and providing full transparency to customers with the status of their parcels and precise delivery times.

• Relevant tracking information at every stage: Ingrid Tracking covers the full post-purchase experience, showing order status from when it's placed, not shipped.
• End-to-end communication with your customers: Take control over post-purchase messaging and stop redirecting your customers to carriers' websites.
• Fewer support issues: Let your customers know where their orders are at all times and avoid the dreaded “Where is my order?” questions.

The widget can be configured in a number of different ways, ranging from custom styling to different levels of authorization and interactions. Book a demo and see it for yourself →

Integrations & improvements 

• New carrier integrations for Best B2C products: Best Hemleverans Nu and Best Box
• New, more sustainable carrier service: HIVED
• Improvements in the currency conversion feature
• Added support for 2 new languages: Hungarian and Romanian

Success story: Syster P

For many e-commerce businesses, offering free shipping seems like a must in order to stay competitive. At some point, however, free shipping to Norway became challenging for the jewelry company Syster P, mainly due to high transportation costs. 

When customers placed orders for lower-priced products, the cost of shipping and handling the order became so high that it was not profitable anymore. Something had to change.

Instead of just removing the free shipping option completely, A/B testing made it possible to experiment with the free shipping threshold and analyze how it affects consumer behavior and sales. The results? 

• 18% increase in the Average Order Value within the group that wasn’t offered free shipping (without the decrease in the conversion rate!)
• 19.2% raise in the Average Transaction Value (shipping cost included)

For Syster P, Ingrid’s A/B Testing feature has been key to making informed business decisions regarding the free delivery offer. Read more about Syster P's success story →

Google helps merchants get ready for the holidays

Holiday prep is underway for many brands and retailers, and Google is providing resources to help get ready. The company recently held Think Retail, a virtual event designed to help businesses prepare for the busiest shopping season of the year. In a series of presentations, Google shared insights on what to expect this year, as well as new tools for commerce and advertising.

Navigating inventory and out-of-stock issues

As supply-chain issues have mounted and consumer demand has shifted to the essentials, online retailers need to more intentionally shore up inventory or potentially lose customers who are but a click away from another option. Here’s how SnackMagic, a customizable snack service, deals with the current challenges.

Till the next time,

Ingrid Team