In the past few years, eCommerce has become an essential part of the retail frame, globally. The retail industry has gone through a substantial transformation, using all the technology and the internet. All thanks to the modern world digitalization, customers from all over the world have started trusting virtual shopping. Also, to acknowledge eCommerce businesses have started enjoying the profits from the perks of online transactions. 

With the increase in internet access and adoption, there is a huge jump in the number of digital buyers worldwide. According to Statista in 2019, 1.92 billion people purchased goods or services online and online sales amounted to 3.53 trillion USD. The retail revenue is expected to grow by 6.54 trillion USD in 2022.

All the eCommerce businesses are running well worldwide but the pandemic has definitely created a storm. The year 2020, was not good for everyone or every business but eventually worked for the virtual retail platforms. All the eCommerce businesses have done some changes in their working strategies, some worked some may not but the year is ending well.

To be just not good, be better than the rest. Give your eCommerce a kick start in the upcoming year. Welcome the New Year with new strategies, ideas, automation that will reduce your burden and make your business more profitable.

Welcome 2021! with some new strategies and solutions to the old problems of your business. The digital world would not give you a chance if you are minimal. Competition is high in the online retail market and everybody is using the fullest of technology. So you also need to upgrade your business operations to the highest to provide prominent services to your customers.

Fraudulent, unpurchased items in the shopping cart, increased orders on COD, RTO, etc. are some of the negative actions you receive from the customers every now and then. These might be your biggest bugbear.

Plan a strategy, implement a solution for these problems before they tarnish your eCommerce business.

-Want to improve the customer experience   for your brands ?

-Want to reduce your RTO percentage ?

-Want to increase operational efficiency ?

What are the major pain point of eCommerce ? With their solution:

We have listed 5 major pain points of eCommerce. These are the points that no eCommerce business has been untouched.

1. Verifying COD or fake orders

2. Shopping cart abandonment

3. Increased RTO percentage

4. Hassle-free product returns & refund

5. “Where is my order” question

1. Verifying COD or fake orders

According to facts, eCommerce frauds increased by 45% in 2017 which became 38% in 2018 making a loss of 1.4 billion USD. Amazon is the world’s no. 1 eCommerce platform and it receives thousands of reports of fake orders on its seller forums on a daily basis. Receiving fake orders is a massive problem for every eCommerce business. It is definitely drowning your business. There is no exact solution and you cannot ignore all the orders to avoid a few (fake orders).

Solution:
If you are still struggling with these fake orders and find it difficult to differentiate whether the order is fake or genuine before its placement, then Verify Order by automated call by Shipway is the best app for you. Its user-friendly interface makes it apt for easy use. No extra training sessions are required. You can simply use this app for IVR calling to verify the order for both COD and prepaid orders, especially when they are of high value. The app will definitely save your time from unnecessary shipments because of fake orders.

What does the app allow you to do?

  • Automate the IVR call verification
  • Option to use your pre-recorded audio instead of computerized IVR
  • Enable Follow-up calling option
  • IVR Call for a minimum order amount
  • Create various tags like Order confirmed, Order canceled, etc. to verify COD orders
  • Manage Your IVR call-template by Audio (using your own voice)
Pricing – Free to install
Business plan starting at $30.

  I am using this app for more than a month now, I never got any issue. This app works smooth. Customer gets an automated call just after they place an order and mostly customer confirm the order. I make a manual call to them for the confirmation which drastically reduces your RTO

2. Shopping Cart Abandonment

According to various research conducted, the rate of an abandoned shopping cart in eCommerce is almost 70%. Mobile Users have a higher abandonment rate of 85.65%. ECommerce businesses have to face the loss of roughly $18 every year due to cart abandonment.

There exist multiple reasons for which customers choose to abandon their cart. To deal with this problem you have to work on various departments and sections of operation such as shipping (free shipping, same day shipping, etc.), easy check-out, secure payment options, etc.

Solution:
According to data by Barilliance, Cart abandonment email open rates are incredibly high. Since 2016, open rates have hovered around 43.3%. According to MooSend, 21% of the emails are clicked on and 10.7% completed their purchase. Sending SMS/emails to remind customers about their abandoned cart is not a fail, in fact they receive a huge click response from the customers. SMS & WhatsApp Flows ConvertWay by Shipway is the trending app on Shopify that helps you to send instant SMS notifications for order status update, order creation, fulfilled, paid, canceled, abandoned carts , custom SMS to thank customers for purchases, promote new products and discounts with SMS marketing.

What does the app allow you to do?

  • Customer get information through SMS & WhatsApp no need to check the e-mail every now and then.
  • Automatically add discounts in the Abandoned Cart Checkout URLs.
  • Automatic enable Cash On Delivery for customers on abandoned checkout URLs (For Shopify Plus customers).
  • Send SMS & WhatsApp Notifications to 220 countries.
  • SMS & WhatsApp Notifications send to the customer and an admin.
  • Unique shortened URLs for your tracking numbers.
Pricing – Free to install
No recurring charge. Pay per-use. The plan starts from $30. Cost only for SMS usage

  Simply the best application for marketing. very easy to use and send SMS to my customers, good support in every way. Recommend to use it, and grow business. 

3. Increased RTO Percentage

What does the app allow you to do? It becomes a great headache when the order doesn’t get delivered and shipped back to the warehouse. You may also have to face this problem. The increase in RTO percentage can lead to many losses for your business costs such as

  • Forward and reverse shipping cost
  • Items stuck in-transit
  • Physical Quality check and re-packaging of returned items
  • Increased chances of damage to fragile items
  • Operations cost in processing this order
Solution:
There are various ways to minimize the RTO percentage, like you can put IVR calling and NDR management in place. As discussed above IVR calling helps you to detect fraud orders beforehand and avoid their return due to unacceptance. One of the 5stars rated apps on Shopify Shipping Automation App by Shipway enables you to quickly and efficiently process thousands of orders without any hassle. This app is very efficient in building relationships with your customers through SMS Updates and hence helps you to reduce RTO and Non-delivered orders.

The multifunctional dashboard of Shipway assists you to take follow-ups with their customers for their availability to receive the order and accordingly perform the re-attempts as required.

What does the app allow you to do?

  • Immediate Follow-ups for each NDR Instances.
  • Trigger automated follow-ups to the buyer to take action against undelivered orders.
  • Capture Customer Preference for next action (re-attempt/cancel).
  • Automated NDR responses to courier partners via API
  • Also for a setup and to know more about it please refer to this link:

 The RTO order management feature is really helpful in our business growth, And the NDR panel helps a lot in the same manner. Good Going team, I really appreciate your help towards our business growth. Thanks team

4. Hassle-free Product Returns and Refund

Returns in the eCommerce Industry directly attack profit margins, conversion rates, and ultimately your business. Statista has estimated that the returns in 2020 will cost 550 billion USD, which is 75.2% more than the past four years.

Returns and refunds directly impact your customers’ experience and target your brand image through it. Going wrong with the strategy to deal with the return can lead to some serious crashes which would take high time to resolve

Solution:
Returns are part of the new normal in the eCommerce industry as they are totally centralized to customers’ experience. A good Return Management & Automation in place will allow you to handle the end-to-end returns process from creating reverse pickups to keeping track of refunds, creating exchange order, etc.

Shipway Return Automation Solution gives you the simplest solution for the most complex and costly challenges in all of eCommerce. The app suggested previously Shipway ‑ Shipping Automation, is also most suitable for handling your return processes.

The seamless integration of the app will help you to reduce your manual efforts, support partial returns, send notifications like reverse pickup scheduled, refund processed, etc.

What does the app allow you to do?

  • Create Self service portals for returns (Branded for all Shopify Users).
  • Automatic schedule reverse pickup (along with QC checks on pickups).
  • Admin dashboard for returns (warehouse easily approve, reject, request for pickup).
  • Receive returns by scans.
  • Seamless integration with Shopify.
  • Notify customers at each step.

Pricing – Free to install

  I installed the app recently. The feature of app are so good. Return functionality make our task and work easy. This app give to the customers to upload the images of product, allow customers to return a partial orders. Much appreciated app!!

5. “Where is my order?” question

“Where is my Order?” must be the biggest concern for you. As the customers become furious when they don’t know where their order is. It hits your brand image and the chances of losing customers are high. Almost 24% of online shoppers would abandon their order if no delivery date was provided and cancel their order.

In this digital world, you need to be more customer experience-centric as in the end, they are the ones with whom you are dealing. Gone are the days when the customers were only concerned about when their order will be shipped now, they need to know about every stage their order is passing through

Solution:
One of the leading apps on Shopify store for sending Order tracking notifications is Track Order & Notifications by Shipway. This app also allows you to create a branded order tracking page in your preferred language, where your customers can enjoy the same look and feel of your platform.

The app allows you to track orders and automate notifications of shipment status updates via Email, SMS & Whatsapp. You can also generate a Net Promoter Score, with it you can get your customer’s feedback, check your reviews, and improve your store

What does the app allow you to do?

  • Notify your customers about their shipments via SMS, E-mail, and WhatsApp.
  • Branded, Real-time tracking Notifications to customers over WhatsApp.
  • Admin dashboard for returns (warehouse easily approve, reject, request for pickup).
  • Customer notification on important delivery updates such as Shipment Picked, In Transit, Out of Delivery, Delivery Issue, Delivered.
  • Customers can track the shipment status of their order on your website.
  • Dedicated tracking link for each shipment.
  • Measure Customer Satisfaction using Net Promoter Score, Show shipment real-time status details.
Pricing – Free to install
Plans starting from $9.99 per month for 500 shipments. Pricing as less as 1 cent/shipment.

  We have been sing this app since 5 years now, and it works like a charm. Integrates almost all Indian carriers. The support is extremely fast, efficient and helpful. Highly recommended for all e-com stores in India.

Conclusion:

All the pain points discussed above leads to a direct impact on customer experience and your brand reputation. And it is a fact that delivering the best experience to your customers is key to enhancing your brand image.

We are also suggesting some other must have Shopify apps to scale your eCommerce business in 2022. These apps will help you with the automated process for your backend operations making them really quick and convenient. Incorporating these apps will help you increase your ROI and business revenue.