Customers deserve fast & free delivery

Slow or expensive shipping is the main reason that online shoppers abandon their carts.

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The blame for this is often placed on Amazon for conditioning consumers to expect near-instantaneous delivery, for free, and with a seamless customer experience. Something that smaller retailers are unable to offer.

We live in a world of instant gratification where convenience without delay is at the heart of everything, so while we blame Amazon for allowing people to expect fast and free delivery, it is the consumer demand for an ever better experience that has powered Amazon’s development and success. 

At a time when Amazon rein supreme, how can smaller retailers compete, and what is standing in their way?

1. Limited storage locations mean products are located further from the end customer making delivery slower and more expensive
2. Fixed logistics networks can’t adapt to cater for your business as it grows and changes
3. Costs are too high to offer free shipping
4. Early cut-off times slow down deliveries
5. Limited data hampers the ability to make informed decisions to optimise fulfilment networks
   

eCommerce sellers are well aware that delivery is never really free, and competing with Amazon hurts their bottom line. It’s not always going to be possible to offer both fast and free delivery, brands with low-margin or low-value products can’t afford to absorb the extra cost of fast delivery so need to pass it onto the consumer.

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Is fast or free more important to customers? 

On average 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and over half of these are down to shoppers browsing without any strong intent to buy. Looking at the remainder of abandonments, both expensive delivery and slow delivery are in the top three reasons. 49% of shoppers cited high additional costs, 24% having to create an account and 19% slow delivery - according to research from the Baynard Institute. 

We can see that free delivery is more important than fast delivery with 88% of consumers preferring free over fast shipping according to a study conducted by Deloitte. Offering a free slow delivery option as well as a fast paid option gives customers a choice to pick which is more important to them. Bezos.ai work with a range of parcel couriers to ensure you can offer the right delivery options for your business.

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Faster delivery without higher costs?

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The peak time for online purchases is 8-9 pm and sales are consistently high from 3 pm according to a SaleCycle 2020 report. 

With cut-off times across the fulfilment industry often around 3 pm many orders don't get dispatched until the following day. This is the root cause of slow delivery for many sellers and one of the reasons Amazon has a huge advantage.

Bezos.ai offers a fulfilment solution with 9 pm cut off times to ensure that peak sales are dispatched on the same day so they can get to the customer faster.

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A flexible network for faster delivery

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By taking a different approach and connecting the best fulfilment centres, parcel couriers, and other services to create a network, sellers can use the parts of the network that suit them. The right network makes fast and free delivery possible by putting products closer to customers and offering a choice of the right delivery options.

At Bezos.ai we employ our network by aggregating demand from all of our sellers so they can benefit from the economies of scale that allows us to offer a premium service that can adapt to your needs as your business grows.