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When it comes to online shopping, there is no doubt that it has many benefits. It makes it easy for customers to compare prices without leaving the comfort of their home, it saves them time because they don’t have to go from store to store, and it helps them avoid long waiting lines at the checkout.
However, as convenient as online shopping is, there is a downside to it as well. In most cases, your customers can’t control when their items will be delivered. When customers are frustrated with the lack of guaranteed delivery date, the chances of them abandoning their cart increase.
The good news is that you can provide your customers with a better experience by allowing them to choose their own delivery date. In this post, we’ll talk about the benefits of doing so and show you how to implement it in your store.
Six Benefits of Allowing Customers to Choose Their Delivery Date
Allowing customers to choose a delivery date during their purchase has several benefits for your store.
1. Better Customer Experience
As we’ve mentioned above, online shopping is convenient for most people because they don’t have to spend time waiting in lines or physically going to multiple stores.
But, due to little to no control over the delivery time, your customers might back out on the purchase and walk away unsatisfied. This leads to poor customer experience and hurts your brand reputation at the same time.
A great way around this problem is to offer customers the ability to choose their delivery date. They can then pick a date that fits their personal and professional schedule without worrying about missing work or missing the delivery.
Once they know that your store caters to their needs, they will be more inclined to complete the purchase and become repeat customers.
2. Reduces Your Overhead
It goes without saying that each delivery attempt adds to your overall expenses. You need to pay for the time of the delivery driver and cover the fuel expenses.
If your customers can’t choose a time and date for their delivery, you run the risk of having to go out multiple times in an effort to deliver a package. These multiple attempts can quickly add up over time and increase your overhead.
But, if you know that your customer will be home at the time of the delivery, you will only have to make that delivery once which means there will be no additional expense associated with that particular delivery.
3. Reduced Chances of Repeat Deliveries
If your customer makes a purchase, you are responsible for delivering their package. Without a scheduled time, you have no way of knowing whether your customer or someone they trust will be at home or not.
If they haven’t made arrangements for the delivery, you will have to schedule another delivery attempt or risk losing the customer and damaging your reputation.
You can avoid repeat deliveries by allowing your customers to choose the exact time and date of their delivery when it’s most convenient for them or when they can arrange for a trusted friend or neighbor to be at home.
4. Minimizes the Need for Additional Administration
It’s not uncommon for e-commerce owners to rely on emails and phone calls to arrange a local delivery to their customers.
But, the back and forth with emails and time spent on the phone takes away from time you could spend marketing your store or coming up with new products.
It can also increase your costs if you wind up hiring someone to take care of those calls or emails for you.
With an automated solution that makes it convenient for customers to schedule their delivery, everything is taken care of during the purchase process. Your customers can leave all the information on the checkout page so all you have to do is make sure the item is delivered on time.
5. Build Brand Trust
Another benefit of having flexible delivery options is the fact that it helps build brand trust in your customers.
When your customers trust you and your brand, they will be more likely to become repeat customers and return to your store for future purchases.
They will also be more inclined to leave you a positive review and spread the word about you with their network of friends and family members.
As a result, you are more likely to gain more traffic, more visitors, and turn those visitors into new customers.
6. Customers Can Schedule Gift Deliveries
One powerful reason that makes online shopping so appealing is the fact that you can buy a gift for a friend or a family member and have it delivered right to their doorstep.
But, with not many online retailers offering flexible delivery options, online shoppers have to order their gift well in advance to make sure it arrives in time. Not knowing when the item will arrive can also ruin the surprise if the item arrives too early or too late.
When you make it easy for customers to choose the exact time and date of their delivery, they can rest assured that their gift will arrive at the perfect moment without causing frustration or spoiling the surprise.
How to Allow Customers to Choose Their Delivery Date In Your Store
Adding the option to choose the most convenient delivery date for purchased items is not as hard as it seems. With the help of Order Delivery Date Pro, you can easily create complex delivery schedules and optimize your local deliveries at the same time.
What Does Order Delivery Date Pro Offer?
Order Delivery Date Pro is an addon for WooCommerce or WP E-Commerce plugins. Once you purchase, install, and activate the plugin, you’ll enable your customers to specify the delivery date for their purchase.
They can also choose the exact time if they want, which means they have complete control over the delivery time and can choose the most convenient time of delivery for them.
As the store owner, you also gain plenty of control over delivery times. You can decide whether you’ll deliver only during business weekdays or if you’ll allow for deliveries on weekends, too.
You can customize the cut off times and block off holidays and days when no deliveries will be made as well as customize delivery options for specific product categories and enable two-way syncing with Google Calendar.
Lastly, you can create delivery settings for shipping zones and classes and use Order Delivery Date Pro together with USPS Shipping Method Plugin and Table Rate Shipping Plugin to create custom delivery settings.
Order Delivery Pro also has a free version with slightly fewer features which is available from the official plugin repository.
Final Thoughts
Adding flexibility to your delivery times and allowing customers to choose a convenient date and time for their delivery has several benefits for your store. Use the tips in this article to improve your customer service, brand image, and boost your revenue with the help of Order Delivery Date Pro.
