My wife and I did most of our holiday shopping online this year. One of the recurring frustrations that we encountered was the lack of clarity regarding shipping from online stores. Like many people, we have a post office box for regular post and use our street address for UPS, FedEx and other ground deliveries.
More than once this year, there was confusion about which address to use for delivery. For one company, Standard shipping meant UPS. Another company used Standard shipping to mean regular delivery by the Post Office. On one occasion, it became so frustrating that we canceled our order (a $310 loss for the company).
Making it easy to place an order is important. But making it easy for that order to get to the customer who paid for it is equally important. Spend a couple of hours minutes adding some clarity about your shipping fulfillment process on your order form.
If you ship via UPS, state that clearly (i.e. We ship everything by UPS). If you use the United States Postal Service (USPS), let your customers know. It could mean the difference between a sale and a cancellation.
