The Weak Link in eCommerce

As I sit at my desk waiting for a delivery from a major online retailer, hoping the gift will arrive in time for a family birthday, I’m reminded of other recent ecommerce experiences and how, more often than not in recent times, those experiences have been less than perfect.

One such occasion springs to mind when trying to order a new home internet router, again from a large online retailer. When the package arrived, it turned out I had been sent a hairdryer. My ever-decreasing amount of hair aside, this probably wasn’t much use for getting online.

This is not a reflection on the front-end website experience of these online retailers, where the user experience with both companies was excellent, with intuitive navigation, product descriptions and reviews, and easy payment systems.

The problem really comes down to the human aspect of ecommerce, the warehouse fulfilment, distribution and delivery. Without these elements of the process, the ecommerce industry wouldn’t survive, and certainly wouldn’t be growing at over 20% this year alone (see here).

But it is the weakest link in the chain. And online retailers need to understand this in order to compete, because it makes a real difference to customer experience. I for one will actively avoid one retailer that uses a certain UK delivery company because of numerous bad experiences of lost or delayed deliveries.

Conversely, I heard recently that every Amazon employee has to spend at least two days every year working on the customer services desk, even the CEO. This is meant to help everyone in the business understand the concerns of the customer, and help them to provide a better end-to-end experience.

And this is exactly the sort of thing that all online retailers should be doing. They can spend thousands or even millions on optimising their sites for conversions, or reducing shopping basket abandonment, but if the whole experience isn’t as good as their website, they won’t see return on their investment.

The Weak Link in eCommerce