How to deliver post-purchase experiences that lead to more sales on social

As an online retailer, you will be familiar with the challenges that were faced during COVID-19 lockdowns and the shift to using social media platforms as a major sales channel.

To stay connected to communities during lockdown, consumers and retailers flocked to social media to forge online social connections. In response, social media and eCommerce platforms like Shopify have created easy-to-use sales tools to enable retailers to convert social media engagement into frictionless shopping moments.

Consumers can now scroll through their daily social media feeds and discover shoppable content they can buy there and then.

With up to 60% of millennial online shoppers sharing poor delivery experiences, retailers must deliver an excellent post-purchase experience or risk negative feedback on social. 

The good news is the positive side of social media outweighs the negative, with 92% of millennials writing reviews when they have a positive delivery experience.

In the following article, online retailers who want to master selling on social media will learn 3 ways to deliver an excellent customer experience along the last mile (final stage of delivery) to keep in step with the fast-paced world of social commerce.

3 ways to deliver a good post-purchase customer experience

1. Select partners who deliver at the speed of social media

With the increase in social media usage and online shopping, consumers have developed higher expectations from online retailers.

Merchants are now expected to deliver a highly responsive post-purchase experience that happens at the speed of social. This makes choosing the right courier partners a very important decision because they must uphold the delivery promise online retailers make to customers.

When assessing courier partners, always ensure you have considered all the services you want to offer your customers. It’s also useful to always have more than one courier available as you don’t want to delay shipping orders to your eager social commerce customers.

Consider your target audience and what they are expecting from the delivery experience. Do your customers want same-day delivery options? Same-day works well in metro areas for some industries. For example, fashion companies need to get those shoes delivered to excited customers in time for the weekend.

You may also need a “signature on delivery” option with higher insurance allowances if you sell high-value items. Will you be shipping domestically and internationally? One courier might do both, but it could be more efficient (and affordable) by signing up with one for domestic and another for international shipping.

With up to 60% of shoppers abandoning carts because of high shipping costs, it’s also important to provide customers with delivery options at the checkout.

To assist you when selecting couriers, here are a few useful points to consider:

• Pricing: If pricing is most important, find out how you will be billed and ask about the potential to negotiate better rates as you grow – you may find that it's beneficial to contact multiple carriers to compare rates.
• Services Offered: If your products are time-sensitive, or you’re wanting to offer checkout options such as Express, International Shipping, or Same Day Delivery, you may choose to enlist other couriers who specialise in these options, alongside a standard carrier.
• Customer Support: Whether you are wanting to call the courier when things aren’t going right, or if having a good relationship with your driver is important, it’s best to look at the couriers’ reviews and ask what support they have on hand – that way you know what to expect!
• Specific Requirements: Are you shipping dangerous goods or large bulky items that will need a tail-lift? Always outline these requirements from the beginning, and the courier will be able to advise whether they can service your specific requirements.

Read about how to improve the checkout experience in these Starshipit articles:

• How to improve the checkout experience to increase sales
• How to offer different shipping options at checkout

With millennial customers more likely to share negative post-purchase reviews on social media, retailers can use fulfilment automation software, like Starshipit, to deliver a consistently excellent post-purchase experience.

This means that if you get a swarm of social media users buying via a popular shoppable post or during a live social shopping event, your online store can easily manage fulfilling the increase in orders.

Shipping platforms automate the entire fulfilment process via one dashboard and helps retailers manage an increase in demand more efficiently.

With fulfilment automation like Starshipit, you can speed up getting orders to customers by:

• Bulk-printing shipping labels at high speed for each courier.
• Auto-correct addresses to increase your first-time delivery rate.
• Automatic assignment of couriers according to their strengths
  (same-day, international, low-cost, etc.
• Automatic sending of branded updates to customers at various delivery stages.

According to the author of “Never Lose a Customer Again”, Joey Coleman, if you engage a customer for 100 days after purchase, you keep them for 5 years.

Fulfilment automation software like Starshipit enables retailers to engage shoppers post-purchase using branded tracking pages, which are sent via SMS or email at five stages along the delivery journey. These touchpoints offer a huge opportunity to grow loyalty when your customers are the most engaged.

Branded tracking pages can also be used to request customers share their purchases online using a specified hashtag to ensure their posts are traceable. This is known as social proof, which is posted by delighted customers. You can use this hashtag to also incentivise social sharing by offering discounts for future purchases.

For inspiration, look at how big brands are using social proof hashtag campaigns to drive further engagement and sales on social media channels. Below is an example from Asos who encourage social media users to upload pics of them wearing their new outfits using the hashtag #AsSeenOnMe.

Branded tracking pages can also facilitate your returns policy. Google Think reports that 83% surveyed say the ability to make easy returns is important to them when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from.

From the branded tracking page, customers can enter the return details and generate return labels instantly. This saves you lots of time and enhances the customer experience, which increases brand loyalty.

Read more about multi-courier shipping automation with these selected articles:

• How to use the last mile to build your brand
• Create rules based on the cheapest delivery option
• Enable and configure your branded tracking page
• Set up self-service return label generator

In short, when selling via or on social media, fulfilling orders and delivering a great customer experience becomes a high priority. This requires selecting the right couriers to deliver a share-worthy experience in a fast-paced social commerce world. In tandem, retailers should consider implementing fulfilment automation to minimise errors and increase first-time deliveries.

Lastly, to gain loyal social media shoppers, encourage post-purchase social engagement on your branded tracking pages. If you learn to master these 3 simple tactics, your social commerce success will be shareworthy.

To assist online retailers wanting to scale their business or optimise their current social commerce strategies, download our latest eBook that includes everything you need to know about selling on social media in an easy-to-follow guide. You will gain insights into key trends, and we give you a breakdown of each social platform along with suggested tools and a framework to develop your winning social commerce strategy.