Retailers should use multiple carriers to boost sales and customer satisfaction, according to the experience of some of Denmark’s most successful multi-channel retailers.
Denmark’s largest supermarket chain, Dansk Supermarked, uses different carriers depending on the type of service required. It owns retail chains Netto, Føtex, Bilka and Salling, and its online arm, Bilka, opened in 2010. It is now one of the top 10 the largest online shops based in Denmark. In May 2015 Dansk Supermarked acquired online shop Wupti.com and has set its sights on becoming Denmark’s largest online shop.
“80-90% of the customer experience depends on the delivery,” according to Kasper Kristensen, customer experience manager at Dansk Supermarked. “It shows immediately on our customer satisfaction surveys, if the delivery has not lived up to the customer’s expectations.”
The Danish online shop Cykelpartner has seen a very clear link between mixing up its carrier offering and a boost to its bottom line. The retailer sends over 150,000 parcels a year, and recently entered into a new partnership with Post Danmark that featured a Sunday pickup service, eliminating one of the key lagging points in the delivery week.
“I expected that the Sunday pickup would have a positive impact on our conversion,” Søren Sieg Jensen, IT and marketing manager at Cykelpartner explained. “But I did not imagine that the result would be so positive. Sunday pickup increases our conversion rate by 25%, and we have received a wealth of positive feedback from our customers, who thus received their weekend orders already the following Monday.”
Steffen Pasgaard, EDI-Soft
Steffen Pasgaard, vice president at Danish carrier and shipping systems company EDI-Soft, stresses the importance of finding carriers that meet your customers needs, not just the needs of your own internal processes: “It is not only crucial to choose the right carrier in regard to the type of your shipments, but also in relation to the end customer’s requirements and expectations regarding delivery. Each customer has his opinion on what a good delivery is. Moreover, the variety in services from different carriers is great, and they thereby support the different contexts, which an online shopper can be in. It is about finding just the right carrier who can match both the product type and customer context and expectations.
“It is not just about favourable freight rates and volume discounts, but also the quality of the delivery and to choose the right carrier for each shipment. Each carrier has their strengths. Some are good at handling large parcels where others are good at handling fragile parcels and so on.”
