The Delivery Dilemma: Avoiding Cart Abandonment

 Customers want convenience. In the age of Amazon, it is increasingly common for shoppers to expect every step of the shopping process to be catered to them. This extends to how they receive the item, be it shipping, delivery, or being able to simply walk into the store and grab what was purchased via in-store pickup.

In-store pickup is often overlooked by businesses. Stores assume that because of the popularity of Amazon, all shoppers want their purchases to be shipped directly to them. It’s true that shipping is popular: 82% of online shoppers report having shipped an order to their home within the past year¹. However, that does not mean that having shipping appeals to all consumers. 57% of shoppers did in-store pickup in 2017² and 8% wanted delivery via personal concierge service (although this number is growing)³. There is a wide variety of shopper preferences and stores selling on an online marketplace need to provide as many options as possible. Shoppers don’t want to compromise their convenience and won’t buy from a store that doesn’t have the delivery option they want. In fact, 50% of consumers have reported abandoning online shopping carts because the delivery options didn’t appeal to them⁴.

Half of all online shoppers have abandoned their
cart due to the store's lack of delivery options

Where do shoppers go if a small business doesn’t offer the delivery method they’re looking for? Usually to chain and big box stores. Due to their financial assets and size, they have the resources to put together various delivery methods and the number of purchases for having those services to be profitable. In 2016, 95% of the American population made a purchase at Walmart, meaning the store had literally hundreds of millions of customers⁵. If 8% of their customers want a concierge service, it is worth the cost of setting the service up to get the business of millions of people.

Assuming the smaller store has online ordering (which several don’t, meaning they’re missing out on all potential online revenue), it can be impractical to set up a shipping option, let alone a personal concierge delivery service. In-store pickup is by far the easiest to implement, but it also might not be the method the customer prefers. The setup and strategy needed to compete with big box stores are not practical for one business to do by itself, meaning a lot of small businesses simply can’t compete. Instead of being able to offer multiple delivery options, small businesses are forced to lose customers. It seems like a neverending cycle: sales aren’t high enough to support delivery options, resulting in the store being overlooked and sales not increasing.

Fortunately, there’s a solution.

Samyata

Samyata provides stores with a way to compete with chain stores. By getting a Samyata subscription, independent retailers gain access to the options that modern consumers demand: concierge service, in-store pickup, and shipping. In addition to gaining exposure from being listed on a one-stop retail marketplace, Samyata evens the playing field by giving small businesses multiple delivery options so they can provide their customers with the convenience of a chain store and avoid cart abandonment.

Want to stop cart abandonment due to limited delivery options? Sign up and see what Samyata Store can do for you.