Order tracking is your new sales channel

Your customers aren't just a transaction—they're real people who spend their own money on your products. How can you make their experience with your brand even better? 

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Shopify marketers know how important it is to offer a memorable post-purchase experience. Over the past year, the concept of using order tracking to grow a Shopify store has caught on, and for good reason. Here are some stats showing why it’s vital:

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• 70% of retailers say that the most important thing is to set the right expectations about delivery and package tracking.
• According to another report, 96% of shoppers want retailers to find and fix problems with their packages while they are in transit.
• 40% of shoppers say that the part of the brand experience they remember most is what happens after they buy something.

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Shopify brands can use these emails to share educational material on their product or promote their rewards programs, but here’s why they’re so critical: The open rates are astronomical. Whereas typical marketing emails see open rates of 10% to 20%, tracking notification emails see open rates between 50% to 97%.

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So how can you leverage order tracking to grow your Shopify store? We’ve got you covered.

What is Order Tracking?

Order tracking is a simple tool that lets you:

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• Gives buyers information about the product they just bought.
• Buyers can check to see if their order is still in the warehouse or on its way.
• Brings more clarity and transparency to the delivery process.

The benefits of order tracking

If you use order tracking, you can be sure that the number of customer questions will decrease. Also, customers can help themselves and answer their questions, which lowers costs for everyone.

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By automating the order tracking process, your CX team will have less work to do. They can use the time they save to give better service to unhappy customers. Overall, your customers will have a better experience without giving up on quality.

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Customers are happy when the tracking process is easy to use and proactive. Plus, it boosts user engagement.

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On the operations side, it's important to know how to track an order. It lets Shopify businesses take care of problems immediately and in real time.

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As you reduce points of friction, the lifetime value of your customers will go through the roof.

How to use order tracking to boost online sales

The problem is that Shopify businesses don't show much or any information about the shipping process. Instead of sending customers to a UPS page, why not send them to a tracking page on your website that also upsells them on additional products they can buy from you?

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Here’s what we recommend:

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• Find the interactive points in the delivery process that can be used to sell the product again.
• Get information in real-time (think: customer contact and name, order information, tracking number, package movements).
• Send the gathered information to your brand's email marketing platform so that the information can be sorted into groups and made more personal.
• Use data in your marketing, such as with emails, SMS, and live chat for tracking shipments.
• Tracking notification emails have up to 97% open rates.

How can you take your marketing efforts for shipments to the next level?

Here are some helpful hints.

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• You should be proactive, give detailed tracking updates, and make sure your messages are personalized.
• Show your live social media feed, highlight your brand's new products, or offer personalized product suggestions like Crate&Barrel does so well:
• Give your customers an estimate of when their order will arrive to put their minds at ease and cut down on support calls:

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On the shipment tracking page, ask users to post on social media with your brand's hashtag:

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Think of your shipment tracking as a way to connect with your users on a more personal level and use it as a channel for personalized marketing.

Show customers you appreciate them with every purchase:

According to research, 43% of shoppers want retailers to reward their loyalty by personalizing the delivery experience. Lack of personalization poses a serious problem.

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The solution: Win customers with free samples and other freebies in the order tracking email, particularly if they are new or loyal customers.

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To upsell or cross-sell, offer personalized suggestions and put the reviews of the products in the spotlight:

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• Send hand-written thank-you notes to the customer as they receive the order and prioritize customer retention
• Integrate Google Maps and give more information about order changes:

Use business intelligence tools to find ways to save money

The problem is that the gap between delivery processes and logistics management keeps getting bigger and bigger for Shopify businesses. This is also hurting productivity and making it hard to make money.

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The solution is to use delivery tracking management software that lets businesses track shipments and packages throughout the customer journey.

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Also, it should have:

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• Granular visibility from the first mile to the last mile
• Automatically assigns pickup and delivery tasks to agents and helps them collect e-Signatures from customers
• The ability to run delivery operations smoothly and without problems, with tracking and management tools that work in real time:

• Optimized route planning and makes sure that resources are used correctly.
• Benefits such as reduced delivery delays and turn-around time
• Intelligent live tracking devices such as disposable GPS stickers to track packages
• Cost-saving due to end-to-end delivery tracking optimisation
• A bird's-eye view of the whole delivery and tracking operation, which makes it easier to see what's going on and make it bigger

Tips to think about when choosing shipping software

When you buy shipping software, ask yourself the following questions:

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• Is it compatible with the logistics system you already have, and will it fit in without any problems?
• Is the software safe and secure from cyberattacks and data breaches? Does it have the most up-to-date safety features?
• Does it tell you important things in real time, like if the temperature or humidity changes or if the product is damaged?
• Is it scalable, and does it offer multi-channel support?
• Is the design and UX user-friendly?

Shopify marketers have access to a number of tools that can be used to automate simple tasks that don't need a "human touch."

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This lets them save money, time, effort, and resources while giving customers a great experience.

Target Repeat Purchasers with Customized Offers and Discounts

The problem is that Shopify marketers often have trouble with things like abandoned shopping carts, keeping in touch with existing users, and getting customers who are on the fence to buy.

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People like free stuff. Period. But the trick is to divide users into groups and reach out to the "right user" at the right time.

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This is where a web analytics platform such as Google Analytics can lend a helping hand and boost your bottom line.

Collect feedback from customers for improvement for future campaigns

The problem is that Shopify marketers don't ask users for feedback to find out what works and what doesn't for their brand.

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Because they can't keep track of data about their customers, they can't make changes to improve the customer experience.

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The solution is that marketers should think of creative ways to get feedback from users at all stages of the buyer journey.

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Marketers can get information about a wide range of things, including:

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• Preferred time for shipping:
• Overall, the experience of shipping (whether it was seamless or incoherent)
• Preferred shipping methods

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Gathering real-time user feedback is essential for Shopify marketers to understand where they might be lacking in the customer as well as shipping-experience and bridge the gap.

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Because of this, Shopify businesses should always be on the lookout for customer feedback and analyze the data to get useful insights and run effective marketing campaigns.

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In other words, it gives Shopify businesses a competitive edge because they can make the experience more personal and use real-time data throughout the customer journey.

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Email is the best way to keep customers coming back. The problem is that most companies don't control the most important and read emails they send to customers, which are emails about tracking shipments.

How Cross-Store Selling grows your Shopify store

Want to know the open secret to growing your Shopify store? It’s Cross-Store Selling. With Cross-Store Selling, your brand can sell products from other stores and vice versa.

Sell your products on other brands’ websites

With Carro, we have a directory of the biggest brands for you to partner with. This means they’ll sell and market your products to their customers. But if you can’t decide which brands are the best fit, we have a tailored recommendation service where we introduce you to brands so you can begin working together.

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The best part is you don’t have to pay for products like you would with traditional wholesaling. This allows you to choose different SKUs to see what complements your existing product catalog.

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"Take my word for it, if you install Carro, you are going to see what I’ve seen. Which is a dramatic increase to average order value, especially on orders that contain Carro products, which for us is over 80% increase to AOV." 

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Ryan Pamplin, Founder & CEO of Blendjet

Virtual inventory makes fulfillment easy

Brand partnerships are not like wholesaling. With Carro, you don’t have to buy products from your partners. Instead, orders are automatically sent to your partner brands so they can handle fulfillment themselves. 

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“Before we joined Carro, we had put our company on the market. We thought we needed capital to expand our traditional wholesaling. Now, we’re able to meet our goals without having any cash come out of pocket. We’re tripling and quadrupling the numbers of units that we move because we have access to so much more inventory.”

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Amy Richardson-Golia, June & January

Find new bundling & upsell opportunities to increase AOV

Perhaps the most exciting reason to leverage Cross-Store Selling is that it’s the best way to grow your Shopify store in the long run. By working collaboratively with other brands, your brand will set itself up for success. Your Shopify store will become THE destination for your niche. 

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One of the best reasons to shop on Amazon is convenience. Being able to buy everything you need in one place is a powerful motivator. Wouldn’t you love it if your Shopify store was the go-to place for your customers’ needs?

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"In addition to a nice contribution to the bottom line, it was also one of the most highly-engaged social posts for the year." 

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David Krimper, Director of Shopify, Manduka

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To learn more about how Carro can help your Shopify store grow, check us out on the Shopify App Store.

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