I just realized after my weekly conversation with my mom that I forgot about her birthday. I finish up our phone call for the week and try to remember any Christmas gift ideas I had for her. Then I find myself tearing through my calendar trying to figure out when I can go to the store, wrap the gift, and face the soul-crushing experience that is the post office. After five minutes of repeatedly muttering “I’m such a bad son,” I do what I’ve done the past several years: logged on to Amazon.com.
Amazon is currently the free shipping king. And if you own online shipping, customer loyalty is not far behind.
If my mother is kind enough to give me a 48 hour warning before her birthday, I know she’ll get her gift on time, it’ll be wrapped, and she’ll never have to know how thoughtless I can be. And with my Amazon Prime account, shipping is free. That’s right, for $79 a year; I can get free two-day shipping on everything from soup cans to a flat screen television. In my experience, nothing ever arrives later than promised.
Armed with my Amazon Prime account, I hardly shop anywhere else. Amazon saves my credit card information and shipping address, allows me to create a wish list, recommends other products for me, offers helpful customer reviews, and even allows one-click ordering. It is the gold standard in online shopping.
How can Wal-Mart be the envy of every single other company when it comes to its efficient supply chain, but remain so mediocre when it comes to shipping online orders? Obviously unlocking the secrets behind efficient online shipping is its own science and possibly even an art form.
One company that figured out the importance of speedy and free shipping early on is Zappos.com. You know how I said I hardly shop anywhere besides Amazon? Well, this shoe e-retailer is the exception. Zappos recognizes that vast inventory selection, competitive prices, speedy and reliable shipping, and a generous return policy are the keys to a successful online retail store. It’s no wonder that Amazon, who cracked the same e-retail code, bought Zappos for $1.2 billion in Nov. 2009.
Zappos and Amazon both started as online retailers. Do brick and mortar stores stand a chance or should they just hire Amazon to handle order fulfillment?
Costco is one brick and mortar retailer that managed to create an online store as impressive as their vast warehouses. Not only is Costco dangerously close to one-stop shopping, orders are delivered as promised and customer service is excellent.
Looking forward, it’s clear that more shopping is going to occur online.
Online shopping has the five following advantages:
1) You can read customer reviews to ensure you are buying quality products.
2) With services such as Google Product Search, consumers are enabled to compare prices across thousands of stores.
3) A wider selection of products; retailers like Amazon have expansive warehouses, so you don’t have to worry about them not having those Crocs in your size or color.
4) You can shop at work, while waiting in line at the DMV on your phone, or in your Superman underwear at home; best of all, no crowds.
5) Discreet shopping. No need to be embarrassed – the mailman doesn’t know that it’s a Hello Kitty Snuggie in that brown Amazon box.
What is the main disadvantage to online shopping? You want your order now, and shipped for no additional cost. I will continue to shop exclusively at Amazon and Zappos until someone else figures out how to do fast, free shipping just as well.
What sites offer great shipping? Any shipping horror stories you want to share?
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