Like my grandmother used to say “It does not matter how much you make, it is how much you keep that is important”. This is true for any company. So you have an eCommerce website on which you sell products which are shipped directly to your customers’ home or business. You have added Free Shipping recently because you heard it was the fastest growing trend aka “what people want and expect online”. In order to afford this free shipping, you made it so that it is good for purchases over a certain dollar amount. That’s all great and worked well but now you hear about Amazon’s 1-hour shipping from the time of ordering. What should you as a smaller retailer do to compete online?
First and foremost you heard correctly; Amazon is now offering not just overnight shipping but same day shipping to certain locations. Our office is located in the San Francisco Bay Area and yes, if we wanted, we could order coffee for the office and have it deliver to us today. This is called Prime Now. For the 1 hour-delivery shipping option, it costs less than $8 and available if you order between 8AM and Midnight. If you select 2-hour, guess what? It is free. Incredible does not quite start to describe it.
Again this is only available in certain areas in California through six strategically-located Prime Now locations to enable thisĀ fast delivery.
What should you do?
So again “breath”, relax, focus on what your business can do while remaining profitable. Do seriously consider free shipping as it has become a huge online marketing tool. If you want to better assess your unique situation call our office at (707) 794-9999 PST. We can help.
Never hesitate to contact our friendly team by phone at (707) 794-9999 (Pacific Standard Time) or by email here. Have a successful day!