ECOMMERCE

Should You Offer a 2-Day Shipping?

Discover the pro and cons of offering a 2-day shipping (2-day delivery) and how offering it will affect your conversions and ad spend (hint, it will double your conversions and reduce your ad spend).

200 years ago, a package traveling from St. Louis to San Francisco would take a lightning-fast 25 days. Back then, this delivery time was considered an immensely impressive turnaround.

Today, ecommerce sellers deliver packages to the other side of the country within days, if not hours. And shoppers expect it.

Since selling its first product in 1994, Amazon has changed the game for quick fulfillment. Amazon Prime’s 2-day deliveries are now the ecommerce standard, 33% of customers who opt for fast shipping are willing to wait 3 or more days for online orders.

In fact, fast shipping is so crucial today that 27% shoppers will choose one retailer over another because they have better delivery options.

If you can perform the balancing act of delivering online orders quickly enough without significantly increasing your operational overheads, you’re well into an ecommerce goldmine. But are 2-day deliveries easier said than done?

What are the Customer Shipping Expectations?

We all know that change is the only constant in life, and this holds true with shipping time expectations.

In the early days of ecommerce, shopping online was a novelty that meant shipping speeds weren’t that important, and standard shipping was the norm. Ordering something from your sofa and getting home delivery was a feat, and impressive enough in itself.

Fast forward forty years, and 2-day delivery is beyond important to customers. It determines where they shop, how much they spend, and the reviews they leave.

On average, online shoppers now deem 3 days an acceptable amount of time to wait for an online order.

Speed isn’t the only expectation that’s changing, either.

More than half of shoppers expect up-to-date delivery information.

Nearly a quarter of shoppers track their parcels via text alerts.

75% of customers expect free deliveries.

Your customers’ orders must be fast, trackable, and free for best results. It sounds great for buyers, and daunting for sellers.

What is 2-Day Delivery?

2-day delivery means shoppers receive their orders within two days or purchase, providing they meet a cut-off order time. That means a 2-day time period between order placement and delivery date.

Depending on a seller’s internal processes and the shipping carrier used, this could be two full days or two business days, counted from the time of checkout or the order cutoff time.

For example, Walmart Two Day Delivery ships orders received before 2 p.m. within two business days in the contingent US. So, if a customer orders a product on Monday morning, it’s delivered the following Wednesday.

If someone orders an eligible item at 5 p.m. on Friday, they can expect to receive it the following Wednesday, since it’s after the 2 p.m. cutoff and excludes the weekend.

2-Day Delivery: Behind the Scenes

2-day delivery might be as simple as a click for customers, but there’s a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure they receive orders on time – especially if they live across the country from your warehouse.

All deliveries must be coordinated between two main shipping options: Ground and Air shipping.

  1. Ground shipping.
  2. Air shipping.
  3. Combine ground and air for cost-effective reliability.

Read more here.

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