Establishing strong brand recognition is critical for all companies, but especially growing ecommerce ones. Brands are shaped by the consistency and totality of the customer experience. This means that not only does the buying experience needs to be considered as part of the brand strategy, but so does fulfillment. Speed, reliability and flexibility are hallmarks of a fulfillment operation that help build a strong brand. However, there is more that can be done.
Engaging the customer post-purchase provides an excellent opportunity reinforce brand identity and it should appear seamless with the look and feel that occurred during the purchase. Therefore, it is essential to use same brand style in the post purchase engagement. Branded order confirmation, shipping status notifications, and packaging all help establish a positive association between the product and service and the ecommerce business that provided it.
Below, we will outline how businesses can use branded tracking pages to increase brand awareness among customers post-purchase and influence customer loyalty and customer lifetime value (CLV).
What is Branded Tracking?
Branded tracking is a post-purchase communication that gives the customer order tracking information in a format that matches the look and feel of the seller’s brand. According to Forrester Research, 78 percent of customers expect advance shipment tracking on their orders. Businesses can leverage this expectation into an opportunity to re-engage customers through a branded tracking page. Branded tracking places a business’s brand at the center of one of the most important aspects of ecommerce.
From order placement to delivery, branded tracking creates a consistent customer experience and enables e-tailers to re-engage with their customers as they track their packages.
Using a carrier’s default tracking page puts the onus of ecommerce fulfillment onto that carrier. If the customer has a poor experience, the blame can shift to the carrier, which can sometimes be beneficial. However, if a business has an effective ecommerce shipping strategy, accurate and on-time fulfillment is a priority, and these instances of delayed shipping and missing items are rare. When a business has fulfillment “figured out” but still uses a carrier’s default tracking page and email templates, all the goodwill, happy customers, and positive reviews are extended to… the carrier.
Leveraging branded tracking capabilities allows businesses to pair customer satisfaction with brand confidence. When customers have a great shipping experience, the beneficiary of that experience is the business and not the carrier.
Switching from a carrier’s default tracking experience to a customized, branded page allows businesses to take control of a customer’s post-purchase experience.
Branded tracking pages create a consistent, unified experience for your customers, one that carries straight through from browsing to when the order arrives. Branded tracking pages allow you to deliver a quality customer experience that matches the quality of your products.
Take advantage of that experience. Don’t allow customers to associate a positive experience with a carrier or ecommerce marketplace.
Next Level Branded Tracking
After switching away from a carrier’s default tracking experience to a customized, branded one, the question becomes: what to do now?
No matter how large or small an ecommerce business, branded tracking provides a sense of scale and professionalism. In short, the operation appears world class when it includes an attractive tracking page with helpful information. A branded tracking page can also help:
- Extend the Shopping Experience: Extend the online shopping experience and engage with customers throughout the fulfillment process. This results in customers associating the brand or business with the fulfillment process rather than the carrier.
- Promote Products: Branded tracking pages offer a new marketing channel. Businesses can use this channel to promote new arrivals or seasonal sales or recommend similar products. Utilizing a branded tracking page in this way can bring customers back for a repeat purchase even before the initial order is completed.
- Encourage Reviews: Providing referral incentives is a proven method to improve word-of-mouth marketing. Promoting these programs on the branded tracking page can simplify the process for customers.
- Promote Social Media Following: Including links to social channels and special promotions allows a business to increase their presence on these sites without any additional steps.
- Promote Engaging Content: Ecommerce businesses can devote significant time and resources to marketing content. Placing links to valuable content on a branded tracking page opens a new marketing channel for that content.
We’re Here to Help.
Descartes ShipRush™ enables businesses to strengthen their competitive advantage, increase customer engagement, and take their branding to the next level by offering customized packing lists, emails, shipping labels, and tracking pages with the logo and company colors.
Here’s how to customize your branded tracking page using the template editor in your ShipRush account or by inserting your own designs built using HTML code.
Try it for Free!
Descartes ShipRush easily integrates directly with over 95 ecommerce, payment and accounting systems including Amazon, BigCommerce, ChannelAdvisor, eBay, Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), Magento, Salesforce.com, Shopify, Walmart Marketplace, and many more. A quick ShipRush setup wizard will get you shipping in minutes.
