You know that feeling when you finally click "place order" after filling your online shopping cart?
That rush of dopamine. The anticipation of receiving your coveted items. The satisfaction of a purchase well made.
Brands spend endless energy perfecting the path to checkout. Optimizing forms, simplifying payments, suggesting impulse buys. All to maximize conversion.
But what happens after the order confirmation page?
For many retailers, it's a scramble. A tangle of disjointed tracking links, mismatched notifications, and fragmented experiences across delivery partners. The post-purchase chaos leaves customers confused and brands rushing to clean up the mess.
It doesn't have to be this way. With the right strategies, retailers can transform the post-purchase experience from a liability to an asset.
In this piece, we’ll discuss how to make post-purchase experiences consistent, cohesive, and satisfying for customers.
We'll follow the journey of Lowes Foods as they navigate this challenge and unlock the power of optimized fulfillment.
But first, why should you even care?
Delivering a fragmented post-purchase experience frustrates customers and damages brand loyalty.
Ninety percent of shoppers think the post-purchase experience is as important as the product itself, and 86% won't shop with a brand again after two bad experiences.
When customers encounter inconsistent tracking across platforms, repetitive notifications from different sources, and a lack of visibility into order issues, it degrades the post-purchase experience.
This experience feels disjointed and confusing, leaving customers disappointed and annoyed. It gives the impression that the brand doesn't have control over the fulfillment process. And over time, these negative impressions erode trust in the brand.
Customers begin to associate the brand with frustration rather than satisfaction. They may take their business elsewhere rather than risk repeating the same mediocre experience. Even if the initial sales experience were positive, inconsistencies after purchase would degrade brand loyalty.
In contrast, a uniform, on-brand, post-purchase customer experience delights customers and can foster loyalty. Meeting customer expectations for a seamless experience increases satisfaction, trust, and the likelihood of repeat purchases.
Let's explore five ways to deliver a consistent post-purchase experience at scale for your customers.
First up: maintaining brand consistency through white labeling.
A white-label product or service allows a company to deliver solutions under its brand, even if a third-party partner provides the technology.
For post-purchase experiences, white labeling allows you to consistently maintain your brand voice, tone, and visual identity throughout the customer journey.
Without white labeling, customers are forced to hop between branded tracking sites, notifications, and communications from delivery providers like UPS.
This fractures the experience and dilutes the retailer's brand presence during a crucial phase of the customer lifecycle.
Lowes Foods faced this challenge as their pickups and deliveries scaled. Though they handled the initial order intake, fulfillment tracking, and updates came from various external delivery partners. Each partner inserted their branding elements into SMS notifications and tracking sites.
Lowes Foods partnered with Delivery Solutions to implement extensive white labeling to regain control of the post-purchase branding.
Now, when a Lowes Foods customer receives a delivery notification, it comes with Lowes Foods’ branding. Tracking info directs the customer to a customized Lowes Foods tracking page where they can follow delivery status.
Even communications from the driver appear as though they originate from Lowes Foods. This unified white labeling solution makes fulfillment feel like a natural extension of Lowes Foods' shopping experience.
White labeling like this can yield the following results for brands:
These days, customers expect full transparency in order fulfillment and delivery. Retailers must provide tracking and status updates via customers' preferred channels, like email, text messages, and branded tracking webpages.
Lowes Foods initially struggled to meet this expectation, as delivery data was scattered across various providers without a unified view. Customers had to proactively check with multiple sources to track their orders.
By implementing Delivery Solutions’ order tracking and notifications, Lowes Foods delivers unified real-time updates directly to customers.
Integrations connect delivery data from all providers into a single stream accessible via the Lowes Foods app, website, and customized tracking pages.
Customers receive proactive notifications when a driver claims an order en route and upon delivery. If shipping delays occur, reasons are communicated rapidly via push notifications. Customers also have self-service access to live maps and ETAs.
Order tracking transparency like this can increase customer satisfaction substantially by providing a sense of security and control over the purchase process, thereby reducing anxiety and building trust in the brand.
It can also boost loyalty.
That’s because removing black box uncertainty in this way nurtures the customer-brand relationship. Customers will feel greater trust in your brand’s e-commerce fulfillment capabilities after gaining visibility into behind-the-scenes processes.
Do this, and order fulfillment will go from an operational process to an engaging, personalized brand experience.
Platform hopping during the post-purchase experience can be frustrating for customers. When customers have to navigate across multiple platforms to track orders, view status updates, and communicate with retailers, it creates a disconnected experience.
Platform hopping forces customers to expend extra effort to get information or support. This friction hurts customer satisfaction and loyalty over time.
In the case of Lowes Foods, guests previously had to hop between various delivery provider platforms to track orders. This made the delivery experience feel fragmented rather than seamless.
To solve this, Delivery Solutions implemented a unified system that enabled Lowes Foods to orchestrate last-mile delivery and host branded tracking pages.
Now, guests can view real-time order tracking, driver details, and interactive maps in one place.
Reducing platform hopping in this way provides several key benefits:
Automated notifications play a key role in streamlining post-purchase communication. Sending automated order confirmations, shipping alerts, and delivery notifications ensures customers stay informed without extra effort from retailers.
Lowes Foods leveraged automated SMS and email notifications through the Delivery Solutions platform. Now, guests receive automatic updates on their order status, delivery provider details, estimated arrival times, and real-time tracking.
Automating post-purchase notifications provides several benefits:
WISMO stands for “Where Is My Order” and refers to customers inquiring about the status of their purchase post-checkout.
A high WISMO volume indicates friction in the buying journey. It means customers lack visibility into order tracking and delivery. This frustration erodes customer satisfaction over time.
For Lowes Foods, one source of WISMO inquiries was platform hopping. Guests struggled to get delivery updates as they navigated multiple systems. Delivery Solutions implemented its omnichannel platform to fix this.
Now, Lowes Foods guests enjoy automated SMS and post-purchase email notifications with real-time order tracking. This provides full transparency into each order’s status without any effort required. Reducing friction in this way dramatically decreased WISMO volume for Lowes Foods.
Some key benefits of lowering friction points and WISMO cases include:
The partnership between Lowes Foods and Delivery Solutions shows how focusing on the customer experience post-purchase can have a big impact.
Lowes Foods made its operations more efficient through white labeling, transparent tracking, streamlined platform experiences, and automated notifications. More importantly, they greatly improved the experience for customers.
For any business looking to build long-term success, paying attention to the nuances of post-purchase strategy is vital.
To see how Delivery Solutions can improve your brand’s post-purchase process, book a demo today. Experience firsthand the impact of these strategies on your business and customer relationships.