Where's My Package?

Two months ago I placed an order for shampoo and conditioner, something I would typically pick up at the local grocery store, but wanted to order directly from the Shopify store instead.

We don’t have a car and asking my poor husband to carry back 2-36oz bottles on his mile walk seemed silly, especially if I can order direct.

The problem though, was that they didn’t tell me it would take 10 days to ship plus a week to travel from California to Oregon.

Something we could have picked up on a quick trip to the store took nearly three weeks to get here.

The really unfortunate part was that the store didn’t communicate with me about the delay in shipping. At all.

Covid has severely impacted shipments across the country let alone those originating from out of the country. Add to that the civil unrest across the US and now worldwide, street closures are causing even more delays.

Communicating shipping times is so important for a few reasons.

Will it arrive before I need it? – Busting objections before they make the purchase helps to ease any concerns they have.

Where’s my order? – The majority of customer questions post-purchase are usually around locating their package.

Being upfront with the shipping timeline and arrival expectations also reduces the load on your customer service team.

Here are a few tips on communicating estimated arrival dates.

1. Add estimated arrival dates or shipping delays above the Add To Cart buttons on your product pages.
2. Remind them of potential delays on the cart page.
3. Reduce confusion by updating your shipping, returns, and exchange policies.
4. Under promise by providing longer lead times, over-deliver by getting it out your door as soon as possible.
5. Send emails with estimated arrival dates.
6. Send a confirmation email with tracking numbers.

I will still order from the Shopify store because I know shipment delays weren’t their fault. Not everyone will be so inclined. Get ahead of these customer service issues before it’s too late.

If your website suffers from poor communication issues like this, you might consider buying my Website Rescues. I fix these issues and dozens of other problems that impact Shopify stores.