Selling goods online through an e-commerce website can be a struggle, for many different reasons.

In this article I’ll look at why a transparent and easily accessible shipping policy is so important.

• Building trust

People are naturally suspicious when shopping online and it’s your website’s job to reassure them. Having a clear shipping policy will play a part in people trusting your site and convincing them they are actually going to get what they’ve ordered.

If you don’t have any shipping policy or delivery details on your site, can you really expect people just to order and then hope it arrives soon after?

• Giving people options

When you’re selling online you should never assume that all customers are the same. Some people may want or expect the item to be sent out by next day delivery, while others may be happy to wait for a week.

The more shipping options you can give people the better, so they can choose what’s most convenient for them.

• Stops people wasting their time

It’s important to have your shipping policy on the main part of your site. People don’t want to have to register and go through the buying process only to find out you can’t deliver their item as quickly as they want it.

• To reduce complaints

A good shipping policy shouldn’t just have delivery methods. It should also contain estimated timescales, and what to do if a client wants to return an item, or how long to wait before getting in touch if an item hasn’t been delivered.

The vaguer your shipping policy is, the more likely you are to receive complaints when something goes wrong.

• Increase conversions

Generally speaking, the easier you can make the online buying process for people, the more likely they are to complete a purchase. Of course other factors come into play too such as pricing, photography and product descriptions, but assuming all that is okay, a watertight shipping policy could mean the difference between sales and abandoned shopping carts.

Have you had any experiences of bad shipping policies? Tell me about them in the comments below.

Image credit: Gastonmag

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012 at 10:40 am and is filed under E-commerce. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.