How eCommerce Businesses Can Grow After Christmas

While non-essential retailers have been forced to close their stores, eCommerce businesses are preparing for the busiest Christmas yet. In the UK, online sales accounted for 32.4% of retail sales at Christmas in 2019; a figure that will be surpassed this year. As the country goes into lockdown, consumers are turning to online shopping to buy their festive presents. This nationwide surge towards eCommerce will transform the retail market and result in record-breaking sales for online stores, leading some to consider partnering with an order fulfilment company.

Christmas Shoppers Turn to Online Stores

A study commissioned by Google in September found that over 70% of Brits said they’d do more online shopping this Christmas than previous ones. This figure will be even higher now the country is back in lockdown, forcing non-essential stores to close during a time where they would usually be filled with Christmas shoppers.

As a result, eCommerce sales will skyrocket this Christmas, with shoppers planning to spend up to two thirds of their budget online. This behavioural shift in shopping habits will fuel the growth of online stores and leave business owners with revenue that could be invested in scaling up their operations.

eCommerce Stores Will Continue to Grow After Christmas

Following Christmas, many eCommerce stores will be in a great position, having capitalised on the influx of online shoppers. With 58% of consumers expecting to do more online shopping after the pandemic than they did before it, online stores will continue to grow.

Once they grow to a certain size, eCommerce businesses seldom keep the order fulfilment process in-house because it simply isn’t feasible or cost-effective to do so. Outsourcing the order fulfilment process becomes a logical step for eCommerce stores that are struggling to keep up with their customers’ requirements.

Cut Your Costs By Outsourcing Your Order Fulfilment

No matter what you sell, your eCommerce store should make a profit, and keeping fulfilment in-house can make this really hard work. Partnering with a fulfilment company can not only lift the burden of picking, packing and despatching your goods, it can also provide cost savings including:

  • Staff costs, overtime bills etc: You won’t have to hire extra staff to fulfil your orders.
  • Extra premises costs: You won’t have to invest in your own storage space.
  • Shipping costs: Due to large shipping volumes, fulfilment companies can negotiate cheaper rates with couriers.

Why Partner With EC Group?

It’s likely that you didn’t start your online store because you enjoy packing parcels; and as sales increase, you may well find yourself with insufficient time to focus on your business because you’re too busy dispatching orders. That’s where we come in. We will manage your order fulfilment process and provide you with more time to focus on growing your business, rather than dealing with the back-end logistics.

We won’t just save you time, we will save you money too. By partnering with us, you’ll avoid fixed costs because our storage charges are flexed according to your occupancy, meaning you’ll only be charged for space you use. Our flexible service also means you will only pay for the specific number of orders we dispatch for your business. This flexibility is essential in the highly volatile eCommerce market where fluctuations in demand are common and your logistical resources need to be scaled accordingly.

We will also provide you with the following benefits:

  • A service that is uniquely tailored to your business.
  • A highly skilled team ready to fulfil any spikes in demand.
  • Safe and secure storage facilities ideally located only thirty minutes from London.
  • Intelligent software that calculates the cheapest delivery option for your orders.

We Will Enhance Your Brand

We recognise that outsourcing your order fulfilment represents a big leap of faith. You’re entrusting a third party company with your brand’s reputation, which could quickly deteriorate in the event of any poor delivery experiences. In fact, 87% of online shoppers admitted that a poor delivery experience would reduce the chance of ordering from that brand in the future.

The delivery experience is the last impression customers get of your brand, so you need assurance that your products will be shipped to them with care. Our team rigorously quality check all products for imperfections and safely package them to avoid damage in transit, ensuring your customers are happy when they receive their order, making them more likely to order from your store in the future.

If you’re interested in partnering with a flexible fulfilment company that puts your customers’ delivery experience first, please contact us.