A flawless checkout experience starts and ends with an accurate estimated delivery date (EDD). It gets your customers committed to hitting the buy button before checkout, and it also sets up expectations on when their orders will be delivered after checkout. It is, by all means, an integral part of the customer’s journey with your brand and business–and that’s just the customer-facing aspect. 

An accurate EDD also has a profound impact on your business’s ability to reduce unnecessary costs. Here is a list of ways it can help:

1. Increase conversion and reduce cart abandonment: Cart abandonment is one of the biggest contributors to cost. By the time your customers reach the checkout page, your business would already have spent on marketing, web design, logistics infrastructure, and so on. When they don’t check out, your costs start to stack up. By offering a reliable delivery date, you convince your customers that you can fulfill their orders. This gives them the confidence to follow through with the transaction and ensure your expenditure leads to conversion. 

2. Build customer trust in your ability to deliver on time: Uncertainty before purchase and anxiety after purchase are emotions consumers experience during an online purchase. An accurate EDD resolves both emotions and serves to build up trust and satisfaction with your customers. You can further assure customers by proactively communicating delivery updates via notifications by email or SMS. With accurate EDDs, customers are much less likely to engage your customer service teams with pre-sales inquiries before they checkout or WISMO inquiries after they check out, allowing your teams to focus on solving more serious issues

3. Relieve pressure on logistics and increase efficiencyWhen your EDDs are accurate, your business can improve logistics efficiency and even flexibility. You can let customers choose the best shipping method, carrier, route, or fulfillment center based on costs, speed, and reliability–and still provide an accurate arrival date. When your internal teams know what the estimated transit times are, they are also able to determine if there are any logistics bottlenecks they need to resolve and have complete visibility over product demand. This can help them avoid inventory issues and reduce warehousing costs. 

4. Reduce chances of missed or delayed deliveries:For e-commerce businesses, missed deliveries are a source of unnecessary costs. When your delivery dates are accurate, customers can plan when to receive their orders, which helps reduce the likelihood of missed deliveries. An AI-driven EDD engine can even tell if shipments will be delayed. When it does detect potential delays, it can keep the customer informed through notifications so that they can adjust their plans to receive their orders. 

5. Reduce returns and the costs associated with it: Returns are a major source of costs for e-commerce businesses. The longer your customers wait for their orders with arrival date clarity, the more likely they are to cancel their orders. And if their orders arrive late, the chances of them not needing them increase as well. A data-definite delivery resolves this issue and reduces the chances of returns and refunds. It assures customers that the delivery is on its way, and will reliably reach them. Sending frequent delivery status updates via notifications also helps keep them engaged and positive during the delivery process

6. Select carriers based on reliability instead of speed:Your customers are increasingly choosing timeliness over speed when it comes to deliveries. Having an AI-driven EDD provides a precise delivery date and lets customers plan ahead to receive their deliveries.  However, the bigger advantage is that it gives your business the opportunity to select high-density routes. Instead of paying more for faster deliveries, you can further reduce costs by sending orders via lower-cost standard delivery methods while maintaining full arrival date visibility for your business and customers. AI and machine learning EDD: A powerful way to lower costs Your logistics costs are weighing your business down. It is rising faster than sales, and eating into your revenue. With AI and machine learning EDDs, however, you get a powerful opportunity to lower costs across multiple areas. Not only does it improve things on the customer front, but it also ensures your logistics operations and customer service teams run smoother than ever before.  If you want to learn more about AI-driven EDDs, you can take a look at Parcel Perform’s PREDICT module. This innovative technology has been developed in collaboration with Amazon, and can deliver industry-leading delivery estimates. To find out how you can leverage this technology for your business, book a demo with our e-commerce experts today, and we will be happy to assist you.