Today, the global e-commerce market is valued at $5.7 trillion. And that number is expected to reach $6.51 trillion by 2023. Experts also estimate that e-commerce sales in the Asia Pacific region will be higher than the rest of the world combined. While the charge is mainly led by China, countries from SEA play a major role in this growth.

The highly populated urban densities, rising incomes, increasing internet penetration, and improving logistics infrastructure in SEA work together to make it an attractive market for e-commerce businesses looking for growth opportunities. Ultimately, revenue growth in the Southeast Asian e-commerce market is projected to outpace other markets such as the US, the EU, and even China to reach $126.4 billion in 2023. 

However, shopping behavior in this rapidly growing market could still be a mystery for e-commerce businesses new to the region. Success in this market depends on a deeper understanding of how SEA shoppers think, and what they expect from your business. 

Recently, our data and research arm, Parcel Monitor, has partnered with Rakuten Insight Global to take a closer look at SEA consumer preferences during the last peak season. This is what they discovered: 

• The majority of Southeast Asian customers shop exclusively online, or use a combination of online shopping and physical stores

• During peak season, most SEA consumers bought from e-commerce marketplaces due to convenience, time savings, and greater product selection

How can e-commerce brands make full use of the potential in the SEA consumer market? Read on to discover 3 key strategies that your business can adopt to craft a truly exceptional customer experience. 

1. Keep delivery delays below 3 days to ensure customers stay happy 

Meeting your customers’ expectations for the delivery journey is no small feat. Buyers expect the post-checkout stage to be as seamless as possible – especially during peak season, when they’re ordering gifts for loved ones. Our recent survey found that during this time, most SEA consumers can only accept a maximum delay of 3-4 days after the initial estimated delivery date. Anything else is likely to result in high volumes of WISMO calls and, more importantly, unhappy buyers. 

The challenge that e-commerce businesses face however, is that it’s difficult and costly to get the last-mile journey right. One thing that brands can do to gain deeper insights into their shipping processes is to work with a service provider that gives them access to real-time data reporting. Logistics data makes the delivery journey transparent, and is a valuable resource for brands looking to optimize their post-checkout performance. 

Having access to a logistics intelligence tool will help brands identify best-performing carriers and strengthen partnerships with them. For example, brands can focus on using carriers with the shortest transit times or highest success rates for first-time deliveries – both important metrics that determine customer satisfaction rates. When you start using certain partners more often, your business can even negotiate better deals to lower operating costs. 

Businesses can also manage customer expectations by providing accurate estimated arrival dates. The result is a single date, but its impact on your business is profound. When customers know exactly when their packages will arrive, they are 10% more likely to hit ‘checkout’. Getting accurate arrival date predictions, however, requires machine learning and AI technology that has deep access to logistics data. 

In this case, simply having access to data from your logistics partners isn’t enough. The tracking data you get comes from multiple sources, and are presented in a variety of formats. Making sense of it requires extensive data collection and normalization – a process that takes a tremendous amount of effort. 

Instead, brands can work with a data-first delivery platform that standardizes and enriches this data. The resulting prediction algorithm should factor in business-specific internal processes, such as warehousing, and specific cutoff times for your delivery destinations. In case of potential delays, the algorithm can recalibrate the estimated delivery date to reflect those circumstances. Providing greater clarity into the delivery journey creates customer confidence in your brand, and keeps them coming back to shop with you.  

2. Boost customer retention rates by focusing on the delivery experience

Most e-commerce businesses lack control over the post-checkout experience.  But that’s where consumers are becoming more discerning. When it comes to the delivery stage, it can make or break their experience with your online store. In Parcel Monitor’s report, we found that respondents from Singapore and Malaysia prioritize the delivery experience. 75% and 66% respectively, say they would not recommend a merchant with a poor delivery experience to others, even if the buying journey was smooth. 

For many consumers, a crucial aspect of the delivery experience is transparency. Customers want to have full visibility into their parcel tracking journeys, with 45% of Singaporean respondents refusing to repurchase from a merchant with a non-transparent delivery process. 

Establishing service level agreements with your carriers can determine if your business is receiving the service quality it needs. When service levels are breached, a delivery experience platform can help you alert your customer service and logistics operations teams immediately so they can convey that information to the customer. 

The next step is crafting excellent post-purchase communications. Your business can achieve that with prompt and accurate delivery notifications. Customers rely on delivery notifications to get order tracking updates, and giving them easy access to that information will build customer trust across the delivery journey. 

You can also develop a balanced notification strategy that uses both email and SMS notifications. While email notifications effectively communicate shipping updates, SMSes can be deployed in time-sensitive situations – like rescheduled deliveries or unforeseen delivery delays – to reach customers faster and more reliably. With an impressive open rate of 80%, delivery update notifications can be the tool your e-commerce business uses to keep customers in the loop during their delivery journey. 

3. In case of shipping delays, provide quick service recovery 

Long shipping times are expected during peak season as fulfillment centers are overloaded by the surge in order volumes. But a long wait for their orders isn’t the top factor that causes customers to stop purchasing from your business – poor service recovery is. 70% of Singaporean consumers responded that bad customer service would prevent them from shopping at their preferred online store again. 

Your customer service team is responsible for resolving queries as efficiently as possible. And logistics data is the key to achieving that. Having access to tracking data enables customer service agents to quickly search for shipments using order ID, customer details, or any other parameter your business decides to use. 

That helps reduce response times for your customer service team when dealing with ‘where is my order’ (WISMO) calls. Your business can also implement self-service, branded tracking pages powered by real-time tracking data to allow customers to check on their orders – and bring down the number of WISMO enquiries your internal teams have to deal with.  

When delays happen, your customers want to feel like their problems are being heard, and that you are taking proactive steps to come up with solutions. Give them the opportunity to tell you how they feel by collecting feedback at the end of their delivery journey. It is best practice to collect ratings when engagement rates with your brand are at their highest. 

For example, when customers track their orders or receive a status update email from your brand. Integrating a ratings collection widget within your order tracking page or delivery notifications immediately makes it more convenient for your customers to provide feedback. Sending reminder notifications with some incentives can also help drive up customer response rates.

Ultimately, customer feedback is a valuable tool that your business can leverage to identify weaknesses in your last-mile setup – and actively improve on them to craft a smoother delivery experience. 

Elevate the delivery experience today 

A seamless delivery experience is crucial to ensuring that your e-commerce business stands out from the competition in an increasingly saturated e-commerce market.

Find out how you can use the post-checkout stage as an opportunity to grow customer lifetime value and drive customer retention.