Auto-delivery (otherwise known as automatic delivery or automatic shipping) is becoming increasingly popular with online retail stores that are looking to generate more money from individual customers. Not only do auto-delivery programs help to build a brand’s customer base, but because it streamlines shipping, auto-delivery makes businesses more effective — and more profitable.
Automatic delivery programs work by having customers sign up for pre-scheduled purchases and delivery. This helps them save time (and often money because sellers offer discounts for auto-delivery products) and, in turn, it helps businesses have more sustainable, predictable orders. By adding customization features to auto-shipping programs, businesses can create even more compelling offers, allowing customers to choose the frequency of deliveries and the quantity of the product being shipped.
Although it might sound difficult, setting up an auto-delivery program for your online products is actually fairly simple. Whichever platform you choose to use (we’ll go into more detail about the different options available today), the software will automatically create a new order, process the payment, and then send a notification to the customer. So, not only is automatic delivery convenient for your customers, but it’s convenient for you too.
Once you’ve gained the trust of your customers, recurring orders and auto-delivery ensures that they don’t get distracted and take their money elsewhere. Because auto-delivery is so convenient, most customers will stay with the program for months, if not longer, which means the lifetime value of each of your customers increases dramatically.
You know your customers are busy. That’s why you had to work so hard in the first place to get them to your site and then take a look at your products. By offering auto-delivery, you honor their time, helping them find a convenient way to get the products they need — and without even having to think about it.
Each time an order gets placed, you create more loyalty for your brand. That’s why auto-delivery has the potential to take your business from your customer’s choice to their absolute favorite. And, when that happens, this loyalty is worth more than you might realize. Not only are your loyal customers your best customers, but they’re also one of your best forms of advertising, too.
Recurring orders are a lifesaver for a lot of companies because they allow them to generate much more accurate revenue numbers each month. Not only does this predictability create stability for your business, but it also makes your business more valuable if you ever decide to sell it.
Just like recurring orders help you know how much money you’ll make each month, they also help you predict how much of a product you’ll need. This, again, allows companies to better plan their inventory purchases, making sure they’re not spending too much (or too little) in order to meet the demands of their consumers.
Offering recurring orders not only makes you different from the competition, but it also makes you look more reliable. Online stores have to work hard to earn the trust of their visitors, and one way you can do that is to make recurring deliveries a prominent feature on your website.
While some of your customers enjoy shopping online, there’s a large percentage that really don’t like the searching and potential risk of giving out their information. Automatic delivery programs are perfect for these consumers because it alleviates the need to shop, as well as the risk of providing secure information.
Consumable items are often nags on to-do lists, showing up again and again and forcing consumers to return to the store over and over. Auto-delivery, however, solves this problem, making you the hero if you choose to offer it.
There are several different ways to go about providing recurring order programs to your customers, depending on where you sell your products. Below are a few of the most popular options for auto-delivery subscriptions.
Amazon members enjoy using the Subscribe & Save program because it’s convenient and typically offers some sort of discount on the products being purchased. With free shipping and scheduled deliveries, few recurring subscription programs are as popular as Amazon’s. As a seller on Amazon, you can see your Subscribe & Save products when you access your “Manage Products” page. Here, you can see your discounts and preferences so that you can be sure your recurring product offers are exactly what you want. And, since December 2019, all eligible Subscribe & Save products are automatically enrolled in the program, which means there’s nothing you have to do as a seller in order to enjoy the perks.
Using 3dcart’s Autoship Recurring Orders app, merchants can add recurring order functionality to their online store easily. Not only does the 3dcart Autoship app allow customers to select the preferred frequency for their orders when adding products, but they can also have multiple Autoship orders at the same time. Customers can simply use the My Account section to manage recurring orders online, change those orders’ frequency, cancel an order, update credit card information, and more.
Although PayPal doesn’t automatically ship products for you, it will create recurring payments, which can then trigger the product to be shipped. Setting up this feature in PayPal is simple — just access the “Tools” section and follow the directions from there.
Like PayPal, Square allows you to create recurring payments, but not recurring shipments. But, if you use Square to process orders already, this feature can make it easy to integrate recurring orders into your current offers.
While there are a lot of benefits to creating an auto-delivery program, implementing it needs to be done the right way in order for it to really work. If done improperly, auto-delivery programs can actually lose a business customers, rather than helping it gain them. In addition to making sure your auto-delivery program allows for flexible shipping dates, easy-to-update payment links, and the ability to pause or stop service altogether, you should also consider the following:
While not every online store can create auto-delivery programs (high-end, one-time purchases obviously don’t make sense), those that do should take advantage of the benefits. Not only are recurring payments easy to set up, but they create convenience for your customers — and your business.