For quite some time, it seemed as though nothing that online retailers could do would beat the feeling of walking into a store and seeing products in real life before deciding to make a purchase.
Especially in the beauty and wellness industries where sampling, smelling, or feeling a product or its packaging can impact a consumer’s decision to purchase, online retailers had to find ways to make the process of ordering products online and having them arrive at consumer doorsteps feel special, personal, and memorable.
Personalization matters. In fact, 71% of consumers feel frustrated when their shopping experience feels impersonal. As reported in Forbes, personalization can also greatly reduce the cost of acquiring and keeping customers — by as much as 50%.
It’s rare to come across eCommerce websites that don’t already employ some degree of personalization to enhance the consumer’s online shopping experience. There’s plenty of research to back up the idea that personalization works. As it stands, 91% of consumers are more likely to shop with brands that recognize them and provide relevant offers and recommendations.
But personalization doesn’t have to stop once customers hit the “Pay now” button. There are many steps that retailers can take throughout the fulfillment process to make the experience of receiving and opening an order from an online retailer feel special and personalized.
Customer Personalization
First impressions matter. It takes around 15 seconds for someone to form an opinion about a person they just met and as little as 3 seconds to reach a conclusion about a product. And for those in the beauty and wellness industries, first impressions matter.
Why is this? The first in-person impression your customers get of your product will influence whether or not they make another purchase. For beauty brands specifically, 89.3% of customers will only make one purchase with a particular brand. But beauty customers who make a second purchase are 4.2 times more likely to go on and purchase from that same brand at least four additional times.
Sustainable businesses are built on repeat customers — which is why personalization can’t stop with personalized marketing and emails.
As reported in Small Business Trends:
- The success rate of selling to a new customer is between 5% and 2%. But the success rate of selling to an existing customer is between 60% and 70%.
- Increasing customer retention by 5% can raise your profits between 25% and 95%.
- Around 80% of your future profits will come from 20% of your existing customers.
It pays to invest in your customers with your brand’s custom fulfillment practices.
Order Processing and Personalization
What can online retailers do to create the feeling of personal connection and individualized attention in order fulfillment?
One small way to make a big impact? Packaging.
Not only can your 3PL partner help you create packaging that is a streamlined part of the fulfillment process, but they can also work closely with you to develop packaging that is an extension of your brand story — sustainability, luxury, a sense of humor, or whatever your brand messaging is. Your packaging is the first touchpoint customers have with your brand; it should be special, memorable, and customized to your brand.
Your fulfillment partner can be instrumental in delivering a personalized experience at scale. According to Forbes,
“Fulfillment services should make an emotional connection, through packaging, inserts, personalization — anything that builds a relationship. There is mounting evidence that there will be continued growth in the marketplace. It is also evident Amazon, with its many barriers to entry and lack of seller recognition, is not for every retail venture. Entrepreneurs should explore alternatives to the predominant player in fulfillment.”
Now is the time to work closely with your third-party logistics (3PL) to implement personalization practices. Packaging is so much more than the box, plastic mailer, or bubble mailer that your products ship in. What kinds of brand-specific inserts might you want to include?
- Thank-you notes
- Promo codes
- Offers
- Feedback
- Free samples
Especially when it comes to free samples, there is even more opportunity for personalization to create lasting relationships with your customers.
Custom Pick and Pack
Not every customer will make the same purchase, but that shouldn’t mean that it takes longer to fulfill their order. Time is of the essence. Delivery time is still one of the most important factors in a customer’s overall satisfaction with an online brand. One study showed that 53% of online shoppers factored delivery speed into their purchasing decision.
What does this mean for online retailers?
It’s essential to find a fulfillment partner who can help you with customized picking and packing at scale. Customers have come to expect fast, efficient shipping, which means that speed is of the utmost importance, even when orders are customized.
At OceanX, our pick-to-light fulfillment process ensures fast, efficient custom order processing. Additionally, we’ve achieved 99.8% order accuracy, with quality assurance solutions in place to reach 100% order accuracy for our customers who rely on total order accuracy.
Custom Kitting
Custom kitting is another way to achieve an additional layer of personalization. Beauty products, supplements, and other wellness products can be customized and assembled in kits that are perfectly tailored to the preferences or needs of your customers.
Our OceanX team supports custom kitting services and kit-to-order services at scale.
Personalization is an increasingly important offering for those in the world of DTC and online retail, and personalized or custom kitting, in particular, is seeing massive growth compared to other revenue streams in online retail.
At OceanX, we support tens of thousands of customized orders per day as well as fully flexible, customized, and even recurring kitting at scale, as seen with many subscription kits available on the market today — especially in the world of beauty and wellness.
OceanX: Your eCommerce Personalization Partner
eCommerce personalization at scale is no small feat. But at OceanX, we’ve perfected the art of custom packaging, kitting, picking and packing, and any other element of personalization your brand needs to thrive.
With decades of experience in the industry, we have our fingers on the pulse of what’s new, now, and next in the world of eCommerce personalization. When it comes to delivering custom-tailored shipments to your customers, we’ll be your partner in finding efficient, meaningful solutions that match your brand story.
To learn more about how we can help you, connect with our team today!
