FOCUS ON PARCELS
Mind the
SecretShirt – a modern success story
expectation gap A recent survey commissioned jointly by Brightpearl andWhistl group company Parcelhub, has revealed a gap between services consumers expect post-purchase, andwhat e-commerce merchants often provide. But worry not – the right tech can bring the two together.
Whilst the surveymainly focusedon thepost-purchase experience, it also found that consumers andmerchants don’t agreeonwhat they thinkwould stopconsumers doing business with abrand. Retailers believedpre-purchase issues – like an itembeing out-of-stockorwebsiteproblems –were likely to stopconsumers doing business. Butwhilst theymight prevent an individual purchase, consumerswere farmore concerned in overall brand relationships about product quality, highdelivery costs, poorcustomer support, ormissing/wrong items delivered. Thepost buy-buttonexperiencewas deemedby customers the most important part of the journey, anddue focus/investment shouldbe accorded to it – especially as 49%ofcustomers stated that they havehad 1-3badexperiences directly related to shipping, tracking anddelivery in the last twelvemonths.
The good news – great tech can bridge the gap. There’s no doubt that today’s smart technology can bring consumer andmerchant together – helping e-commerce retailers win and retain customers. Every disconnect outlined in this white paper, such as lack of delivery options, poor customer support and non-existent returns capability, can be readily overcome by the latest generation of e-commerce Order Management Systems (OMS) and Delivery Management Platforms (DMP). Such tried and trusted tech can enable e-commerce merchants tomeet all the key expectations of today’s sophisticated, demanding consumer. Find out more about the survey by visiting parcelhub.co.uk/whitepaper.
Q Please tell us about your business A Ourbusiness, SecretShirtCo is for football fans.The idea is you go to ourwebsite, select a size and place an order. We then send out a completely randomfootball shirt from across theworld, fromany level and fromany league.We startedourbusiness inNovember2020and since thenwe have sold close to 50,000 shirts and accumulated nearly 300,000 followers across InstagramandTwitter. Q What sets you apart? A What sets us apart fromother businesses in our field is that we are shipping out quality shirts from across the world, a lot of our custom comes from repeat customers who are enjoying what they’re getting. We have also worked in social media formany years so have a lot of experience inmarketing on our platforms. Q What plans do you have for the future? A It’s hard to say what our plans for the future are. We’ve been pretty blown away with the way our first year in business has gone, sowe hope to continue growing as a business and a brand. “ Whistl have been brilliant sincewe startedworking together in the spring.” A start-up in November 2020, that’s had to scale up very rapidly - owners Luke Stones and ReeceWheddon share the story of their instant-hit e-commerce brand.
A ‘SecretShirt’, completewith certificate of authenticity. This is the strip of Sport Club Corinthians Paulista of Sao Paulo, Brazil, as worn by Rivelino and (Brazilian) Ronaldo.
Q What advicewould you give other business owners? A Customer service is key. Make sure you do everything possible to keep a customer happy. Any unhappy customers can quickly damage a reputation of a business, especially when it’s social media based, so customers being happy really is our number one priority. Q What do you look for in a supplier? A We search for suppliers all over the world, essentially we are looking for themost unique and best shirts for our customers. It’s always an added bonus having a good friendly relationshipwith our suppliers. Q HowdoesWhistl support your organisation? A Whistl have been brilliant since we startedworking together in the spring. They have fulfilled our needs and the teamwe have working with us have been amazing. When we first startedwe were complete novices with using couriers, the team atWhistl were extremely patient with us and even travelled up to our house to talk us through the way the systemworked. This kind of customer support really is rare andwas extremely appreciated. We also have to give Mark Savage a special shout-out and thank you. Since he contacted us about joiningWhistl in January, he has gone above and beyond to help and support us. He is a credit toWhistl and the company are lucky to have him.
97% of consumers say post-purchase issues are important to them…
…but only 22% ofmerchants rate their post-purchase experience as the best possible.
One in three consumers say
…but 56% of retailers don’t offer that feature.
an SMS text is important to them
whilst the delivery is ‘in-flight’…
…but only 56% ofmerchants offer UK returns, and just 25% have an international returns service. …but 62% ofmerchants don’t offer the former, whilst 71% admit they can’t offer the latter.
96% of consumers consider the ability to return an itemto be important when deciding whether to shopwith a brand… High on the consumerwish list is a nominated safe place delivery option, with preferred neighbour also up there…
Visit www.whistl.co.uk/parcels to learn howwe can improve your brand’s parcel deliveries.
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Whistl Magazine • Winter 2021
Whistl Magazine • Winter 2021
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