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Hi there! 👋

Ever thought about reviewing your e-commerce operations in order to make more money?

We spend most of our time chasing new customers, growing revenue and increasing AOV.

But we overlook operational excellence.

And it’s a silent killer of your business.

Unfortunately, most e-commerce managers don’t plan a frequent operational review of their business. Let’s change that.

In today’s issue, we’re going to talk about operational review and how it can help you make more money without spending more on ads.

Review and optimize your operations and make more money without spending more on Ads.

Now let’s make something clear before we dive in. The term “operational review” is open for interpretation. I’d like to split operations in two sections.

1. Logistics

2. Customer Service

Some might find that there is much more to operations than just these two sections, but let’s keep it short and simple today.

Let’s dive in.

1. Logistics

There are a million things to folder under logistics. But in my experience, the most important things you - as an e-commerce manager - have focus on are the following:

• Delivery options

• Cut-off times

• Carriers

• Fees

So first thing you need to do is review your current situation.

• What delivery options do my customers have (same-day / next-day / lockbox etc)

• When does my customer need to order, in order to ship it out today?

• Can my customer pick its own desired carrier?

• What does my customer pay for shipping?

After answering these questions, I want you to find 5 competitors and benchmark your performance against them.

After that, you tweak and optimize your logistics.

It might look something like this:

*Yes, more carriers is better. Customers can have bad experiences with one carrier. Offer them an alternative.

**There is a lively debate going on about shipping fees and profitability. Let’s save that one for later. Fact is, free shipping means more orders.

2. Customer Service

When you think about operational reviewing your business, customer service might not be the first you think about.

It is, however, one of the most important things of your business. You can have the best product in the world. When you have a blunt, unreachable customer service team you will end up dead. Period.

To me, customer service operations consists of:

• Communication channels

• Availability hours

• Response times

• Efficiency

Again, we are going to answer some questions to do this review.

• How can my customers contact me?

• When do I get to talk to a real CS agent?

• How fast do I get a response?

• How fast to the solve my issue?

If your customer service department is only available by e-mail between monday-friday 9:00 - 17:00 and your first respons is after 3 working days, let me tell you, you have a lot of work to do.

Again, review your current situation, benchmark them to your 5 biggest competitors and make a plan to optimize it.

It might look something like this:

A few notes on the above

More contact channels isn’t always better. It doesn’t make sense to use Facebook as a CS channel if you don’t use it the right way. So think about which channels you can use, and go full focus on these.

#Contact to solve issue might be the most important metric for a customer service team. You want to solve issues as quick as possible. Otherwise, you end up in endless conversations and debates with your customers.

So try to solve the issue in one point of contact. So send that replacement item or refund that order in the first reply. Don’t waste your time asking for pictures or justification for a complaint.

Solve it. Right away.

It might cost you some money, but it you’ll be likely to see more customers coming back.

*Bonus: 50% of your the customers reaching out have questions about the delivery of their order. Let an AI bot handle these questions.

*Bonus2: A great FAQ will reduce the number of questions massively. So plan to update your FAQ on a monthly basis to keep it up to date.

TL;DR

Reviewing your logistics and customer service metrics gives you an opportunity to make more money while not spending more on Ads. And most of the time, these metrics are relatively easy to improve.

That’s it for today. Have a great Sunday.

Erik

PS. Normally, I send out my mails on Sunday 10:00AM in the morning. But I also write my newsletters on the fly without much planning. Works great, unless you get ill on Saturday. So this is an evening issue ;)

PPS. The list of things you can review is endless. When done with the things mentioned in this issue, check out the addition from Aris (and give the guy a follow on LI)

Whenever you’re ready, there are three ways I can help you.

1. Interim E-Commerce Management: I run, scale & optimize your e-commerce business.

2. Resource Library. Useful resources for every marketer. Includes an E-Commerce Audit Report, ChatGPT Prompt Guide & Midjourney Masterclass.

3. Book a 1:1 Call. A No Bullshit 20 min Ask Me Anything call. If you’re facing challenges in online business, I’m happy to talk.

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