The implications of transport strike in eCommerce

As a result of the war in Ukraine, a real energy crisis is taking place. Russia is one of the largest exporters of oil and gas in the world and, by extension, in Europe. It is therefore inevitable that the price of fossil fuels will rise in the current context.

 

This affects the entire chain: from production to marketing, including transportation. The companies in this last sector, seeing their commercial margin fall, have come to the determination to stop, which has caused a situation close to collapse, with companies and factories stopping their activity as they have no raw materials or way to distribute the final products.

In the case of retail it is much more evident to the public, but this does not imply that it is not also affecting online stores: it is doing so substantially as we will see below.

 

A standstill of this kind affects eCommerce at both ends of the sales process. While the retailer, once he has managed to get hold of some inventory, has solved the problem... there begins a second drawback for eCommerce.

 

We have to get the orders to our customers, and it is not being easy. Even now, as there seems to be some movement to unblock the situation, when everything gets back to normal, we will still have backlogs accumulating.

 

There is nothing a customer hates more than a late order. This will affect logistics and customer service, which may be saturated and consequently provide worse service at all levels, with the possibility of a reputation crisis and serious damage to the brand.

It is very frustrating when we are affected by variables on which we cannot act directly. Moreover, one of the problems is that the customer is not contracting a transport service: he is buying a product that wants to receive.

 

Precisely for this reason, the only thing we can do is to be transparent with them. Moreover, and this is not always the case, the situation of the transport strike has reached public opinion, so they know that it is not just an excuse.

It is always a good time to communicate with our customers. Use your database and send a communication explaining the situation and telling them that delivery times may be delayed for reasons beyond your company's control.

 

In the case of customers who have already purchased, an interesting option is to send them a discount coupon for a future purchase. This way you kill two birds with one stone: you appease the mood and generate recurrence.

It is true that all online stores offer urgent deliveries and that it is a rising value, but at the moment it is difficult to manage them in a really urgent way.

 

We would encourage you to stop offering this service and, in the product page itself, explain that it is a temporary situation.

You can always use a chatbot as a first filter, but agents are going to need a lot of patience because, for each customer, their case is unique and they are not consoled by the evil of many.

 

Perhaps the use of a coupon or free shipping on the next order can help make the customer feel compensated.