Delivery to the regions: “Gold bottom” or a source of headache

You can often hear the opinion that many solutions that are currently developing in RuNet (including e-commerce) have either been invented in the West or directly copied from American products and services. We have to admit that the difference between Western and domestic e-commerce, despite such borrowing, exists - and is quite large.

We in Audiomania do not agree that all the decisions invented in the same US need to be copied “word for word” - after all, there is a difference in mentality and in particular business processes - however, we recognize that sometimes it’s really worth adopting experience of western companies.
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The main differences between e-commerce in Russia and, in particular, the United States, are, oddly enough, not in the way stores work, but in how their audience operates. In the US, shoppers choose online shopping, guided primarily by convenience: there is almost no price difference between offline and online retailers, and in order to win against the background of regular stores and competitors on the Web, Internet entrepreneurs come up with additional client services.

In Russia, online shoppers are often motivated by the opportunity to buy goods cheaper than offline - the practice is not only questionable, but also detrimental for merchants who have to compete not in the sphere of additional services, but in the field of pricing. That is why many services that US stores provide “by default” are often not available in runet - these include, among other things, convenient delivery on time (and not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg).

Why regional delivery is so important

Even now, many Russian online stores continue to operate within a single region: most often these are large cities and adjacent territories. Many merchants explain their selectivity by the desire to “start small” - such an approach in e-commerce is not always effective: do the residents of other settlements do not care about the company's customers (and this, after all the debate that the color of the button on the form can increase conversion by hundredths of a percent)?

Why it is worth paying attention to buyers from the regions? Online stores are really struggling to increase conversions, and the regions are one of its most reliable sources. Particular attention should be paid to those who do not live in large regional centers - it is this group of customers that is ensuring the growth of the “paying” Internet audience (everyone who wanted to connect to the network and make online purchases in relatively large cities has done this for a long time).

Residents of the regions often do not buy online, not because they have no means - seeing that delivery is only within two or three cities, or finding that the cost of delivery to his region will almost double the amount of the order, the person just starts to feel like a “second customer” varieties. "

How to convince to buy residents of the regions: the case of Audiomania

In order to make it convenient for residents of regions to order goods in Audiomania, we have implemented a simple and convenient delivery calculator on our website. With it, the client can calculate how much the delivery to his city or town will cost and how much time he will spend the goods on the way, depending on the chosen transport company.

Such a calculator is relatively easy to implement (we took about a month to create the first version), but most Russian online stores still prefer to be limited to a textual description of the delivery conditions.

It should be noted that transport companies and courier services are involved in delivering our products to the regions - very few people from online stores manage to create their own logistics network throughout Russia, so delivery is a direction that is not “outsourced” almost impossible.

Creating a calculator, we started with working with price lists of transport companies - we added them to our own database (this process - or rather, obtaining relevant data from courier services - took us most of the month we spent on the implementation of the first version of the calculator).

This was done primarily because the websites of transport companies may not be available at the time they are accessed - it is often simply impossible to “get” information from there through the API. And if the user is at the stage of placing the order and can not quickly calculate the cost of delivery, the probability of losing a potential customer increases significantly.

Interfaces for updating this data we also provided. To determine the location of the client used the IP address - with the exception of small villages and towns, it is determined quite accurately (if necessary, you can always adjust it manually). On the basis of this indicator, the weight of the goods and the selected transport company, the cost of delivery is calculated.

The exact delivery time is another important point that we had to work hard on. The main problem is that the dates of the transport companies themselves about the dates are often inaccurate - therefore we did not show the exact dates to our customers, replacing them with company ratings.

Having received the goods, the client estimated how much he liked the delivery, and exhibited from 1 to 5 stars. Based on the data received from real buyers, we ourselves calculated the average value of delivery times. As a result, it turned out not only to provide customers with more accurate information, but also to form their own database of estimates of transport companies with reference to cities. It is also important that we do not impose more expensive services on the client - it all depends on how urgently he needs to receive the selected product.

The delivery calculator is certainly a useful service that influences the decision to purchase, but sometimes it is not enough to attract regional customers. Most often this happens when a potential buyer lives in a small settlement, where only the Russian Post delivers the goods (and not all of the goods can be delivered by mail).

In order not to “lose” such clients, we provide them with alternatives - for example, a client can come to the regional center and get the goods already there. Based on the GPS coordinates of cities and towns, we determine the nearest city where the transport company can deliver the goods, and display this data on the calculator page. As a rule, customers really have the opportunity to get to such a city and get the goods - and it is important to remind of such an alternative.

Is the game worth the candle?

In general, the implementation of the delivery calculator did not just pay off - it brought a 300% increase in the number of orders from the regions. As practice shows, the creation of a thoughtful service (and the calculator in this case is a full-fledged service that solves really urgent problems of customers) does not just pay off with a “regular” increase in indicators, but with multiple growth — customers gratefully perceive the creation of additional services that facilitate their lives.



Audiomania delivery calculator now looks like this. At the same time, in order to calculate delivery to a specific city, it is not necessary to place an order - all information is available on the corresponding tab in the item card

Moreover, the ideas of such services may lie on the surface - there is no need to assemble a staff of analysts and programmers and urgently come up with something unique: it is enough just to remember what you yourself lacked when you last made a purchase in the online store.

“We deliver for free throughout the country”: is it possible to repeat the American experience in Russia?

In the US, the theme of additional services in e-commerce is so widespread that the delivery almost everywhere becomes not only convenient, but also free. Moreover, with the exception of some narrow market niches, paid delivery across the United States is perceived by a potential client as moveton - if you charge extra money for this service, you are unlikely to be able to sell your goods at all.

In Russia, online stores sometimes do not think about such an opportunity at all - the majority of domestic online businesses do not practice free shipping. Nevertheless, we decided to experiment and for several years in a row we have been delivering goods worth over 10,000 rubles for free throughout Russia (with the exception of hard-to-reach regions). Not so long ago, we decided to add free shipping to the stock outside Belarus as well - to Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Now, on the calculator page, the buyer automatically sees as a free option (in this case, we choose the specific courier service for delivery - we give preference to transport companies, and use Russian Post only in extreme cases and when ordering relatively inexpensive goods), and paid.

There is an opinion that the establishment of such "threshold" amounts, upon reaching which the delivery becomes free, leads to an increase in the average check - in practice, Audiomania is not confirmed. In this regard, our figures have not changed since the introduction of the service - if only because the amount of 10,000 rubles is much lower than the size of our average check. Setting such a relatively low threshold amount excludes the possibility of “hidden earnings” for free delivery, but, on the other hand, allows as many customers as possible not to pay for additional service - and turn into regular customers.

As practice has shown, the American experience turned out to be quite realizable and in Russia - it was just worth a try. Obviously, this experience may be useful for other online stores - it is only necessary to determine the point from which a business will be able to deliver goods to customers for free with relative comfort. The store’s audience certainly will not remain indifferent - usually free delivery is available only within Moscow and / or St. Petersburg: buyers from the regions will appreciate the opportunity to feel on a par with the capital’s residents and will most likely return to you again and again.

What to do online shopping

Such calculators are a service that is rarely found among small Internet shops of the RuNet. Here, the Internet giant Yandex, who recently aggregates many useful services for e-commerce, including a delivery calculator and information on the location of the goods, comes to the rescue of businesses.

Interestingly, in Yandex, they were guided by the same principles as in Audiomania - the company attracts cargo delivery partners to the project. At the same time, Yandex within 72 hours sends money to the store - regardless of whether the delivery service has transferred them or not.

The development of such aggregators allows us to hope that even small online stores that do not have the ability and funds to create their own solutions will have the chance to provide the client with a service comparable to that used by foreign buyers. This means that the gap in the quality of Internet services in Russia and abroad will gradually be reduced.

PS If we talk about additional materials on the topic, you should pay attention to two parts ( 1 and 2 ) of the story about the organization of our warehouse processes.