After having fought on prices for a long time, e-commerce websites now fight on the ground of delivery service. Being the last contact between e-merchants and their customers, delivery is a major stake in the customer experience.
Customer experience contains the set of emotions felt by a customer during the purchasing process. It’s the result of the interaction between the customer and the e-trader. Website visits, deliveries and customer support are part of these interactions.
With the development of social networks and other means of communication in general, dissatisfied customers have effective platforms to share their experiment with prospective customers. In order to prevent damageable communication, which could affect its business, a company needs to have an irreproachable service including for the delivery service.
The customs opportunities and the export growth driver encourage e-traders to develop their international sales. Today, about 57% of Europeans buy on-line, but only 16% of the SME (Small and Medium-Sized Entreprise) sell on-line and 7,5% of them are exporting (Spring: E-commerce Report Europe).
Customers want a fast service and precise delivery schedules. However, regarding e-commerce and delivery, it’s also important to take care of cultural disparities in Europe to satisfy customers as much as possible.
Adapt to demand
For example, the retreat of a product in store is appreciated by the 
British, while in France, customers prefer home delivery to relay points. Whereas workplace deliveries are more common in Spain and in Germany compared with the rest of Europe.
Today, e-traders wish to improve by any means their delivery methods to satisfy at best the customer experience. Mobile became an essential tool, whether it’s to pass an order or to monitor its progress in real time. Amazon, considered as the model to be followed, goes even further by developing deliveries made by drone.
The stakes are very important in terms of competition and e-reputation for a company. According to Valérie Dubuisson (International Director at Colissimo La Poste), « offering a follow-up for a parcel became a basic service. From now on, it’s the interactivity via mobile apps that counts to enrich customer experience ».
