It costs five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain one. Therefore, increasing customer retention by just 5% can increase profits by much more — 25% to 95%. One highly effective — and simple — way for ecommerce companies to increase customer retention is to decrease order fulfillment time.
Consumer expectations around order fulfillment time are trending toward shorter time frames. Ecommerce companies must adjust accordingly to meet these new expectations. Consumers expect fast shipping by default, with the timeframe considered “fast” continually shrinking year over year. According to McKinsey, as many as 90% of consumers expect two- to three-day delivery.