Customers now can buy any product at any time on BigCommerce sites. They can get it in a couple of days, even just a few hours. However, sometimes, your items are out of stock and there are customers who really want to buy them. Some people can wait, some people can go away. But whatever it is, telling them that these items will be in their hand but a little waiting time. If they really want it, they can wait. But it’s likely to happen if you provide them with an appropriate delivery time.
So why do we need to add specific delivery lead times?
Buyers won’t be happy if they don’t know exactly when your new shipment will arrive. When they have a clear expectation of the product they want, the order conversion rate can also increase. For sure, to increase transparency with customers, you should set a specific delivery lead time.
Adding specific delivery lead time can benefit merchants, not only customers. Here’re some beneficial outcomes by enabling BigCommerce’s Pre-order or BackOrder:
- This can increase your revenue as you let your customers know the item needs longer shipping time, so they are willing to wait or purchase rather than there is no available information.
- It’s suitable for new businesses that do not have much investment or businesses that want to cut inventory costs
When items are out of stock, there is one right solution: backorder. So why should we exploit backorder instead of pre-order in this case?
- Customers can purchase as normal and their items will be dispatched as soon as it’s in stock
- It can customize messages in terms of price and availability
How to add specific delivery lead times for non-stocked items
1st solution: Using Pre-order function
On your BigCommerce store, go to Products -> View -> All Products -> Click on the product that you want to edit.
Go to the field ‘Availability’, choose ‘This product is coming soon but I want to take pre-orders’ and fill your expected available date.
2nd solution: Using BackOrder
There are many BigCommerce merchants that use BigCommerce native function Pre-order as a workaround for backorders. Coming up with a better solution, we have a more advanced choice: the BackOrder app.
With BackOrder, you can even allow your buyers to purchase when there is 0 inventory. Hence, the purchasing probability will be higher and you won’t be afraid of customers going away due to zero inventory! And the shipping process starts when your items are available!
First, you need to install BackOrder app, click Get This App here to install
After finishing the first step, on your BigCommerce store, go to Apps -> BackOrder by GritGlobal -> Go to Products on the top -> Assign products to the app -> Assigned Products -> Click on product you want to modify information -> Fill Back in stock date.
And then on your storefront, lead time will appear on product pages:
One of the good results from BackOrder: Stores using BackOrder improve their revenue by 11% on average, thanks to the app! If you want to discover BackOrder more, here is the link:
Final note
With every eCommerce company, lead time is a crucial metric. It has an impact on productivity, operational workflow, customer satisfaction, and sales. Adding specific delivery lead time is very important in retaining your customers, as well as increasing the credibility of your store. Read more: Bigcommerce upsell
