The most popular e-commerce websites are those which provide the end-user with all the information he can absorb about the purchasing process.
Unlike a traditional shop, where the buyer already has the item in his hands at the point of sale, it is usually a couple of days after making a payment that the buyer gets his hands on the goods. During this period, it is important to keep the buyer informed of the progress of his order; whether it has been acknowledged, packed into a box, dispatched or whether it is actually believed delivered.
These are all understandable concerns, and for an integrated transaction system, it makes complete sense to provide customers with this information. The initial stages in the order lifecycle are generally internal markers of your own choosing, before the consignment is handed over to the control of a courier. The following represents a typical status sequence for a web order:-
- The order has been received
- Stock has been allocated
- The order is packaged and ready for dispatch
- The parcel has been dispatched, and is in transit
- The parcel has been delivered
It is not necessary to include all of these stages, though once the consignment is in the hands of a third-party courier, there is often additional information available to make available to the customer.
The exact data available varies between couriers; some will provide details of each port or depot the consignment passes through, and others will provide an estimated delivery time. Please ask us for more information on particular couriers.
Integrating these facilities into a website is usually a two-fold process: Firstly the e-commerce system needs to be recording each of the steps in the progress of an order, and secondly this information needs to be made available to the end-user through the website.
Your own existing systems may already be recording the progress of an order as a matter of course, in which case the integration with these systems needs to be investigated.
Other businesses may have no order processing systems in place, and these will need to be built to accommodate full order tracking facilities.
Development of the customer website interface is relatively uncomplicated, and Sygneca can provide this part of the service for as little as £300, though this is dependent on the difficulty of integration with preëxistant systems.
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