Draft a letter about supply chain delays now, before you need it

One bit of prep you can do is to check and make sure you have a template ready for supply chain issues.

This is more "our entire replenishment order from a supplier has been delayed" and not "your package will be a few days late".

Given all the issues everyone's seen with shipping and the supply chain over the past two years, a large delay in getting inventory is now a regular occurrence with commerce. Having a well-thought out template and process for communicating that to customers can save a lot of stress and headache when it happens to your store.

When... not if it happens. When.

The template should have room to provide the specific details about what caused the delay (e.g. boat waiting off the coast), what you're going to do/are doing about it (e.g. contracts with more suppliers), and most importantly, an apology to customers. Many companies forget the apology or fake it with a "We're sorry if you were inconvenienced". That won't fly with customers anymore and you'll burn their loyalty with that sort of response.

Having this sort of template ready to go will make it easier to react to any major issues in the heat-of-the-moment.

Speaking of losing customers, are you struggling to grow your repeat purchases because your customers are defecting? Use Repeat Customer Insights and the Cohort report to find out where in their lifecycle you're losing them.

Eric Davis