Ever clicked ‘pay now’ (or confirm order) and suddenly had second thoughts? Or realized you made a mistake? So you quickly go and try to cancel your order? Some ecommerce sites will provide the option to cancel an order after it’s been placed. For others, you may need to contact customer service. Whether or not you can cancel will depend on the length of the remorse period for your order.
What is an ecommerce remorse period?
A remorse period is a preconfigured time period during which an order is held before being released to a fulfillment location (like a distribution center, a store, or a third-party dropship vendor) for processing.
How long is an ecommerce remorse period?
There is no universal time period. One Fluent Commerce customer has a remorse period of two hours for all orders. At another customer, the remorse period is one hour for standard shipping, and 15 minutes for expedited shipping. One customer, who offers 30-minute pickup, has no remorse period. Another sets it for 5 minutes.
If you’ve ever tried to cancel an Amazon Prime order, you may have found it was too late even just a minute or two after placing the order. Which can be super frustrating. To find out why Amazon’s remorse period can be so short, let’s look at some factors retailers should consider when configuring remorse periods.
What are some remorse period considerations?
If you still use just one or two remorse periods for all orders and want to explore how to optimize them, here are some things to consider.
1. Type of fulfillment (delivery or pickup)
For a delivery order with standard shipping, you may want to offer a longer remorse period—say one or two hours—but a shorter time period for pickup orders that have to be ready for pickup the same day.
2. Pickup promise
How quickly did you promise the customer their order would be ready for pickup? A retailer who offers a 30-minute pickup may only offer a short remorse period, say five minutes. Conversely, a retailer with a 2-hour pickup promise may offer a remorse period of 30 minutes.
3. Delivery speed / delivery promise
If your customer selected standard shipping, a longer remorse period of one or two hours may be fine. But if the customer selected same-day or next-day shipping, a remorse period of 15 minutes may be needed to ensure you deliver on time.
4. Time of Day and Carrier pickup times
If an order is received in the morning and the carrier pickup time is 4pm, then you may be able to offer a longer remorse period of 1-2 hours. However, if the order is received closer to the carrier pickup time, a short remorse period of 15-30 minutes may be needed to ensure you deliver on time.
5. Product attributes
Some items require more handling time during order processing. Think large, bulky items or fragile items that need to be carefully packaged. Labor is another consideration. These factors can add to order processing time, which may mean you want to use a shorter remorse period.
6. Value added services
Does the order include services like gift wrapping or assembly? If so, you may want to consider how these services will impact your order processing time—and therefore, remorse period.
7. Average order processing speed at a location
Travel distance for the picking process and staff availability can have an impact. While a distribution center may be super efficient, store fulfillment may take longer. Especially when picking up from the sales floor at larger-format stores.
8. Historical customer behavior
How often do customers try to cancel an order after the remorse period has expired? And what is the return rate when they do? Given the high cost of returns, you may want to test different remorse periods and analyze the results.
When testing, you’ll want to look at some key metrics to properly measure the business impact. Which ones?
What metrics can be impacted by remorse periods?
It may feel like remorse periods are a small thing in the overall lifecycle of an order. But sometimes, they can have a bigger impact than expected. As you evaluate the remorse periods for your business, here are some metrics to watch to see if your remorse period may be too long or too short.
Signs your remorse period is too long
1. Your on-time in-full (OTIF) rate for pickup orders drops.
Orders may not be ready for pickup on time if the remorse period is too long and store / branch staff don’t have enough time to process orders along with servicing physical buyers.
2. Your on-time in-full (OTIF) rate for delivery orders drops.
Orders, particularly those placed later in the day, may not be ready for carrier pickup if staff don’t have time to process the orders. It’s especially important to look at OTIF by delivery speed, as it may be lower for, say, next-day or two-day delivery orders than those with standard shipping.
3. Your customer service call volume increases.
If your remorse period is too long, and orders are delivered late, call volume for ‘Where Is My Order’ (WISMO) inquiries may increase.
Sings your remorse period is too short
1. Your return rate increases.
Returns may increase if your remorse period is too short because customers don’t have enough time to cancel after hurriedly placing an order
2. Your customer service call volume increases.
Yep, this goes both ways. If your remorse period is too short, customers call more to try to cancel orders. To report on this, you’ll need to capture a unique call reason like ‘Canceled order after remorse period’.
You can use many metrics to track the effectiveness of remorse periods, and small changes can make a big difference to your business.
Optimal remorse periods increase operational efficiency
The most important thing you can do in ecommerce is provide a great customer experience, and keep your delivery and pickup promises. Tailored remorse periods can help. They make it easier for a customer to cancel an order if needed, and they can be designed to help boost your OTIF rate. Either way, optimal remorse periods help keep call volume—and costs—down. It’s a win-win.
To learn how Fluent Order Management’s flexible order orchestration rules can easily support different remorse periods for different order types, contact us today.
