Monica Eaton’s Latest Feature For PaymentsSource’s PayThink Column
In her latest guest feature for PaymentsSource, Chargebacks911® COO Monica Eaton examines Amazon’s move to offer one-day shipping, and how that impacts every other online seller as a result.
Offering faster shipping for Prime subscribers will cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars…this year alone. Of course, given Amazon’s scale, the financial burden won’t be hard to manage. Few other retailers have that kind of scale, though. Even still, Amazon’s move will help shape customer expectations.
“The back-and-forth between e-commerce giants like Amazon and Walmart has a profound impact on the market at large, making it harder for smaller merchants to compete,” Monica explains. “It alters customer expectations; just as buyers started to see free, two- to three-day shipping as standard, they may soon see one-day shipping that way.”
Given the pressure merchants are under, it’s understandable that some will try to cut friction wherever possible. However, that’s not a move that sellers can afford to make without careful consideration.
Despite the impression most retailers have, transaction friction is not a universally bad thing. There’s a big difference between positive and negative friction.
“Most merchants are already familiar with “negative” friction, or broken site navigation, forced account registration, limited payment methods at checkout, and other points that create unnecessary barriers between buyers and sellers. However, some instances of friction can be positive, as they put reasonable checks in place to prevent errors and oversights, as well as weed-out fraud.”
