Why the rush? Don’t assume I want it right away

The other day I was out on Amazon buying a book, something I do often, and when I got to the shipment choices, there was free next day shipping (a perk of shopping there a lot), and next day shipping for a fee, and another button for standard shipping.  It assumed I wanted the free second day air, and pre-selected that button, and I would have to select a different button for standard shipping (which I usually do, and they never remember that).

Now perishable things are one thing, but I have to tell you, I think Amazon and other retailers are making a big mistake by not asking us when we want it instead of assuming we want it as soon as possible.  Asking that question could be a huge help to online retailers like Amazon as well as the shipping organization.

A really simple example (and the first time I thought of this) was last Summer when my son picked out his Halloween costume.  Now of course Halloween is at the end of October, but kids of a certain age really look forward to it, so my little guy knew in July that he wanted to be a skeleton zombie.  What eight year-old wouldn’t?

So I went out to the costume site and placed my order and of course they assumed we needed the costume right away, but we really didn’t need it until late October, but there was no way to convey that.  Asking that simple question “when do you need it by?” helps everyone involved with the transaction:

1) It helps the merchant with the management of their time in terms of efficiency and schedule management.  They might wait until they have several orders for the same product so that they can be more efficient in pulling them off the shelf and packaging them.

2) It helps the transportation company (if they put a delivery date label on it) so that the carrier, whether it’s the postal service or a carrier like UPS or FedEx or DHL, they could be more efficient about scheduling drop offs to my house, as well as the houses around me – with greater line of site to what is due when.  Now they won’t want to stockpile things for long, but I am pretty sure some additional schedule control helps them a lot.

3) It helps the customer.   If I don’t need something until late October, what am I supposed to do with it in July?  What if I forget where I put it?  Yes I could wait until October to order it, but then there’s the risk that I will wait too late or that I will lose the magazine with the skeleton zombie costume (circled many, many times).  I want to order it when I think of it, and I should be able to say when I need it by.  Right?

So rethink the assumption of “how” people get their stuff in terms of assumptions about urgency – ask people when they want things and everyone wins.

-Ric