Elevate your customer experience with these 5 strategies

Delivering an exceptional customer experience to encourage customers to keep coming back is a key component to scaling your e-commerce brand. Breaking down data silos to harness operational and financial data from your operations and finance teams can help inform and enhance your customer experience strategy. We asked DTC leaders for their advice on how you can elevate your customer experience with a data-driven approach.  

Personalize your packaging

Many brands focus on personalizing their email campaigns or website purchasing experience but often forget about another important touchpoint; your packaging. Using a warehouse management system with an open API that enables personalized printing workflows based on customer or order conditions can help you enhance the unboxing experience for customers. 

"Missing the boat on personalization is costing you in ways you can’t imagine. Real-time operational and performance data empowers brands to create hyper-personalized unboxing experiences that turn ordinary package deliveries into powerful touchpoints. Our data shows customers are 60% more likely to reorder when these tailored moments are part of their journey. It’s not just about meeting expectations—it’s about exceeding them, building stronger relationships, and growing lifetime value through experiences that resonate and delight." - Michael Jaskulsky, Director of Business Development at UnDigital

‍Automate fulfillment scorecarding 

There’s nothing worse for your customers than delayed shipments or packages that never arrive. Taking a data-driven approach to regularly rank your 3PLs and carriers against their performance benchmarks can provide actionable insights to optimizing your carrier allocation and improving your customer experience.   

“Having real-time, operational data is the cornerstone of providing a dialed customer experience. I've seen brands get huge gains on the NPS scores from automating processes like fulfillment scorecarding (measuring fulfillment partners against their SLAs) and inventory management so they keep best-sellers in stock during peak season. The more data brands have, the more proactive they can be across the supply chain.” - Alex Yaseen, Founder and CEO at Parabola 

‍See related: 6 strategies to automate your operations 

‍Extend return windows for VIP customers

Your customer experience doesn’t end at checkout. The returns process is another key touchpoint with customers that you can use to elevate your customer experience. Using customer order data can enable the personalization of your returns policy to help reward repeat customers for their loyalty. 

“Real-time data enables brands to transform returns from a cost center into a strategic advantage. By analyzing customer behavior and operational costs, companies can implement strategies that enhance customer satisfaction while protecting margins. For instance, data can identify VIP customers to reward with extended return windows or highlight when letting customers keep items is more cost-effective. Granular visibility into returns data also helps brands address trends driving returns. 

‍Topicals leveraged these insights to improve product development and marketing, reducing return rates by 20% for their top five most returned products, proving the power of data in optimizing the post-purchase experience.” - Hannah Bravo, CEO at Loop

‍See related: Best Practices in eCommerce Returns Management: Navigating the Aftermath of Holiday Shopping 

Keep your customers informed 

Customers don’t like being kept in the dark. Providing transparent and regular communication updates to your customers after their purchase can help enhance their experience. Domino’s Pizza personalizes this experience by sharing the name of the employee working on the order and showing updates at each step of the production process. A similar concept can be applied to eCommerce manufacturing to keep your customers informed.  

“Leveraging real-time data from Fulfil through Packwork's Shopify Flow actions transforms customer communication into a more personal experience. For example, brands can automatically notify customers when a made-to-order item, like an engraved product, starts production. Sharing details such as who’s working on it or when it’s expected to finish builds a stronger connection with the process.This proactive transparency doesn’t just keep customers informed—it creates delight. By using tools like Shopify Flow to integrate Fulfil’s operational data into customer updates, brands can elevate the experience, fostering loyalty and trust with every interaction.” - Stefan Vermaas, Founder at Codeture

‍Centralize your customer data

Data silos across software and departments can hold you back from elevating your customer experience. Cross-functional communication across marketing and operations teams is an important part of delivering a seamless customer experience. Using an eCommerce ERP that integrates with email marketing tools such as Klaviyo can enhance customer email flows with operational data from the ERP. 

“Real-time operational and financial data allows brands to deliver a more tailored, personalized customer experience. With up-to-date order status, inventory levels, and customer history, service teams and chatbots can resolve issues faster. Merchants should proactively let customers know of any delays or cancellations, helping those customers stay loyal to your brand. Having real-time data enables brands to stay ahead of potential issues. Brands can also give shoppers a seamless omnichannel experience by marrying user data across different devices and storefronts. It’s all about finding the optimal balance between offering customer-friendly promotions and profitability.” -Steven Geist, Business Development Lead at Fuel Made

‍Take your customer experience to new heights 

By breaking down data silos in your organization, you can implement new data-driven strategies to enhance your customer experience. Communicating with cross-functional stakeholders is key to understanding the information each team has access to and identifying opportunities in the customer journey where personalized enhancements can be implemented. 

Schedule a demo below to learn more about how Fulfil can help you break down data silos and elevate your customer experience. 

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