Most logistics websites lose a shipper at one of three points: they cannot find whether the company serves their lane, the quote form asks for too much before showing any value, or the site is too slow to bother waiting for on a mobile connection at a port or warehouse with patchy signal.
If lanes are buried in a dropdown menu or a single paragraph of text, a shipper comparing three or four forwarders will simply move to the next tab. A visible list or search of lanes, or clear navigation by region, keeps them on the page long enough to consider a quote.
A form demanding full cargo details, HS codes and insurance requirements before a shipper has even had a reply loses people who just want a ballpark. A short first form (origin, destination, cargo type, rough volume) followed by a detailed quote request once contact is made converts better.
Every extra required field on a first-contact form is a reason for a shipper to try a competitor's form instead.
Test the site on a throttled mobile connection, not just office wifi. Warehouse and port-side staff, who often make the first enquiry, are frequently on weak signal. Heavy hero videos and unoptimised images are the most common cause of abandonment before the page even finishes loading.
Test your own quote form on a phone, on a slow connection, as if you were a shipper who has never used your site before.
Written by Fibvo — Bengaluru and Erode, India — working with clients in other time zones. Questions, or think we have it wrong? Tell us.
Keep reading
What to actually ask a marketing agency before hiring them for a freight forwarder or 3PL, and the answers that suggest they understand how logistics is actually bought.
4 min readA realistic way to think about digital marketing spend for a freight forwarder or 3PL, based on lane value and enquiry volume rather than a fixed percentage of revenue.
4 min readA practical checklist covering website, search, ads, GeM and social presence for a freight forwarder or 3PL reviewing its digital marketing for the year.
5 min readNext step
Send the problem in a paragraph. We will reply within one working day with an honest view of whether we can help, and what it is likely to cost.
