You might look at improving customer experience as a choice, but providing an exceptional shopping experience is becoming more and more of a necessity for ecommerce brands craving a competitive edge. With 86% of customers willing to switch brands because of bad customer service, it’s time for businesses to strategically invest in innovation if they want to capture and satisfy a customer base for clear differentiation in a crowded market.
Let’s take a look at some of the best ways your ecommerce business can improve customer experience.
Prioritize User Experience
It would probably feel awful to watch a customer walk into your store and immediately trip on the rug at the entryway, right? If your ecommerce site is difficult for users to navigate, you’re effectively causing the same scenario in an online setting.
Your website is your digital storefront. A clutter-free layout, clear call-to-action buttons, and mobile responsiveness are all quick-hit ways to ensure a seamless user experience (UX) and heightened customer satisfaction. Of equal importance is your search bar, especially since 30% of shoppers use it on a retailer’s site. Here’s how to maximize your ecommerce search bar conversions.
Optimizing your ecommerce search functionality with features like autocomplete can also increase customer experience exponentially. The more intuitive it is for customers to search and find products, the more likely they are to complete a purchase.
Offer Various Payment Options
More than 75% of consumers prioritize convenience when shopping online. One way to address convenience is by evaluating the checkout process. The less friction present, the better.
By offering a streamlined checkout experience with fewer steps and multiple payment methods, the more businesses are likely to reinforce their brand identity and customer trust.
Provide Many Fulfillment Choices
Choice means flexibility, which is a hot commodity in more ways than one. And since the majority of online shoppers expect convenience, offering multiple fulfillment types — such as home delivery, same-day delivery, or buy online, pick up in store (BOPIS) — is a strategic approach that gives customers the freedom to choose the option that best suits their needs and preferences.
Make User-Level Personalization in Product Discovery Table Stakes
Not every ecommerce business has the budget for an in-house engineering team that focuses solely on search and product discovery. Does that mean those smaller businesses can’t compete with global retailers? Thanks to the help of clickstream data, they certainly can.
First-party behavioral data and segmentation turbo charge your ecommerce strategy. When leveraged in tandem, you can personalize search results on a user-level, improve overall customer satisfaction, and benefit from a double-digit increase in conversions.
Plus, personalized interactions make customers feel valued and understood, which is the basis of any happy relationship. Simple tactics like addressing customers by name in email campaigns — or more complex set-ups like offering product recommendations based on affinities and shopping interactions — can help businesses foster deeper customer connections and increase customer engagement.
Latest updates for in-session personalization
Fair warning: If not properly executed, personalization efforts can backfire for your ecommerce brand. This is particularly common with in-session personalization, where algorithms may inadvertently worsen an already seamless customer experience.
For example, imagine a consumer searches for “leather sandals” on a footwear retailer site. They click into the first PDP, scroll through the details, and promptly decide it’s not what they want. So, they hit the back button to return to the initial search results page.
If the retailer’s search engine re-ranks products based on real-time user behavior, the listings on the search results page could already be re-ranked — according to style, color, and other affinities garnered from the consumer’s most recent actions.
Would this upset or confuse the consumer, who may have been expecting to see the same list of products? Or would it impress them, thus encouraging them to continue shopping?
Constructor A/B tested this hypothesis recently, and we found that personalization caching — where the search results page remains the same for at least five minutes within the same session — can enhance UX, leading to improved business KPIs.
Leverage Personalization in Email Marketing, Too
Yes, tailoring your emails with customer data can lead to an increase in engagement and conversion rates, but it’s important to think beyond the subject line.
Retailers can leverage product discovery learnings from across their ecommerce site to deliver attractive, personalized results directly in marketing emails to customers. For example, if a customer was interested in a product that’s out of stock, send them alternative recommendations to that out-of-stock product in their cart. Or, send shoppers emails with user-featured items just for them during monthly or other timely campaign blasts.
Whatever use cases your marketing team has, you can combine the unique user ID, past shopping behavior, and marketing triggers to retrieve product-to-product, user-to-product, or query-to-product recommendations.
This can be achieved easily via AI-powered email recommendations, the use of which not only helps move consumers along in their shopping journey satisfactorily, but also improves business KPIs.
Promote User-Generated Content
User-generated content (UGC) is word-of-mouth marketing at its finest. Prospective buyers that see positive feedback and testimonials from fellow consumers are more likely to trust the brand and feel confident in their purchasing decisions.
Product reviews, ratings, and testimonials provide authentic perspectives from real people. Plus, social proof in the form of user-generated photos and videos can reinforce credibility and even the desirability of an item, making it more enticing to potential customers.
It’s never too late to start building up a catalog of UGC. Launching social media contests, partnering with influencers, asking for feedback from users, and using trending hashtags are some of the best ways to tap into UGC.
Execute Well-Timed Promotions
Promotions serve as a powerful incentivizing tool. By offering discounts or special offers at strategic times — such as during holidays, seasonal sales, or customer milestones like birthdays or anniversaries — businesses can capitalize on increased purchasing intent and encourage customers to take action.
When it comes to retailers, this is especially true of strategically-placed promotions that appear naturally within customers’ product discovery experiences.
For an extra edge, implant a sense of urgency with limited-time promotions, which can act as a prompt to purchase. Customers are motivated to act quickly to take advantage of the offer before it expires, preventing procrastination to drive conversions and revenue.
Launch New, Pertinent Mobile App Features
About three-quarters of Americans report shopping online via their smartphones. Are you capitalizing on that mobile traffic via an app? And more importantly, are you making sure the app provides the best UX possible?
By optimizing app performance, prioritizing the release of features that have the most impact on ROI, and blending the in-store and online experience for improved overall UX, businesses can make it easier for customers to browse products, make purchases, and engage with their brand — anytime, anywhere.
Not sure which features to prioritize next? Ask your customers. Remember that every feature development cycle depends on customer feedback to function.
Improving Customer Experience Starts With You
Despite all of the shifting market and economic changes in the ecommerce industry, the importance of customer satisfaction will always remain significant. One bad customer experience can lead to a sales-crushing domino effect, such negative reviews, less-than-pleasant social media callouts, and more misgivings.
But brands that prioritize improving their ecommerce customer experience will gain an edge on their competitors –– and a loyal customer base to boot. This is especially true of those that leverage emerging technologies for increased efficiency.
Click here to discover what’s next for personalization and customer experience in the modern Generative AI age.
