Ecommerce businesses face fierce competition, and they need to go above and beyond to give their customers an exceptional experience. Nowadays, customers expect convenience, flawless service, and timely support for any issues they may face. Suffice to say that this can be overwhelming for any business. However, the retail landscape is constantly changing, and you will either adapt or get outpaced by your competition. To win over the trust of your customers, here are seven ways to improve the eCommerce customer experience.
1. Up your customer relations
We suggest that you take a proactive role in the customer journey for all your leads. If you want to impress customers, you should show them you care about their experience straight from the get-go. Prioritizing customer relations is one of the best ways to improve the eCommerce customer experience. Thankfully, there are numerous customer relationship management tools you can use which can help you keep track of the progress of each of your leads. Instead of merely pushing every lead into an immediate sale, you can monitor their interaction with your brand. Educate your website visitors, and offer them enough support to make an informed decision. If you help them make a purchase when they are ready, you will win their trust in the long run.
2. Improve checkout support
Shopping cart abandonment is probably the greatest fear of any eCommerce business. Your customers got just a few clicks from a successful purchase, only to change their minds and decide against it. Reduce your bounce rates by offering your customers extensive support during their checkout. Simplify your forms, and make checkout as streamlined as possible. Additionally, you should have multiple payment options and on-screen help in the form of FAQs or co-browsing. Send email messages to those leads that got to the checkout stage, reminding them of your products and their incomplete purchase order.
3. Be available for your customers
If you are looking for ways to improve the eCommerce customer experience, nothing can replace a personal touch. Have several ways for customers to contact a sales representative if they get stuck in the sales funnel. This can be as simple as adding click-to-call buttons on your website.
Unfortunately, some business owners view eCommerce as a hands-off experience, where customers can do all of the shopping by themselves. This is a mistake, and there are other aspects that many overlook, which can make your customers feel neglected. One of the main benefits of online shopping is that customers can access your store at any time of day. Thankfully, there are numerous ways to offer customer support in the digital age, such as chatbots that can answer many common questions.
4. Personalize every interaction
When automation is making sales and marketing jobs more straightforward, it's easy to go with the flow and send generic responses to all of your customers. Unfortunately, this approach often feels cold and impersonal. We suggest that you take the time to personalize every interaction. Even those aspects of customer interaction handled by automation software can be personalized to an extent. Add the names of your clients in your messages and address them directly. If you know how far every lead has progressed, you can send them specialized messages that inspire them to go forward with their purchase.
You can even take personalization a step further and include personalization in your marketing:
- Give specialized offers to users who have shown interest in multiple products.
- Retarget leads that came to your site multiple times but haven't made a purchase.
- Have individual welcome messages for visitors who access your site through referrals.
5. Have video previews of your products
If you are trying to sell a product online, it can be constructive to have a strong visual identity. Most customers will be interested in seeing your products in action. While static images are fine, you can improve the eCommerce customer experience by showing a video preview.
Videos are also great for tutorials, guides, and explanations, and they can be employed both before and after a purchase is completed. Those videos could be the final push someone needs before they decide to pull the trigger and place an order. Additionally, you can also use them as part of your support to explain the technical features of your products or to troubleshoot common problems. You can use professionally crafted videos in your marketing since they generally have excellent user engagement rates.
6. Use social media to your advantage
Once users arrive at your site and fill out a form, you can have your sales staff contact them directly. However, the customer journey begins much earlier. The first stage is building awareness and getting users to care and interact with your brand. There is no better place to accomplish this than social media. The average user is much more likely to interact with a brand through social media marketing than any other form of advertising. If you manage to build up a large following on social networks, you can use those platforms to announce new product launches or flash sales.
7. Have visible customer reviews
Any eCommerce business that wants to earn the goodwill of its users will need to rely on customer reviews and testimonials. This is especially true for businesses that rely on product sales. Prospective customers will want to learn about the overall user experience, how your shipping and delivery function, and how you react to customer complaints. Most importantly, they don't want to hear the answers to those questions from you. The best way to earn the trust of your future customers is to let others spread positive word of mouth. For this reason, you should include reviews on your website.
In conclusion
Connect to your customers on a personal level and ensure they have a positive experience when they are purchasing on your site. We have shown you seven ways to improve the eCommerce customer experience, and you can implement these changes to your website and get immediate results.
