In the last decade, one of the most influential trends in the customer world is the deviation from online retail and purchases. E-commerce has been growing significantly and steadily every year. Customers are increasingly accustomed to buying nearly everything online, from clothes to housewares to anything that can be purchased or sold.
In 2021, the global eCommerce market was expected to total nearly $4.8 trillion in sales. This means offering a great eCommerce experience for your buyers is no longer a choice—it’s indispensable for any retail business that wants to expand.
Customers aren’t only calculating your eCommerce experience against your competitors in your industry anymore. They expect an experience on par with big businesses like Uber, Amazon, and Airbnb, so your eCommerce experience needs to pile up with some heavyweights. But there’s no need for stress—this blog will cover everything you need to know about developing a great eCommerce experience.
What Is E-commerce Experience?
The E-commerce experience is a piece of your overall buying experience, which is how customers view all their interactions with your label. Customer experience is a vast umbrella—it covers within its ambit both online and offline experiences from the first time a buyer hears your company name through the post-purchase process.
E-commerce experience refers to the customer experience when purchasing your products or services online. The E-commerce experience covers everything from purchasing a new vacuum from the Amazon app on your phone to buying a Hardwell concert ticket using your desktop to choosing and paying for any music subscription service on your tablet.
E-commerce experiences can vary broadly. But they all need to be easy to use and contending for your buyers, or they will become agitated and find another alternative for making their subsequent purchase.
How To Improve The E-commerce Experience?
Before we move ahead and talk about what you can do right in providing the best eCommerce experience, it’s convenient to talk about where most businesses go off-track. There are many ways you’ll make inaccuracies in your eCommerce experience, but there are some far-too-common mistakes.
Points that slow down shopping and purchasing by a buyer, or make it nerve-wracking, include:
- Requiring customers to create and register an account before purchasing
- Having the poor quality or tiny pictures of your products
- Not taking into consideration the mobile experience for buyers
- Making it difficult for buyers to contact you when they have a query
Solving these common problems can significantly increase the number of customers who shop on your website, make a successful purchase, and return to do so again. PwC found that 33% of all buyers would stop purchasing with a brand they loved after one terrible experience.
So what are the perfect ways to improve your eCommerce experience for your customers? There are multiple ways to enhance your eCommerce customer experience—below given are just a few of the most effective points you should try in your eCommerce approach.
– Customer satisfaction survey
Understanding customer satisfaction and sentiments are crucial for improving your customer experience, especially your eCommerce experience. Understanding what your customers think and feel about your eCommerce platform is the best way to make the modifications that matter to your clients.
The Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) survey is a beautiful way to capture this feedback about your eCommerce experience. You can ask customers questions such as, “How satisfied are you with our checkout experience on our website?” Or you could also ask them about their satisfaction with browsing, adding items to their shopping cart, and payment. CSAT surveys can cover any specific part of the eCommerce experience or the entire experience.
– Voice of the Customer survey
Creating a Voice of the Customer (VoC) survey is a commendable way to actively listen to your customers’ needs and values. They provide businesses with insights about their customers’ likings, dislikes, and any areas for improvement in their eCommerce experience. Keeping your shoppers happy is all about meeting and exceeding their expectations head-on, and organizing a VoC survey regularly is an efficient feedback channel.
– Social media
Learning what your buyers need and prefer isn’t limited to just surveys. However—you can also use social media platforms to pick up on various customer feedback and interact with your customers directly.
Shoppers will often leave comments about your products, services, and online experience on social media channels such as Instagram and Twitter. Responding to those comments quickly is essential so customers know you’re attentive. But you can also collect those comments and inspect them over time to see if any trends come up.
– Live chat
Live chat is yet another practical way customers may contact you directly when they have queries about your products or services or want to offer feedback on an issue they’re experiencing. It provides a quick and straightforward way to get in touch and resolve issues without putting a lot of effort on the part of the customer, and that’s a significant portion of customer satisfaction.
Live chat allows businesses to respond to questions from customers quickly and directly without the customer needing to leave the site to find answers elsewhere. It also allows you to gather feedback and note any trends in live chat questions. Is one topic or a single aspect of the eCommerce experience coming up frequently? This implies that you must take a closer look and inspect what might be happening so you can mend any frustrating issues for potential and current customers.
– Augmented reality
Augmented reality experiences in eCommerce are still innovative, but they’re exciting. One of the most significant drawbacks of online shopping is that buyers can’t see how clothes will look on them or how a mattress feels, making potential buyers a little hesitant. Augmented reality can help you bridge this gap.
For instance, Target has launched a new augmented reality feature named “See It In Your Space” on its website, allowing shoppers to see how furniture will look in their homes with their smartphones. And Warby Parker provides a VR option so buyers can see how their potential eyeglasses purchase will look on their faces from the comfort of their homes.
– Product images
Attaching high-quality, engaging, proper product images on your eCommerce website helps customers get attracted to your product pages. Madewell is an example of a clothing brand with perfect product images on its site. The models display a stylish version of the clothes without any awkward or obscene poses that distract from the products themselves. You can also change the model to choose a body type closest to yourself. Plus, their product pages feature Instagram posts from actual customers so buyers can see how the clothes look in the real world.
With sleek and luxurious pictures of their cars, you can see the vehicles from every angle, even without going to a dealership. Mercedes-Benz also features excellent product images of its cars on its website. And Apple has kept its traditional clean, modern styling with the product images on its website.
– Product videos
Getting a feeling for how a product moves and appears in real life is challenging to do online. That’s where product videos are helpful for online retailers. For instance, Patagonia features videos of its clothing on models on all of its product pages. This lets potential buyers see how the products would fit on the body when they are in motion, which helps enhance consumer confidence before the purchase.
Conclusion
With more and more buyers making their purchases online, it’s vital to keep upgrading and to polish your eCommerce experience. Offering an online shopping experience that is attractive, fully functional, easy, and enjoyable is much harder than it appears—but it’s what customers expect from every business these days.
Making sure that your eCommerce experience includes an effective way for customers to get questions answered, find help when they encounter an issue, and closely recreate the in-store shopping experience when possible will all help you delight your customers.
