6 quick wins to deliver the best eCommerce customer experience

Click-to-cart is the new mode of shopping smart; it has become second nature for most. Also, the pandemic served as an impetus to the already burgeoning eCommerce space. The new wave of conversation orbits around Customer Experience (CX). A pertinent factor is, ‘what drives customers toward your business?’ About 73% regard friendly employees or customer service representatives as a pantheon of customer-centrism. About 55% regard easy access to information and support as a primary determinant.

As for eCommerce, not all customers are equal. On average, eCommerce spending is USD24.5 for new customers and USD52.5 for recurring customers. Also, offering points as rewards shall elevate repeat visits by up to 20%. According to Meg Whitman, President and CEO of Hewlett-Packard, eCommerce and community behest upon communication. Taking from here, let us first understand a bit more about eCommerce CX.

What is eCommerce CX?

As an entrepreneur, you would have struggled with the question, ‘How can I increase my revenue and attract loyal customers?’ Now, you can go with the usual suspects of vouchers, email marketing or social media campaigns. Note that these are low-hanging fruits. The secret sauce is a relentless focus on eCommerce Customer Experience (CX).

eCommerce CX entails customer perceptions of their experience throughout the buying process. It includes experiences before, during and after making a purchase. eCommerce CX is the aftermath of each interaction and customer touchpoint, from Facebook ads to building a cart in the online store to making payments.

eCommerce CX comprises three primary components:

• Service Experience: This step involves support offers to customers through different communication channels. These include phone, email and chatbots.
• Product Experience: Here, factors such as ease of use, quality and effectiveness of the product get assessed. In eCommerce, the online shop forms part of the product experience.
• Brand Experience: This aspect encapsulates the brand’s touchpoints with customers. It includes marketing, design and emotions that the brand imbibes in the customers.

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Why did customer experience become so important for everyone?

At the outset, around 60% of consumers rely on reviews from friends and fellow consumers. This is where online reviews and rating systems make for a great play. They help customers cut through the clutter and make a worthy buy. Also, about 73% of customers regard the customer experience as a primary influence on purchase decisions. Yet another factor is that about 52% of customers are willing to switch brands if the CX received is below par or expectations.

Another aspect is the business impact of CX. Customers are the lifeblood of any business. So, it only makes sense to look for ways to keep them satisfied. As per experts, CX improvements are likely to enhance customer satisfaction by 32%, cross-selling and up-selling by 42%, and customer retention by 33%.

Customer data and insights can often be convoluting. This is where data analytics and reporting have come to the rescue through techniques such as Data visualisation and heat mapping techniques.

Here’s an example of how it’s done

There are quite a few brands that deliver impressive eCommerce CX. The one which stands out is Sephora which has an onsite community which helps with retention and product development. Also, Sephora offers virtual skincare consultations and services to help enhance credibility and give people a personal touch. Lastly, Sephora has online quizzes. Based on these, people receive product recommendations. The founding parameters are primarily their needs and requirements and skin type.

Six wins to deliver the best eCommerce CX

1. Incentivising customers

A general issue that brands face today is dispensability. That is, customers tend to switch brands very often. One of the ways is to set up and manage referral programs, enabling brands to unleash the advantages of customisable reward settings, including store discounts or custom gifts.

Another way is sending customers extra goodies. Now, these need not be very expensive. Offering cool-looking stickers or free product samples are some of the ways.

2. Data Privacy

Security and Privacy are significant challenges. As per Global Sign, about 84% of customers shall forfeit a purchase if the website is deemed insecure.

One way is to embed multiple layers for the checkout process as added caution. Think of these as added protective layers.

3. Personalisation

The gamut of personalisation can often get boring and mundane. Enterprises often copy-paste and send email templates. Some of them even make slight tweaks. These, too, can be boring and mundane.

A simple way around this is to abandon email templates and replace them with personalised emails. One approach is to ally with some humour and wit through a conversational writing style. Brands can also leverage geotargeting and monitor browsing and purchase histories.

Another effective strategy is using product tours by adding video pointers. These direct customers toward a specific website element, enjoying a personalised experience

4. Seamless omnichannel experience

The pandemic led customers to embrace hybrid environments, a blend of in-store, online and social media channels. This brings us to the gamut of omnichannel strategies. Just having a presence on multiple channels is no longer sufficient. Often, brands miss out on effectively communicating with customers.

One way is integrating marketing, sales and support teams across these platforms. And they should be easily accessible to customers, creating a cohesive and wholesome experience irrespective of the method and point of contact.

5. Engaging the happy customers

Brands often take their loyal and satisfied customers for granted. Do not forget – they generate repeat business. This realisation often becomes challenging for brands pursuing a wider audience and pandering to prospects. They say that small gestures can go a long way. Given this, brands should traverse that extra mile to delight customers.

However, a glad tiding is that eCommerce CX does not require a huge undertaking. Simply enquiring how customers feel about the products and their usage can go a long way. Although trivial, these small gestures can offer a considerable upper hand and point of differentiation from competitors.

6. Leveraging the power of customer reviews

Customer testimonials and reviews serve as word of mouth. These help with product sales and overall website conversion. Essentially, they make the social proof toward your brand, displaying quality and authenticity to your product and service renderings.

One way of successfully executing this is incentivising survey participation. Today, there is a slew of apps. One such avenue is Rybbon, a digital rewards management solution. All brands need is to integrate this with their Messenger chat conversations, and the reward can get dispensed to customers via chat, creating a sense of splendour for customers. And it happens over a few clicks.

Google Product Reviews Update – Google said it will promote review content in its search results rankings. Google is rewarding sites with more insightful review content with rankings.

By the day’s end

Digitization and technological prowess are on the rise. There is no falling behind. Enterprises today need to jump on the bandwagon and rework their systems to integrate eCommerce customer experience. It’s necessary if businesses are to sustain the complexities and ever-changing dynamics of the marketplace. Another must-have for corporations is to leverage the power of the Voice Of Customer (VOC) approach. This shall help enterprises get a detailed understanding of customer requirements and make highly-informed business development decisions.

To help you out, Apexon deploys a dynamic digital strategy, creating a tailored eCommerce customer experience. The operational credo is to bridge the gap between business value and customer experience by leveraging tech architecture.

Contact us today.