![]()
Tips to Improve Your Customer Online Shopping Experience
eCommerce has gained permanent traction on the global market, but that doesn’t mean our real-world shopping experiences are obsolete. Traditional shops hold time-tested wisdom gained through years of experience, wisdom we can take advantage of to enhance customer online shopping experience. Let’s explore a few easy, time-tested and fast methods of improving your customer experience.
Make your website mobile-friendly
People are using PCs and laptops for most of their work-day, meaning they disconnect by browsing on their mobile phones for fun and relaxation. Our mobile phones are our most used and most valued devices, with functions ranging from locking your home from across the world, to ordering food for delivery. Customers want their shopping experience to be easy and fast, and that means optimizing your website to be mobile friendly, ensuring customers can reach your business and your products at all times, and on all devices.
Give a live chat option
Personal connection with a company is a great way to build brand loyalty and long-term customers. One of the great elements of traditional shopping is the ability to ask questions about the product before you buy it. In lieu of sales-people, eCommerce businesses are using live chat technology to immerse the customer in the experience, and give them the info they need, when they need it.
Create immersive experiences
One of the ways eCommerce goes beyond traditional shopping is the ability to create an immersive experience with their product. Many businesses are creating options that allow customers to see HD images of their chosen product in their own home before they buy. Even trying on glasses and clothing has broached digital boundaries, with customers getting the full experience through their computer screens.
Free shipping options
Shipping is the final step in the eCommerce process, and your final physical connection with the customer, so it’s critical that your shipping be easy, and ideally, free. Many enterprises are using technology like USPS Shipping API to make shipping easier and more convenient, with rate comparison, real-time pricing, tracking and proof of shipment or delivery. Shipping technology like this can save your business money – a savings you can pass on to consumers to watch your business grow.
Don’t forget site search
With so many internet shopping options, many customers will dismiss your shop immediately if it's poorly organized or not updated regularly. The organization and structure of an eCommerce site or store is an easy indicator of how organized and high-quality their product and services are. Make sure your site is easy to navigate, and your products clearly labelled and easy to find, to avoid customers abandoning their shopping carts for more high-quality looking sites and stores.
Differentiate your displays
Brick and mortar stores focus heavily on floor displays to present their products in a positive light and make them more immediately attractive to passing customers. No two people, stores or customers are the same, and eCommerce sites give you the unique advantage of easily setting up targeted displays, to speak to all customers. Carefully track what colors, formats and models best represent your store and products, and structure your site to speak directly to your most loyal customers, or consider creating a range of digital product displays, to show your customer how others have used your product, or how great it will work with their lives and habits.
Include customer reviews
“Brands can significantly improve the customer experience by [showcasing] product reviews not only on their site but also on their mobile apps and in-store displays,” says Theresa O'Neil, SVP of Marketing at PowerReviews. One major advantage brick and mortar stores have is the ability for customers to see and be seen. There is no better ringing endorsement of a business than an enthusiastic crowd. By making customer reviews easy to find and read, you make sure potential customers know how current customers are experiencing your product. Smart enterprises are making use of social media functions like notifications and nudges, to recreate the feel of a busy and bustling shopping experience.
Customers expect a great deal of their online shopping experience in 2021, and it’s your job to show them you are listening! Be different. Be unique. Be the change you want to see in your business. Take your eCommerce site to the next level, and really connect with your customers, by embracing the time-honoured methods of human connection, made popular by retail and enterprise.
Meet The Author:
Nick Andrew Rojas is a business consultant turned journalist who loves working with small and medium-sized companies. He has contributed to many publications such as Entrepreneur, TechCrunch, and Yahoo. In his spare time, he hangs out at the beach with his dog Presto.
More...