Four Pillars of a Solid eCommerce Customer Experience

Is there a thing like loyalty when it comes to online shopping? In a world driven by discounts, sales, comparison shopping and endless scrolling, it is difficult to grab customer attention. The same sellers present their wares across multiple sites. So people move to check each site to see where the particular product is available at the best discount. In such a scenario, does customer experience really matter?

It matters more than you think. Imagine this – discount can’t be a competing factor because everyone is offering a lot of it. What matters then is customer experience. In fact, customer experience is considered to be a product in its own right.

In order to decipher what type of experience your customers are looking for, it is important to understand their journey and understand what they need at each touch point. Most companies try to concentrate on the customer life cycle which is a complex task, especially with omni-channel marketing. Instead, experts now suggest keeping focus on one customer journey at a time.

Here are the four pillars of a customer experience journey

1. Make it simple to use

Buying from an eCommerce website should not feel like rocket science. You need to make it intuitive for customers to browse through your product range and get to a sale point. Most eCommerce shops follow a set pattern from discovery to the sales funnel to after sales service.

But a new app on the horizon – Elanic, is doing things differently. It has included an intuitive chat feature that allows buyers and sellers to interact before closing the sale. The chat is pre-programmed with common questions from the buyer like quality, size, condition of the product and more. This strategy is also followed by sites like OLX which sells seconds. In addition to the public comment feature, the site also allows customers to make an offer. The whole process is intuitive and automated which makes it easy to handle. Many sellers vouch that this feature has helped them close sales effectively.

2. Make it personal

This strategy goes beyond knowing your customer’s name and saying ‘Hey xyz’ in your email. According to Campaign Monitor, 96% visitors to your website aren’t ready to buy. But they’ve shown some basic interest in what you have to offer and may probably come back if you communicate properly. Use retargeting to encourage users to pick up from where they left off. And don’t forget to inform them when the products they want are on sale.

3. Stop them from abandoning cart

In 2016, as much as 69% of carts were abandoned! Can you imagine the billions lost because eCommerce portals did not work hard enough to push the sale? Constantly use A/B experiments to test what makes users stick or leave your website. In case they still abandon cart, make sure you send them a customized email reminder to pull them back

4. Use the right payment gateway

Other than being secure, the right payment gateway will allow customers to pay in their own currency, using the wallet they prefer without making them work too hard. And of course, it should aid express checkout.

Conclusion: Don’t forget to constantly ask your customers for feedback and also incentivize them for providing it. There is no better way to enhance your customer experience than listening to them carefully – after all they are the heroes and champions for your brand.