Best Ways to Improve Ecommerce Customer Experience

Today's shopping landscape differs from just a few years ago. Ecommerce shopping has transformed the retail market since customers need convenience, variety, and affordable pricing. With more and more people shopping online, the ecommerce customer experience has become an essential element for most businesses. You must deliver a simple, effective, and hassle-free customer experience to attract new customers and keep existing ones.

The products you provide impact your company's future success. Yet, you cannot rely on product quality to attract, engage, and keep ecommerce customers. Product quality is no longer the primary reason consumers do business with a particular brand. Instead, providing a valuable customer experience in ecommerce is more important by today's standards.

This post aims to provide the data you need to create an excellent ecommerce customer experience that will increase customer retention, loyalty, and lifetime value. Let's first define what we mean by the "ecommerce customer experience" before we continue.

What is eCommerce Customer Experience?

The term "ecommerce customer experience" describes the sum of all contacts, interactions, thoughts, and feelings between a customer and your brand, as viewed from the customer's point of view. Simply put, customer experience in ecommerce is how you make your customers feel. It's the perception that your customer has of your brand.

Customers today need excellent customer service. More than 80% of customers place a high priority on customer service when selecting a product. So, online businesses should create trustworthy relationships with their clients, focus on personal service, and ensure that customer support is accessible.

Providing best practices for ecommerce website is not only beneficial to businesses; it is also necessary. As more people shop online, their expectations for customer service in ecommerce continue to increase. Customer service is the support you give to your customers. Your impression of your customers determines their customer experience. Winning your customers' votes by focusing on their thoughts and logic is the prime goal of a good ecommerce customer experience.

User Experience (UX) vs. Ecommerce Customer Experience (ECX) 

Before we proceed, it is necessary to differentiate between UX and ECX.

While the ecommerce customer experience incorporates everything between the customer and your brand, the user experience embraces the functional structures and elements that comprise this experience. In other words, the user experience involves the customer's ability to complete the tasks they intend to do.

Here are a few key examples:

• Identifying the exact product they seek is relatively simple.
• Making purchases and other transactions.
• Accessing and digesting branded content.

If the customer cannot carry out these tasks, they will not be able to experience your brand. Also, the slightest hiccup along the way can completely disrupt their experience.  A simplified user experience allows your customers to engage in their experience with your brand and get the experience you expected.

Why is the Customer Experience in eCommerce Important?

Customer experience is how you keep existing customers while also attracting new ones. A positive ecommerce experience leads to more satisfied customers, who become brand supporters. When you provide a positive customer experience, they will return, become more loyal to your brand, and inform others about it.

You'll observe improvements in the following areas:

• Customer engagement and retention
• Customer lifetime value
• Brand equity 
• Recommendations
• Revenue and expansion

You gain an additional unpaid brand ambassador for each happy customer you have. A well-designed ecommerce customer experience is the only way to stand out in a market where more ecommerce companies are emerging.

Over 70% of people will stop doing business with a company after two negative customer experiences. A bad customer experience will spell the end for any business if ignored. Through customer satisfaction and repeat purchases, a company can grow. So, ensure your customers have a wonderful experience from start to finish.

Your brand's culture and identity are defined through the customer experience. It's the ideal growth strategy to handle complex economic circumstances and unexpected events. Your online store's expansion is more assured with increased referrals and decreased advertising expenditures.

Best Ways to Improve eCommerce Customer Experience

Customer experience is how a brand connects with its customers at each stage of the purchasing process. The ecommerce stores need to find new ways to attract customers to shop from them as the market becomes more crowded.

Let's explore ways to improve ecommerce customer experience to help you grow your business.

• Create a user-friendly website

To begin with the bigger picture, an ecommerce store's website is essential. Your website can either make or break your business. Customers want simple pages that allow them to browse your products and locate what they're looking for. Like a physical store, the online store should be organized by categories.

If you direct potential buyers to a poorly designed ecommerce website, they will have a negative first impression of your brand. Therefore, their interaction with your brand is influenced by their perceived impression.

Your website does not promote a positive customer experience if it:

1. Has a slow site speed.
2. There is no proper navigation.
3. Has no product classification
4. There are no advanced product filter options.
5. There are no clear CTAs.

Since the ecommerce industry is seeing tremendous growth due to high smartphone penetration levels, convenience, and best prices, it is essential to know the target audience for an ecommerce website to customize the marketing messages and address the audience's needs. A technical tip for improving your ecommerce customer service is to build a customer-centric website.

Your ecommerce site needs to be simple to use. Keep your buttons and links clear and noticeable. Select your background, font, and color with care. Finally, your website should load quickly. A slow loading time irritates customers and has a negative impact on your SEO.

• Enhance the customer experience

Personalization is an unexpected ecommerce trend. Retailers who customize their websites have seen a significant sales revenue increase.

There are many ways to personalize the customer experience in ecommerce:

1. Include your customer's initials in your email response.
2. Use geolocation to give information about their country's delivery options and shipping costs.
3. Keep track of their past product browsing activity to provide recommendations based on the most recently viewed products.
4. Provide excellent discounts on all the products or services your customers are interested in.
5. Send a birthday greeting or an invitation to a VIP online event.
6. Communicate with your clients in their native language.

Even though not every communication channel or touchpoint can be customized, you can manage some of them. For a better ecommerce customer experience, personalize your communications to each consumer's specific requirements and challenges.

• Allow consumers to experiment virtually on products

The inability to try products before purchasing them was the most significant drawback of online shopping. Many companies have begun deploying VR (virtual reality) over the past few years. Customers can view how the product looks on them or in their homes in this manner.

This strategy can be used in many sectors, including furniture, eyeglasses, footwear, jewelry, watches, cosmetic items, etc. For instance, one of the largest online retailers and providers of luxury watches, Chrono24, has created a virtual technology system that enables customers to try on watches using their phones.

• Optimize for mobile

Mobile represents approximately half of all web traffic worldwide. Furthermore, around 60% of all website traffic worldwide was produced by mobile devices in the fourth quarter of 2022. So, mobile-optimize your website to improve the customer experience in ecommerce. If your store isn't mobile-friendly, you're missing out on more than half of your prospective consumers.

Most visitors will leave if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load.

Here are some ideas for making your store mobile-friendly:

1. Make it simple to navigate on mobile devices
2. Keep it basic and avoid heavy content
3. Reduce the size of the infographic (videos, images, etc.)
4. Improve the mobile website's loading time

Check the percentage of mobile device users who visit your website as well. These statistics can be found in your web analytics section. Mobile users will appreciate your efforts since it is more effective than responsive design.

• Make your website's content enticing

Content can be used as a customer acquisition strategy to draw in and attract a larger audience. It can also serve as a go-to source for information on a specific aspect. Customers are more likely to trust your business and return to your website when you produce content they love to read, adding value to their lives. The site's content should be continuously updated, and it should be well-integrated. To make it more interesting, you can add infographics or instructional videos.

• Provide product assistance

Many customers demand online customer support since they buy your products online. You may boost the chance that customers will get their questions answered by providing a variety of customer service channels, such as live chat, product support pages, forums, and so on. Customers may choose a competitor with a better website if you only offer one or two support options and they can't resolve their questions quickly. They must be able to speak with a live person about product-related inquiries, and many customers choose to do so using live chat.

• Create captivating product pages

A website that sells products online relies on its product pages. Your customers may then take the proper actions as you display your products and their details. Clear navigation, attractive images, and descriptive writing are essential to an effective product page. Customers should be able to clearly understand what your products can achieve for them and picture themselves utilizing them.

Excellent pages:

1. Appeal to potential customers' emotions and logic
2. Clearly and visibly display CTAs (add to cart, buy now)
3. Are they optimized for search?
4. Have quality product descriptions and images.

Additionally, you must pay attention to your site hosting plan. Select the best ecommerce hosting to ensure that your sites load quickly. It is essential to improve the customer experience in ecommerce.

• Display customer feedback

Future customers will be able to see whether people are satisfied with their purchasing decision and whether they recommend the product to others by displaying customer reviews. Ensure that the reviews are prominently displayed on the product page so that customers can read them before making a purchase decision. It can significantly impact the customers' confidence.

In some cases, customers can find the answer they need through customer reviews, lowering their reliance on the contact center. For example, some customer reviews may include information about delivery times, product packaging, overall efficiency, etc.

• Delight your customers with gifts

Giving them a surprise gift is another excellent way to demonstrate how much you value them. As a result, you can always give your customers something extra along with the product they originally purchased. It need not be costly; instead, the thought behind giving something additional away without charge counts. Minor things like this give customers a unique and unforgettable experience that encourages them to return.

• Utilize social media

Social media customer service is becoming increasingly popular. Customers commonly rely on social media when they cannot contact you by phone or live chat. Creating and sharing interesting social media content is a strategy for long-term growth and customers who feel like they're a part of your brand. In addition, it creates a strong community to promote new products.

Be informative, exciting, and creative content. First, make your content visually appealing. Then, use social media to promote it. Increasing Facebook, Instagram, and other social media followers requires constant engagement and content creation.

• Provide a clear return policy and follow-up

One thing about online shopping is that customers cannot try on or test your product before purchasing it. Therefore, provide a fair, easy-to-find, and clear returns policy so that they feel confident in returning purchases.

Following a purchase, use the customer contact information you captured as part of the order process to follow up with the customer to ensure everything went smoothly. You can also discount future purchases, keep customers informed of special offers, product developments, and services, and grow your business in this manner.

• Provide omnichannel ecommerce customer service

A cross-channel strategy incorporating multiple channels for a better user experience is known as an "omnichannel approach." Having multiple channels for customer engagement has undoubtedly become a standard for today's businesses. Customers who connect with your company via various touch points (social media networks, websites, or a physical store) are more likely to convert and become loyal brand consumers.

An omnichannel strategy allows customers to begin a process on one channel and effortlessly complete it on another. Your customers should be able to pick up where they left off on another channel.

• Implement live chat

In today's business world, live chat is essential for any organization. It provides quick answers to product questions, solves problems more quickly, and reminds customers that you are accessible when needed. It's a powerful method for improving service quality and the customer experience.

Customers can get an immediate reply with instant messaging software rather than waiting 24 hours or more for someone to respond to an email. In addition, customer service representatives can have multiple chats open simultaneously, making it easier and less expensive than phone support.

• Have a smooth checkout process

Cart abandonment occurs as a result of a complex purchasing process. Customers do not want to enter a store. They want a simple, stress-free purchasing experience. By offering a complicated purchasing process with a lengthy checkout form, you indirectly subject your customers to a stressful experience. Making the checkout process as simple as possible may lower the number of abandoned carts.

From the time a customer lands on your product page to the point of purchase, the process should be quick and easy. Get rid of long lists of fields on your checkout form. Remove the fluff and keep it simple. It is a clear and straightforward way to increase ecommerce sales.

There you have it: the above sales-boosting strategies will benefit your ecommerce business without interrupting your business operations. Use the above ways to improve ecommerce customer experience to optimize your business strategy and keep your business expanding so that you can succeed.

Conclusion

By providing an excellent ecommerce customer experience, you can develop your ecommerce business by keeping current customers and attracting new ones. We hope this post has provided some ideas you can use to improve your ecommerce customer service. You must work with a professional ecommerce website development company to establish a successful website for your online business.