In our commitment to supporting our customers in continuing to scale and grow their eCommerce business, we have today embarked on our new series called ‘Mastering eCommerce’ where we focus on advanced strategies and tips to improve your customer experience, generate more ROI, and scale your eCommerce store to new heights.
Throughout the series we have enlisted the support of some experts in their given area. Today, we are pleased to introduce you to Hazel Teng, from Melewi. In their words, Melewi are a ‘Kickass design studio with a global perspective’. They focus on UX design for web and mobile and they have worked with many illustrious brands including Samsung, McDonalds, Citibank and VISA.
Today, Hazel will take you through some of key considerations and strategies to improve the customer experience on your eCommerce store and, ultimately, drive more people through your checkout.
Make users trust you
You need to build trust as an eCommerce platform. Trust is the key to persuading customers to not only buy from you but also to develop brand loyalty, especially in a space as saturated and competitive as eCommerce. Trust and customer loyalty can be built in multiple ways, that we will illustrate in a few examples below:
- Build a strong reputation over time by leveraging the opinions of third parties. Optimize social proof through reviews, customer testimonials and any press mentions. Imagine you’re buying a drone on Amazon - what’s the deciding factor to make you decide if the product is reliable and will deliver? Reviews!
- The web is highly impersonal and almost cold. To build rapport with your customers, make your product as relatable as possible by humanizing your brand. When customers are reminded that there’s a dedicated team of people behind your brand, they’re more likely to trust it. This can be done by including customer service tabs, live chats, and images of team members on your eCommerce storefront.
- Nobody wants to make a purchase from a website that looks like a scam. This is where creating a good first impression through site design comes in. The user needs to know that they’re buying from a professional and well-established company. This is conveyed visually through the site’s design.
- The customer also needs to know that their credit card information is handled safely and that their purchase will be delivered. Increase customer confidence by including features such as a money-back guarantee, refund policy and fine print detailing the company’s policies around privacy and data protection.
Adding these features to your site will build customer loyalty and trust, as well as improve the overall user experience.
Help users check out easily and faster
The reality is that cart abandonment on eCommerce platforms are high. A study conducted revealed an average worldwide abandonment rate was as high as 74.3% in 2016. It reported that 27% of respondents abandoned their carts because the checkout process was too long or complicated and an additional 35% abandoned their carts because they were required to create an account in order to checkout. To reduce cart abandonment on your eCommerce site, you can implement the following strategies to improve user experience and simplify the checkout process:
- Site security is very important during the cart checkout phase, when users are handing over credit card information to your eCommerce site. Use a 1-click payment method to speed up checkout and support it with trusted payment gateways. Also, display trust logos prominently to boost confidence. .
- Reduce friction by identifying possible duplicates. Save your users time by asking them to enter their shipping address, and automatically duplicate this as their billing information. You can also make the billing information editable to avoid the user having to fill in new information from scratch. .
- Prevent your customers from abandoning their cart by implementing a seamless checkout process. Let the user know what’s left to be done during the checkout process by displaying a progress indicator on the checkout page, and allowing the users to go back to a previous page to edit information.
Brands that invest in customizing the user experience are positioning themselves for greater long-term success. Sometimes small tweaks on the cart or product pages and some personalization can really increase conversions, adding to a merchant's bottom line.”
Rhys Furner - Head of Partnerships (APAC) - Shopify
Addictive User Experience to keep them coming back
As an eCommerce business, you’ll want to increase the lifetime value of your customers. The best way to do this is by increasing the pleasure and decreasing the pain of the purchase process. Here are 3 great tips:
- Post-purchase upsell is a proven strategy that keeps customers returning. This can be done onsite where complementary goods are recommended, or free memberships are offered once customers complete the purchase.
- When a receipt is emailed to a customer, you can include a discount code for their next purchase, links to similar items purchased, or any other collateral that might interest your customer. Remember to keep it relevant, and useful, so that your customers appreciate the value you are providing.
- Post-purchase follow ups should be done to keep top-of-mind awareness and get customers engaged with your brand. Make use of drip email marketing campaigns or Facebook retargeting advertisements to boost brand awareness. You may even choose to target their interests when they return to your site, by making it easy for them to find products they’ve bought before or have a recommended list that’s tailored to their interests.
Ultimately, it’s all about helping users find what they want and need in the quickest and most convenient way.
With these 3 overarching strategies of helping users to trust your business, allowing them to checkout faster, and encouraging them to make repeated purchases, you can create a delightful user experience on your eCommerce store.
Want to follow along on the rest in our ‘Mastering eCommerce’ series? Subscribe to our blog for more actionable tips!
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See also:
7 eCommerce Trends for Online Growth
8 Best Practices for Designing Your eCommerce Website
Zara supply chain analysis - the secret behind Zara's retail success
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