An innovative product isn’t enough to survive or thrive in ecommerce—you need more than that!

‍

You cannot rely on product quality alone to attract, engage, and retain your customers. By today’s standards, it's much more important to deliver a stellar experience to online shoppers that sets you apart from the competition, meets customer expectations, and drives ecommerce growth.

‍

In this blog, you’ll learn what is customer experience, how customer experience impacts an ecommerce business, and how ecommerce sellers can enhance customer experience.

‍

What is customer experience (CX)?

‍

Customer Experience (CX) consists of all the touch-points and feelings your customers go through when interacting with your business. It focuses on the relationship between your business and your customers.

It includes all the buyer journey steps, from the moment customers learn about your brand, make a purchase from you, to the interactions after making a purchase.

‍

Now that you know what customer experience entails, let's see why ecommerce sellers should invest in customer experience.

‍

How customer experience impacts an ecommerce business?

‍

According to a research by Oracle demonstrates the following:

‍

Furthermore, a research by Dimension Data on customer experience found the following:

How can ecommerce sellers enhance customer experience?

‍

1. Optimise your online store

‍

As an ecommerce business, your online store is where your entire ecommerce customer experience begins and ends. It’s where you will be judged for every imperfection and any mistake or slightest of inconvenience can lead to loss of potential sale or shopping cart abandonment.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience and bag each and every sale:

• Create an aesthetic website that draws the attention of your customers while ensuring functionality and ease of use
• Work on smooth navigation and site speed
• Optimise your images to maintain the balance of quality and speed

‍

‍

The ecommerce shopping cart conversion rates drop by 7% for every one-second delay in your page loading.

‍

2. Ensure a fast, easy and re-assuring checkout process

‍

Customers are more likely to get frustrated if the checkout process is complicated or time-consuming.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience during the checkout process:

• Include a progress indicator and make sure that the checkout process consists of 3-5 steps like shipping, payment, and place an order —the shorter, the better
• Make editing the cart easy with options like delete, add or subtract to change the quantity of an item, adjusting shipping options, and more
• Offer multiple payment methods like debit cards, credit cards, UPI, digital wallets, and more
• Build trust and credibility in transaction forms by including security logos such as secure payments by Norton
• Avoid sign ups and give guest checkout option
• Add testimonials and reviews by existing customers on your online store to build trust

‍

‍

3. Switch to personalisation

‍

80% of customers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalised experiences. This means you can collect user data and display products according to their preferences.

‍

Here's what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience with personalisation:

• Make customised product recommendations
• Make size recommendations based on the purchase history of the customer
• Make onsite offers according to the purchase history

‍

‍

4. Provide world-class support

‍

Your customers can experience any sort of confusion during their online purchase journey. So it's better to solve their problems or ease their concerns right away.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience via  excellent customer support:

• Leverage chatbots on your online store to answer quick and easy questions
• Use live support to handle specific inquiries
• Provide customer support via toll free number and support email IDs
• Provide FAQ to resolve any queries at the earliest so that customers don’t need to seek help

‍

‍

5. Make the shipping service your advantage

‍

Free and fast shipping is a standard service that customers expect from ecommerce brands. This means, you need to delight your customer with your shipping capabilities.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience with an incredible shipping policy:

• Offer free shipping on all orders or above a minimum cart value
• Provide lightning-fast shipping speed, such as same-day shipping or 2-day shipping

‍

‍

6. Implement a great returns process and policy

‍

Returns are the inevitable part of running an ecommerce business but, there's a way to use returns to your advantage. To manage returns effectively, you must ensure a simple and convenient returns process for your customers. This way, you can keep your customers coming back for more.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience with hassle-free returns:

• Implement an ideal returns policy that’s easy-to-find on your online store
• Make returns and refunds as customer-centric as possible
• Offer returns within a specified window, such as 30-days
• Offer free shipping on returns
• Ensure a quick and easy process for initiating a return, refund, or exchange
• Mention all the details associated with returns to avoid any confusion
• Provide multiple methods of reimbursements for refunds, such as source account or wallet

‍

‍

7. Create engaging product pages with amazing content

‍

Your product page is your one shot at convincing online shoppers that your product is the one they need to buy. Moreover, your customers must understand the benefits of purchasing your product and have a clear idea of what will actually arrive at their doorstep.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience with fantastic product pages:

• Display high-resolution images of your product from all the angles
• Create content-rich product descriptions with all the benefits of the product
• Include detailed product specifications, such as length, height, materials used, and more
• Provide easy-to-understand and comprehensive size guides and charts
• You can also include product reviews to build customer confidence

‍

‍

8. Deliver the best post-purchase experience

‍

Post-purchase experience is the key to customer experience that drives loyalty. It is an essential touch-point where your ecommerce brand can leave a memorable impression on your customers.

‍

Here’s what you need to do in order to enhance customer experience by delivering a great post-purchase experience:

• Provide real-time order tracking and proactive notifications about order status via SMS and email
• ‍After customers make a purchase, send them personalised emails like a thank you note
• Create a great unboxing experience with custom packaging
• Ask for product feedback after a few days of purchase to show that your customer’s satisfaction matters
• Give easy-to-understand product care tips and guides over emails
• Send emails to notify for customers about ongoing offers and deals
• Enable customers to engage with your ecommerce brand on social media with reviews or images of them using your product
• Indulge with your customers with an exciting loyalty program that offers redeemable points on every purchase

‍

With Eshopbox, you can delight your customers by delivering an incredible post-purchase experience with a self-service portal. Your customers can track their orders in real-time as well as initiate returns and exchanges effortlessly. By empowering your customers with complete visibility of their orders and hassle-free options, you can enhance the customer experience significantly.

‍

‍

‍

How to measure customer satisfaction?

‍

While it’s hard to quantify the shopping experience you’re offering. You can still measure customer satisfaction with a valuable metric, the Net Promoter Score (NPS).

It will help you understand your customer’s perspective on your offerings, service, and business as a whole. By using this customer satisfaction survey (CSAT), you’ll be able to know how likely your customers are to recommend your brand to others.

‍

Bottom line

‍

The importance of a great customer experience to an ecommerce business is immense. It can create or destroy sales as well as it can determine future sales. The experience you create must be convenient, but it also needs to be an immersive and inspiring adventure that will keep customers coming back for repeated purchases. By focusing on customer experience and delighting your customers, you can expect to see a boost in customer lifetime value, brand equity, and ultimately revenue.