Nibletz Staff
Much of business today is conducted online. E-commerce is a hugely popular sector, with many people launching new eCommerce businesses in their spare time. If you want to make your eCommerce business a success, it’s all about getting the customer experience right. You’re not face-to-face with your customers, so you have to find other ways of improving their experience. An eCommerce business’s website is one of the most important areas to pay attention to, but it’s not the only one. There are other aspects of the customer experience that are just as important. Here are some essential things that every eCommerce business owner needs to do on and off-site.
Speed Up Your Site
The first thing it’s essential to address is the quality of your website. The online shop is where everything is happening for any eCommerce business. It’s where your customers view your products and decide whether to buy them. You need to use your store to help your customers find what they want and convince them to buy it from you. One of the things that will easily put someone off is the speed of your site. A slow website can have someone turning away and looking for what they need elsewhere. Ensuring speed on different browsers and devices needs to be a priority.
Make Navigation Easier
There’s another element of your website that’s vital to providing a good experience to your customers. Being able to navigate your store is essential for anyone who wants to buy something from you. If they can’t find what they’re looking for, they may well give up and go elsewhere. There are several aspects of your store’s navigation that you need to consider. Firstly, visitors to your site should be able to find broad product categories easily using your menu. They also should be able to filter products using different criteria if you have a lot of them. Finally, a search function allows people to go straight to what they are looking for. Make sure that your search feature works well.
Be Transparent
When people buy things online, they can’t pick up and examine any of your products. So you need to offer them as much information as possible about what they are looking at. However, there are also times when you don’t want to overwhelm them with too much information. If you can, choose pictures and videos over having a lot of text. In some cases, you might need to include technical specifications, making it hard to avoid too much text. However, you can still present this information in a neat way that’s easy to read. You can also provide interactive content such as product tours or demonstrations.
Offer a Mobile App
You might have a responsive website that looks great on a mobile device. However, it’s also worth considering a dedicated mobile app. It can make shopping in your store easier and allow you to design an experience that’s ideally matched to your brand. You can use a service like Wonderment Applications to build an app from scratch and ensure that it will be useful to your customers. Mobile technology is becoming more significant in all areas of business, including eCommerce. People want to be able to access what they want and need from their phones and tablets.
Don’t Forget About Offline Elements
E-commerce businesses might be based online, but the customer experience usually has some offline elements too. If you sell physical products, you have to deliver them to your customers. The speed and the service you provide your customers when you send them your products both matter too. It’s important to take a look at how you manage your deliveries and the satisfaction of your customers when they place and receive an order. You might also make an effort to personalize orders or add some other special customer service element to them.
Make Contact Easy
Your customers also want to be able to get in touch with you whenever they want. If you want to make it easier for them to contact you, you can do several things. One thing that will help is providing a number of contact channels, both immediate and less immediate. Some people prefer to email so that they can deal with things in their spare time. Others prefer to address issues as soon as possible by calling or perhaps using a messenger app. Consider these different communication channels to provide options for your customers.
The customer experience is an important part of any eCommerce business. Striving to improve it can keep your brand in the spotlight.
