Customer experience can make a huge impact on your online Ecommerce sales and attract the right type of target audience to improve their revenues. Most successful ecommerce stores are brands which are able to communicate and effectively engage their customers.
Regardless of the industry that you are selling, a proactive customer approach can yield positive returns to your business. As per Walker research reports, customer experience is the key differentiator in online business, and it is definitely worth investing to reap greater profits.
Why customer experience matters to online business? 
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Today, customer experience encompasses all the touchpoints of your customers’ journey including right from purchase of products, checkout, shipping and after Ecommerce sales service. Customer engagement is the key to getting their feedback and finding out possible ways to improve your products and services. Online shopping experience plays a crucial role in influencing the purchase decision of your customers with a greater number of shoppers looking for a more personalized experience.
According to PwC survey reports, almost 1/3 rd. of customers will tend to leave brands that fails to provide a good experience. On the other hand, 65% of the respondents in US indicated that positive customer experience matters to them more than effective advertising of products. Companies that focus on providing a better retail experience tend to perform better than the rest and also have higher customer loyalty for their brands. As a result, customer retention is higher and there are greater possibilities of repeat customers in such cases resulting in greater profits to ecommerce retailers.
Top 8 strategies to improve ecommerce customer experience and boost your sales
1. Create interesting product pages
It’s necessary to provide all the required information to your visitors while they are navigating your ecommerce store. This could be related to product information, category, prices as well as specific information including weight, color, size along with expected time frame for shipping and delivery of goods. As a result, customers will be able to choose the products which they want to buy easily and can feel more satisfied about their purchase in the end.
2. Improve the checkout process
Online shoppers must find it easy to make purchases and pay for their products and services. There are many brands such as Instagram, for example, which provides some great features to provide a smooth and user-friendly checkout experience to their customers.
Provide guest check out and live chat option with customer support to help assist your customers find the best solutions while purchasing products on your website. Use an intuitive shopping cart to enable shoppers find the items and save them for later to enable them to make purchases at their convenience.
3. Boost data security for your website
One of the top concerns for online shoppers is privacy and confidentiality of their personal information on the ecommerce sites. Ecommerce stores must be able to provide a secure checkout experience using SSL certificates to enable customers shop with greater confidence. In addition, it may be great to add some security features for extra protection including two-factor authentication for password protection and prevent cybercrimes.
4. Provide personalized experience for your customers
Loyalty programs can be effective method for improving Ecommerce sales opportunities from your customers. As per research, majority of the shoppers prefer using gift cards and loyalty programs for their holiday shopping. In addition, it has been proven that experiential approach to selling yields better results when compared to using loyalty programs which may be targeted based on their previous browsing history.
5. Use a multichannel marketing for effective targeting
There are different online platforms available today which may be leveraged to make the most of your marketing efforts. The goal of your ecommerce store must be to provide a seamless customer experience to your shoppers. This may also include optimizing your products to provide optimized mobile experience with improved user experience including easy navigation features to browse different products.
6. Offer solid and timely customer support
Customers need quick and effective responses to their queries and one of the best ways to engage them while making purchases is to address their concerns by providing solutions. According to research by HubSpot, majority of the customers expect immediate response in the first 30 minutes.
7. Provide faster shipping options to deliver goods
There are plenty of online shopping options available today which has increased competition among ecommerce retailers. As a result, it is important to provide superior customer service with focus on timely delivery and reduce the delivery time of the goods.
For instance, according to a recent survey, most customers are unwilling to wait more than 7-10 days for goods delivery. At the same time, packaging needs to be attractive and must be not be compromised to provide faster delivery of goods to your customers.
8. Use customer testimonials and reviews
Majority of the online shoppers prefer to do research on products before making online purchases. Thus, it pays to have a competitive pricing mechanism along with customer feedback on your products that may enable online shoppers to make purchases with greater confidence.
Customers prefer to buy from sites which have positive reviews and word of mouth is an effective way to reach out to your potential leads. In addition, comments on social media pages, feedback survey forms can be a great way to engage with your customers and nurturing your leads in the Ecommerce sales process.
Conclusion
Customer experience plays an integral role in selling your products online and boosting your revenues. Ecommerce companies may have to adopt the best strategies that can give them positive results and ensure lasting success of their business. Brand perception and customer loyalty is key in improving experience for your online shoppers.
With increasing digitization, the expectations of online shoppers have soared, and it is necessary for businesses to devise new methods to leverage technology and security to meet their customer needs. In addition, ecommerce companies must be aware of the latest trends and purchase behavior of their consumers to provide them with the best experience.
