A Guide to Delivering an Exceptional eCommerce Experience

What is eCommerce experience?

When a user takes part in any kind of communication or transaction on the web relating to any product, it is an eCommerce experience. From visiting the website, browsing the products, and getting queries resolved, to the final transaction, everything counts as experience. 

It also includes advertisement, website, purchase, delivery, shipping, customer service, and much more. 

Product quality is no longer the primary reason for customers to interact with you or make a purchase. Delivering a valuable experience is what does the trick. Customer experience comprises everything that the user goes through from the moment they decide to purchase to the time when they finalize their purchase. 

There is no one way to offer a good experience, we shall discuss some amazing factors that contribute to it and how we can make them better. 

What experience can qualify as exceptional?

A hassle-free experience that does not involve too much shuffling between pages, pop-ups, or interruptions, and a website that is mobile-friendly as well. Professional order management, proactive customer engagement, and pleasant after-sale services all contribute towards a good eCommerce storefront experience. 

The term customer experience is not limited to the on-site experience. It is everything a business has to offer and a user grabs onto while interacting with the business. Regardless of the industry, the entire experience as a customer follows a generic pattern and ideally depends on the support a user gets from the brand. 

This blog will shed some light on the list of some crucial features that make your website better and create a compelling eCommerce experience. 

Create an exceptional experience- Here’s how!

Many factors are responsible when it comes to offering an exceptional eCommerce experience. But it is important to be aware of aspects that define a successful digital storefront that delivers satisfying services. Here is everything you need to know to provide a good experience. 

1. Easy-to-navigate website 

Let us begin with the most important aspect. Ensure that you have an impressive website that is easy to navigate. Use simple designs, and let your merchandise do the work. Make your website mobile-friendly. 

Keep the clicks to a minimum, and let the website do most of the users’ work. Make sure you have a well-segmented and categorized website to offer a clean and precise presentation. 

2. Pre-Purchase impression

The experience starts before the user becomes a paying customer. To convert them into paying customers, the pre-purchase impression you create matters a lot. The experience begins when a potential user notices the brand. And from then, everything that happens with the users is considered. 

The extent of the experience goes from them knowing you exist, to them becoming loyal customers. Making your band’s values a little clear to them gets them even more interested and gives you a good chance to stand out.

Some key questions to consider are: 

• What do you offer? 
• What is in it for the user?
• What are the diversity and options you provide to your audience? 

When you answer these questions and make it clear to them, you proactively deliver value leading them to trust you, prepare them to make an exact purchase, and set a foundation for success.

3. Post-purchase experience

When a user becomes a paying customer, your work is done! But can we say that they will come back?

Well, no. This just shows that your work has just started. Instead of being too proud, you need to focus on keeping the user engaged to ensure they come back to a re-purchase. 

You will need to communicate with your user even more now. Meaning: 

• Regularly update them about deliveries, announcements, offers, and much more. 
• Develop programs, events, and other initiatives to keep adding value. 
• Act on the feedback you received from any dissatisfied customer. 

When an individual makes a purchase, you cannot assume them to become your lifetime customers, you need to keep them engaged and hooked to your brand well enough that whenever they think of purchasing, your brand comes to their mind. 

4. Get Visual: Embed Instagram feed on the website 

Visual content is crucial in today’s eCommerce stores. One way to easily implement it on your website is to repurpose your Instagram pictures.

You can use social media aggregator platforms to add the Instagram feed to the website. Displaying a rather casual Instagram of the brand on a professional platform like a website intrigues the users and persuades them to finalize their purchase. 

Moreover, these feeds can be embedded without any coding complexities and help you display social proof, a good only reputation, improve conversions, sales, and customer acquisition, and might also help you get more followers on Instagram as well. 

5. Timing matters

Timing matters a lot. If you post at the right time after giving it a lot of thought, you get more impressions and views as compared to when you post without researching. Analyze at what time your competitors are posting. 

You can also use the trial and error method, play around with timings for a few days and see when your audience is most active, and start posting on those timings. Make sure that you are well-updated about any changes in the timing. 

6. User-friendly UI

Checkout pages are tricky. Ensure the checkout page is the easiest to use. Cart abandonment is a perennial problem that can be solved with a user-friendly user interface. Give your audience a guest checkout as well, this eliminates the risk of cart abandonment due to registering complications. 

Secure your website to instill trust. Provide dynamic payment options including UPI, cards, and cash on delivery. 

One great way to persuade customers who are about to leave the checkout page is to show them exit-intent pop-ups that promote reviews and a discount code.

7. Marketing to the rescue 

Make use of a good marketing strategy. Create a robust content marketing team, present good copy, keep the marketing content updated on the niche, generate compelling visuals, and build trust through reviews. 

Using user-generated content in your marketing can help in providing an authentic and genuine experience. 

8. Delivery and shipping experience 

Shipping and delivery are major challenges. If you have multiple carrier partnerships you can offer faster services with additional benefits like free shipping.

Update your customers in real-time. Use WhatsApp, SMS, or emails to keep them updated. You can even offer your client (and yourself) a chance to monitor the delivery of your products via courier management tools.

Delivery speed is also an important aspect of the eCommerce experience. You can offer express services, same-day deliveries, etc. Ensure that you have the right logistics partner, to maintain high-quality security and quality checks. 

9. Use technology to its full potential

We have access to a lot of multiple technological advancements like drones, self-driven cars, etc. Logistics intelligence software help in managing shipping operations to a vast extent. You can also invest in e-procurement software to automate procurement tasks, including purchasing, ordering and fulfillment, payment, and improve supplier relationships while reducing errors and costs. All you have to do is choose the right software that nurtures all your business needs. 

A good shipping tracking system will streamline your operation and automate the entire process with intelligent algorithms. 

10. Returns and refunds

Any eCommerce business has a return and refund policy. It is important that you provide a clear policy to your customers. Make sure apart from the big policy pages, you also put the policies in a short form that is easily accessible to them. 

Instead of making them repackage the product, they can send it back through mail or return it to the nearest in-store location. If this is not feasible, you can think of many other ways to make it even more convenient for users to return the item. 

Ensure that the entire refund process is highly compatible with any payment type and quick. These small return and refund policy changes and developments can open door for an even better exchange of value in the future. 

Whether a product is returned or exchanged, make sure it is done efficiently and quickly. A good policy can help you gain loyal customers. People tend to trust a website and come back for another purchase, simply because of an efficient and clear return and refund policy. 

11. Give additional benefits

With a strategic idea, the customers’ satisfaction scale tends to be tilted towards the positive side. With additional benefits and services, people are inclined towards your business. They see their benefit more than anything while purchasing. 

Price discounts, free delivery, no packaging charges, extended warranties, etc. can do the trick for you. You can also create good product packages with some ad-one that is not only worthy but also drive people to make favorable decisions faster. 

12. Customer support 

If your customer service is inefficient or lagging, it can break your business. eCommerce runs on customer service. Your reputation depends on it. If your visitors’ queries and complaints are not resolved on time, it can lead to a bad reputation and decreased customer satisfaction rate. 

Make use of community management software, well-trained human personnel, communication channels like chatbots, etc. to improve CX, create proactive responses, and appropriate escalation with timely resolutions. 

13. Create A Feedback Loop

To make sure you are always providing the best experience, you need to have a functional and smooth feedback loop. It means that you are collecting feedback regularly and turning the listening into action.

Additionally, an effective feedback loop doesn’t overlook the power of reviews and testimonials. When you collect feedback, remember to make use of the positive comments your customers give. Turn feedback into testimonials and showcase them on your website and social media. This is easily done with a tool like Trustmary.

What is customer experience management?

It is the process where you gain and maintain full control over the experience you provide to your customers. It does not mean that you dictate every move they make on your website or location. On the contrary, it means that you must be prepared to deliver anything that the customer needs at any point in time. 

This includes delivering services for problems they themselves have not faced yet or don’t recognize. To take another look at it, customer experience management is keeping yourself above and beyond your customers. 

This is all about creating structures and fail-safes for your customers to support them and drive them toward their goals. When a customer faces a challenge, you can take control and add value to re-engage the hesitant customers to get them onto the path to success. 

Management of your customer’s experience matters because: 

• It builds trust, loyalty, evangelism, and authenticity. 
• It develops a USP and creates value within the brand.
• It drives working towards building your brand and turning it into a successful one with consistent growth. 

Looking at the big picture, you can reinvest their profits into the business and get your business to ramp up its efforts. You will be able to make your vision clear and set your next goals higher. This also serves to influence and provide more value to the ecosystems.

Conclusion

Every business is different, especially with eCommerce, and every type of product might need a unique strategy.

Crafting a unique strategy that not only supports a wide range of products but also caters to a large audience can be tricky. This blog includes a checklist that covers most of the aspects that you need to consider.