Guest Blog: How to Tailor Your E-commerce Site to Best Serve the Digital Customer

This week we feature an article by Seema Nair who writes about the importance of tailoring your e-commerce site to give your customers the best experience. The best customer service is invisible. It just happens. – Shep Hyken

Building an e-commerce site is just the first step of a successful e-commerce journey.  An e-commerce site always needs to be tweaked and fine-tuned to align with ever-evolving business needs and customer expectations. The goal should be to create an e-commerce site that continuously over-delivers on user experience, so make it easy for your customers to find your e-commerce site, navigate, buy, and come back for more! Here are 8 ways to creatively tailor an e-commerce site to best serve digital customers:

Provide Great User Experience

A seamless user experience is an added advantage to a great looking and well-functioning e-commerce site. A great user experience should be the top priority, across all platforms and devices. Regardless if customers are using a desktop, laptop, tablet, or mobile device, the user experience should be customized with features that will enhance their experience. Empower customers to easily search, filter and sort so they can find exactly what they are looking for. A quick product search that caters to every need is key, and provide word tags so products can instantly show up in search results.

Keep the Checkout Process Simple

It can be a thoughtful and time-consuming task for customers to add various items to their cart, review their selected items, and then submit the final order. Enable immediate purchases with one click rather than filling up a cart to manage that will possibly be abandoned. Being able to checkout as a guest, without registration, is a great way to ensure quick and easy purchases. Also allowing the customer to choose a delivery time, helps avoid missed deliveries, and a delivery on a first attempt creates a happy customer. A seamless payment experience is also vital, implementing respective security certificates helps to establish trust and provides comfort when sharing credit card information.

Provide Excellent Customer Service

Touchpoints, as an order progresses, is expected from a digital customer, for instance, updates such as order received, shipped, and that the delivery is on its way. Sharing this information and notifying them of the status of their order will increase their level of excitement and give them a reason to return. This is just an initial start to an on-going customer relationship that doesn’t have to end with only one purchase. Make sure reps are easily reachable for after sales inquiries and feedback via instant chat, social media, email, and phone.

Utilize Social Media

Being omnipresent on various social media platforms is a plus. A strong presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or Snapchat can help you reach new or existing customers. Regardless of your existing customer base and target market, millennials are accustomed to promotions and communications across various social media channels. Take advantage of these free platforms to easily engage with customers and develop creative ads to catch their attention as often as possible. Also, social media networks can assist in solving customer inquiries or issues much quicker than other channels.

Provide A Personalized Experience

Personalize, personalize, personalize!  Personalization is not going anywhere and will increase as technology evolves. Remarketing based on click-through history is fundamental. Also, send additional product recommendations in order confirmation emails. Personalize offers and tailor suggestions based on that specific consumer’s wants and needs. Promote their wish list continuously, the more they wish, the more they will buy. While searching, showcase what’s trending and hot.

Include Customer Reviews

Customer reviews and insights about what items sell best, perform best, or have the utmost quality are things customers want to know before a purchase. Customers are heavily influenced by real customer reviews and feedback. Providing a product page that encourages and displays customer feedback is key. This influences buying decisions to either buy that specific item or by suggesting alternative options keeps engagement within the site.                                                                 

Provide Quality Content 

Short and easy to read product descriptions along with real images will capture your customer’s attention. Providing quality and unique content to your customers regarding your product, service or industry will keep them coming back. Be concise and informative, while using images to engage and entice them to learn more.

Tailoring your e-commerce site to best serve your customers can make or break an online store. The key is to perform constant analysis of the site to get customers to come back, drive sales, and enhance customer loyalty.

Seema Nair is a Senior Project Manager (Mobility) at Indusa and has around 11 years of experience in enterprise and consumer-facing mobility solutions. Being a Subject Matter Expert in enterprise mobility, she assists clients in defining mobility strategies and implementing the right mobility solutions for their business.

For more articles from Shep Hyken and his guest contributors go to customerserviceblog.com.

Read Shep’s latest Forbes Articles: To Create A Great Customer Experience, Sweat The Small Stuff

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