Online retailers have to make customer service a key priority in their operations. From the very first moment that a customer interacts with a storefront, your business’ technological infrastructure should be contributing to a positive sales and service experience. The way that people perceive the process of placing orders with you is going to have a decisive influence on whether they’re going to finalize purchases or elect to give you repeat business. In order to stay competitive and generate healthy sales growth, you’ll need to work hard at shaping positive customer experiences.
Give Customers a Fantastic App
When customers navigate to your storefront online, they’ll be able to achieve all of the basic directives of an online shopper. They can search for products, add items to a cart to check out, and view their order history. Ideally, you want people to get off the internet and onto your app once they have decided that they’re interested in making a purchase from you. Simply having an app available, however, isn’t going to compel customers to install and use it instead of taking care of their basic directives from a web browser.
Use low code tools to plan app adjustments that will cultivate better experiences for mobile storefront visitors. Building in enhancements to product descriptions, for example, makes shopping feel more interactive when people can’t physically hold a product. Be sure to do a fair amount of testing before you go live with modifications. Alert customers to any big changes that you make to an app with notifications that contain helpful tips.
Keeping customers on your app and off of the internet helps to keep their focus on your products. You cut out the risk that will hop onto another open page on their web browser or stray from your site to a competing business’ storefront.
Build Great Infrastructure for Browsing Through Products
Ease of access is one of the key influences that has driven online shopping trends. Even if a merchant has excellent product lines, poor layouts or searching capabilities could make the proposition of looking at products on your storefront seem thoroughly unappealing.
You should be attentive to the search functions on your business’ website and app. Be practical but also creative about the ways that people can look for products. You want to make it easy for people to find what they want when they’re looking for something specific. Simultaneously, you need people to have a pleasant experience perusing through different categories without a direct purpose. Introducing multiple filter and categorization options will make for more satisfying shopping conditions.
Incorporate Reviews
Customers are wary about buying a product when there’s a dearth of feedback about it. Reviews give people a lot more confidence about pulling the trigger on a product. Invite your customers to review purchases, but don’t hound them about it as soon as an order is in transit. Wait until a reasonable amount of time after a delivery is complete and customs have had the chance to familiarize themselves with a product. Thank people for feedback with promotional savings opportunities. Customer feedback input that contains photos or videos can be particularly advantageous because online shoppers typically have some reservations that the items they receive will have a different appearance or quality than pictures on a site.
When you carry out all of your business’ day-to-day activities online, you’ve got to recognize that you’re playing in a rough neighborhood. You’re contending with a sea of seemingly endless competition. Of course, maintaining a high degree of visibility can represent an enormous challenge. Furthermore, your target customer base of online shoppers is likely to have a fairly limited attention span. For the most part, they tend to have high expectations about what retailers should be able to offer them and the format of their shopping experiences. Adapting your technological infrastructure and enhancing customers’ ability to use helpful features can ultimately enable you to meet expectations consistently.
