#FocusOnBestPractices
eCommerce never stops growing. Over 20 years into the online shopping revolution, year on year growth in the United States remains at 23% and nearly 51% of Americans consider online shopping to be better than physical retail. From steep discounts to free delivery and returns, exciting offers from credit card companies and lucrative loyalty programs. The list of incentives for online shopping continues to expand and improve with every passing year.
The underlying goal of these programs is to increase the level of engagement with visitors. eCommerce user engagement presents a complex web of challenges from multi-device usability to personalized recommendations. Marketers need to adopt technology at all levels to gain insights from visitor behavior with the goal of influencing them into another purchase.
As almost 80% of eCommerce buying decisions start from a mobile phone, mobile is no longer a “tip.” It’s a necessity that can cost you market share. Aside from improving your mobility, here are 5 ways to improve user engagement in an eCommerce store:
Before we get into all the fancy technology tools and sophisticated analytics, start with the simplest of steps. Just put yourself in the shoes of an ideal visitor to your site.
Of course, there are going to be many similar questions, but if your answers remain a “Yes,” then you can start considering your technology toolkit. A “No,” on the other hand, should prompt you to go back to the drawing board and reimagine the usability and functionality of your eCommerce store for those negative issues.
From the time a visitor lands on your web store to the time he or she leaves, you need to deploy intelligent tools to track their movement in and around your eCommerce website. This includes any action they make like the frequency of clicks, the number of times they visit a particular product or catalog page, the items they add to cart and then remove, and much more. This step is vital to understand the behavioral patterns to ultimately build personalization services based on these insights. If you notice that a significant amount of users drop or abandon items they add to the cart on mobile phones, then there is likely something wrong with the checkout process on mobile phones. This is how you arrive at conclusions based on solid facts and insights. Deploy the best technology solutions available to you to map visitor journeys on your websites and ensure that successful journeys are replicated for newer visitors easily and faster than before while challenging ones are addressed quickly.
Fake reviews can be a let down that could hurt your sales in the long run. 79% of US customers believe that they have read at least one fake review. This realization is a wakeup call for eCommerce players to deploy a more transparent and reliable rating and review system for their marketplace. Today there are AI enabled feedback collection and review aggregation systems that can spot fake reviews, remove them and ensure that genuine feedback from buyers are provided to sellers and also listed on the site to help future buyers. Over time, this will help in building a largely positive image in the minds of users as they perceive your business is selling only genuine products backed by feedback from actual buyers.
Studies have shown that the average cart abandonment rate was 78.65% in 2017 and is expected to rise in 2018 as well. eCommerce store owners embrace a comprehensive turn-around strategy to get visitors to convert their cart additions into sales. There are a lot of factors responsible for large scale cart abandonment. 28% of buyers say that unexpected shipping costs are a key reason they abandon their shopping cart instead of completing the purchase. Fortunately, there are things you can do to win back these buyers. In many cases, a small incentive can influence their buying decision. An additional product recommendation that will help complete their purchase could also convince them to continue. The world’s best e-retailers use intelligent marketing tools to bring back visitors who have abandoned their cart and transform them into actual buyers. From personalized email recommendations to reminders, discount coupons and suggestions, they employ a wide range of strategies to influence buying decisions. Thankfully, similar tools are available to small and medium businesses, letting you take advantage of the same successful strategies as the major players.
Modern digital marketing and intelligent CRM tools can help engage with buyers outside the transactional journey in an online store. You can hold frequent contests and campaigns on social media as well as through email and deliver valuable content to potential buyers. This content can be personalized at a deep level to increase conversion rates and improve ROI. You can create a loyal list of repeat customers and then re-retarget them. The goal is to slowly transition them into brand spokespeople for your business and encourage them to refer new customers.
If you look closely, 4 of the 5 tips we mentioned here are based on improving your technology to track user journeys, interact with them through marketing campaigns or a redefined checkout experiences and so on. The future of eCommerce lies in how effectively you can incorporate changing market trends into your technology stack. In this arms race, your biggest asset could be an advisory partner for technology strategy. Request a consultation today to learn how Korcomptenz can help improve ROI significantly on your digital investments in online retail.
Bringing on board experienced Dynamics 365 consultants can help online store owners optimize their customer engagement strategies and leverage advanced e-commerce capabilities to create personalized experiences that resonate with their target audience.
Partnering with a Microsoft Dynamics certified partner like Korcomptenz can help online store owners unlock the full potential of their e-commerce platform, providing them with the tools and expertise needed to increase engagement, drive sales, and foster long-term customer loyalty.
Request a consultation today to learn how Korcomptenz can help improve ROI significantly on your digital investments in online retail.
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