As a consultant, I’ve seen many customers considering the go-live of their e-commerce store as the point when everyone can relax – in theory. In reality, many successful go-lives are followed by mediocre results once the website is up and running. Why is that?
Customers scroll through the product pages and leave. Customers put products in their carts, but never complete the check out. Customers contact support without buying anything in the end.
Do you know why?
Today the customer drives the business process: If you’re not listening, soon you’ll be losing
I mean, not just because “such is human nature”, but really: is it the product they want is not available and what is available doesn’t fulfill their needs? Or is it the price? Or is that your product information doesn’t resonate with their needs? Or is it because your check out process is too cumbersome and long, or maybe they don’t want to create a permanent account? And those who reach out to customer service, what do they really feel about the information provided – is your chatbot more annoying than helpful?
You don’t have to operate in the dark, nor should you.
What customers want from your brand and the shopping experience it offers is simple: give me the product I want right away and make it simple. For you to deliver this, you need to listen to your customers’ wants, understand their needs and act on them.
Fundamentally, experience management starts with understanding what your customers expect from your brand. Only by listening to your customers you will know whether the shopping journeys are frictionless or not and where the gaps lie.
To achieve this, I recommend to my clients they measure the quality of experience for every customer using real-time feedback loops that engage across digital channels. Once you understand the gaps, your teams should act upon the feedback.
Having the right data will allow you to prioritize the most painful gaps first. Some corrective actions will require deeper investigation (for example delivery expectations not being met) and then process changes, while others can be addressed right away. With this experience data in your hands, you can act quickly and close the gaps until you are left with best practices, which should be rolled out and expanded across all your departments.
How to increase e-commerce revenue, even when times are tough
Pairing up e-commerce with experience management and real-time feedback solutions is an effective way to achieve this ongoing challenge and simplify the buying process, deliver the best shopping experience possible, and innovate with speed and agility.
During challenging times, the combination of the two solutions helps you tackle the key aspects of e-commerce disruption, and make no mistake: no matter what, e-commerce has staying power, even post-COVID.
You can better anchor the increased strategic importance of e-commerce and adapt at times of need. Leaders in this sector are able to:
- Provide enhanced digital experiences with inventory alerts, real-time updates on fulfillment and delivery timing, and of course, successfully manage the increase in online traffic and transaction volume, optimizing their behind-the-scene resources and processes to handle these sudden shifts in capacity.
- Make intelligent decisions based on real-time insights into their supply and demand. They understand the impact of supply chain disruption with insights into existing inventory and potential delays in distribution and fulfillment. They can react to the changing demand, adjusting forecasting to the changing buying patterns.
- Allow for completely digitized shopping experiences, listening to and responding to the dynamically evolving needs of their customers, through agile processes and flexible technology.
- Plan for uncertainty and consider the in-the-moment circumstances that impact their customers’ and employees’ lives as these face remote working arrangements and possible temporary isolation.
- Anticipate regulations that may impact their capacity, fulfillment, and delivery strategies.
The beauty of pairing up e-commerce and experience management tools is that capturing data on your storefront allows you to make impactful changes to your customer experience, even BEFORE your store starts seeing negative impacts.
You can:
- Test new business models
- Try out new pricing
- Understand what variables are increasing or reducing customer retention
- Make the necessary adjustments to your brand and channel strategy
When I tell this to my customers, some end up admitting that as interesting as it sounds, it may appear too complex to implement it for the first time. To which I say, you don’t have to do it alone and it doesn’t have to be a headache, either. Why not learn how to increase e-commerce revenue today so that you’re always prepared for tomorrow – no matter what it brings.
