a Cybage a October 05, 2016
Online retail companies’ sales are growing and so is their attention towards customer experience. A study by Gartner indicates that by 2017, customer experience will become a primary differentiator for 89 per cent of businesses. The study also predicts that customers will manage 85 percent of the relationship with an enterprise without interacting with a human being.
Here are some trends in the ever-evolving E-commerce industry that organizations should look out for to stay ahead of their competition:
The advent of mobile phones has added more convenience to the overall user journey. There are multiple touch points and if all of them work seamlessly, it’s easy for the prospective customer to become a loyal one. Microsoft researchers suggest that a 10-second wait time for a page to load makes 50% of the consumers to give up and leave. Shopping on mobile phones makes users even more impatient. Each extra second of loading or an extra click is an extra hurdle in creating an impression about the brand. The only way to overcome this hurdle is by offering an experience that makes the user journey quick, simple, and consistent. In other words, rather than shopping from a website or app offering a host of features, a user would prefer one that provides the shortest way to reach the desired product.
Smartphones have many features that push online retailers to add more efforts to their existing offerings. For example, after the launch of iPhone4, retailers updated their product images as per the high resolution offered by the retina display of the smartphone screens. In this competitive market, when such a strategy succeeds, other retailers make a beeline for it. Another example can be of virtual assistants such as Siri. This has opened new avenues that help marketers to offer a better customer experience. Such features work on detecting the behavior and interaction patterns of users and can be integrated with a company’s customer service application or help match information from the company’s database.
Degree of personalization
Ads on any platform are annoying. However, while shopping, it’s a rewarding experience for customers if they can get their hands on a good promotional deal. If an ad appears right when the customer needs it, the customer will probably like it and even remember it. This could translate into more purchases in future because of the customer’s recall. Hence, for any brand, giving recommendations or promotions at the right time can work wonders.
Moreover, buyers feel a greater connect with brands that address them with their names or talk to them about the buyers’ interests. The Chat feature is used by many e-commerce websites to counsel prospective consumers. For example, Kesari Tours offers the Chat feature to help buyers book tour plans. However, some users might find this feature an invasion of their privacy.
The ideal situation will be when marketers brainstorm and define a strategy that strikes a right balance.