The online experience plays a key role in achieving retail conversions and building a loyal customer base. This article explores how retailers deliver one of the best online experiences, including top tips from Dean Benson, CEO of Visualsoft.
1. How important is it for retailers to have a modern online storefront that customers love?
The habits of online consumers have changed in the wake of the pandemic, and so have retailers. The look and feel of a website can determine how long a consumer spends on a page such as a storefront. Hence, it is important for retailers to keep their platforms updated and in line with current buying trends.
A great advantage of online shopping is that it is quick and easy. A real shopping experience is bursting with barriers between customers and their shopping: traffic jams, parking meters, crowds, queues, heavy bags, fellow customers. Online shopping eliminates all of this – and shouldn’t add other issues (like usability or navigation) that will put the customer off.
If your website is not navigable and it takes forever to load, your customer WILL look elsewhere – and wonder how easy it is to leave a webpage. YOU want your customers to leave your website satisfied and a few pounds lighter instead of irritable and frustrated.
Smooth out the bumps on your website, which will make the buying process easier. For example, the loading time should be fast, the search function and product categorization should be clear with good metadata and keywords, and the option to check out guests.
2. How can retailers optimize the online experience for shoppers?
53% of shoppers say they stopped shopping at an online store because of a bad online experience or simply that a competitor offered a better one. And so the problem boils down to one thing, the lack of understanding of the ecommerce customer experience.
One of the easiest ways to optimize your online customer experience is to personalize it. Personalization is one of the biggest drivers of customer loyalty and therefore key to retaining retailers with their customer base. Here are a few touchpoints you could try:
Personalize emails: A birthday compliment or an invitation to an online VIP customer event are well received.
Offer personal discounts on products or services that are relevant to the customer.
Save Customer History: View a list of recommendations based on the items the customer recently viewed.
Another easy way to deliver an exceptional online consumer experience is to up- and cross-sell to your heart’s content. Be careful not to overwhelm buyers with irrelevant products, instead offer the goods that complement their shopping cart. Create valuable offers with a clear CTA. You should also consider the frequency of your messages as constant upsells can put off customers. By offering valuable discounts and complementary products, YOU can bind people to your online shop and become regular customers.
It’s also worth considering consumers who like to shop on the go. You can design an app for your ecommerce business or make sure your store is responsive to all devices, regardless of whether a user is browsing your online store on a desktop or mobile device.
The most important thing is to make sure. that the customer’s online experience IS smooth and that every device works.
3. Tell us more about how loyalty programs can be implemented on retail websites.
It is more important than ever for retailers to offer a convenient buying process and loads of engagement points to keep customers coming back. Loyalty programs are great loyalty tools that are designed to retain previous customers so that they buy in bulk, interact with your brand frequently and frequently.
Next generation ecommerce trues can create a dedicated community around your brand. Here are some considerations for the implementation process:
A redefined buying process to make online shopping feel seamless.
Incentives to create customer profiles in order to generate more extensive data and to encourage other marketing activities such as personalization.
- Experience rewards and VIP benefits to increase the overall value of customer lifetime
- Clubs with a special interest to build communities and emphasize exclusivity
- Viral social media contests to promote word of mouth and build trust
Retailers can also build customer trust and brand representation as they show empathy and demonstrate their core values. In the case of an online rewards program, this can happen by rewarding customers for bringing back used products, such as clothing or beer kegs, or for spending them on charity.
4. What are your top tips for managing inventory across channels?
By effectively managing your inventory, YOU can ensure you have the right products and avoid the right quantities of products being sold out or tied up in excess inventory. Make sure your perishable products are sold on time to avoid and prevent spoilage. Your company is spending too much money on inventory that takes up space in a warehouse or storage room.
How do you avoid dying of having too much or too little inventory? Here’s how:
Optimize Your Forecasts – Accurate forecasting is vital. Your forecast sales calculations should be based on factors such as historical sales, market trends, forecast growth and economy, promotions, etc.
Use the FIFO (first in, first out) approach . Goods should be sold in the same chronological order in which they were bought or created. This is especially true of perishable products like groceries, flowers, and makeup.
Check Your Inventory – Even with good inventory management software, when & YOU check your inventory regularly to make sure. Match your inventory with what you think. Businesses use a variety of techniques, including a one-time, year-end physical inventory that counts every item, and ongoing spot checks, which may be most useful for products that are moving quickly or having inventory issues.
Use Cloud Based Inventory Management Software – Look for software with real-time sales analytics.
Track Your Inventory – Have a solid system for tracking your inventory and prioritizing the most expensive products. Good inventory management software saves you time and money because you have done much of the heavy lifting for you.
5. What’s next for Visualsoft, and how can retailers stay up to date with the latest updates?
It goes without saying that we are constantly checking how we can develop into the best partner for our dealers. We make sure our platform, account strategists and marketers can help retailers navigate the ever-changing landscape of e-commerce.
As the demands on brands increase with the need for a true omni-channel experience, when retailers work smarter to continue delivering the online experience that consumers want, and at Visualsoft we focus on how we better serve them be able.
Despite continual investment in the user experience of both retailers and consumers, our customers tell us they need more data-driven insights to help them improve the experience for their consumers.
We’ve listened too, and we’re doing more in -platform data analysis, recommendations, and reports. Enable retailers to better understand their consumers and provide them with the right experience, products and services. Retailers can learn where their strengths and weaknesses lie in their consumer experience and optimize it to maximize customer satisfaction.
