BACKIn the bag: The best ecommerce strategies
This month at NTWRK, we’ve looked at how to get to know your customers better, just how important the customer experience is and even more important, the mobile-friendly experience.
Nowhere is the importance of the customer and the customer experience more visible than in ecommerce. Aside from the basic ecommerce strategies of fast load time and easy navigation, what are essential to generating more leads and encouraging purchases?
Our CEO, CCPO and Head of Digital Strategy hash it out:
Wes Fischer: Let’s break this down to each step of the purchase process, starting with search. I think advanced product filtering is key here, especially if you have a large inventory.
Garreth Dorey: Absolutely. No one has time to get lost in your catalogue. Show your customers what they want to see quickly and easily, and you’ll increase the chance of them purchasing it.
Yee Wei Lok: And when they are looking at what they want to see, show it to them well. I’m talking about great product visualisation. Show off your products with zoom in and roll over functions, a 360°view – or even better, a 3D view. These all enhance the shopping experience.
Garreth: And if we really want to talk about showing off, then produce a short video that shows the product in action. Everyone loves a good video.
Wes: Which brings us to the browsing period. Chatbots are great customer service representatives, because any issues raised by the customer can be resolved immediately, clearing the way for purchase. Chatbots are also great salespeople, providing up-to-date information on deals and discounts available.
Yee Wei: Yes, the role of AI in ecommerce is clear-cut. Apart from chatbots, you can use AI to improve your back-end logistics, to gather insightful customer data and of course, to provide your customer with the personalised experience they want.
Garreth: Once your customers have selected their purchases, your goal is to reduce cart abandonment where possible. This means an efficient checkout process, where ideally customers can complete the transaction in a single page. If this is not possible, then have a visibly clear progress bar to serve as their handy visual guide. It also means offering flexible delivery options – if customers don’t get what they want how they want it, then more than likely they just won’t get it.
Yee Wei: And once they’ve completed their order, you’ll want to give them an easy way to review your product. Good reviews from happy customers are the best sales pitch. That’s right, user-generated content is your friend here. You can also encourage UGC by having one or two brand-specific hashtags that you regularly use on your social platforms.
Wes: Speaking of hashtags. We’ve covered some great website-based ecommerce strategies, but it’s important to not forget that the shopping function is now available on Facebook and Instagram too. Social purchases are great because customers don’t have to leave their beloved apps at all – so it’s definitely worth looking into.
