When Visitors Achieve Their Goals, Revenue Increases

Watching the economy continuing to dive in internet time, I thank my lucky stars that I happen to have a career in one of the few industries that is continuing to grow despite the slump.

Nevertheless, online marketers are going to face slower growth with the industry being forced to squeeze budgets and priorities. Suddenly those big online plans you had planned for the holiday season are now being scrutinised under a microscope by the bean counters.

Practically every online marketer we have talked to lately is contemplating a major rehaul of their platform, which either involves upgrading functionality or completely replatforming their online business to a faster, more engaging customer experience.

As eCommerce experts we’re consistently called in to help improve the online user experience after a business has been replatformed. Unfortunately the harsh reality is that almost all of these replatforming projects are virtually identical to the original and never bother to focus on the actual customer experience.

The time and effort generally stretches resources so thin that only after the new infrastructure is implemented, does the team actually then focus on improving the shopping experience itself (generally with very little budget left to actually optimise and test the customer experience).

Are you replatforming your website with the customer experience in mind or just the development process in mind?

What doesn’t help the situation in these times of uncertainty are shoppers being forced to make harder purchasing decisions due to tighter budgets. Combine this with your companies smaller marketing budgets and you suddenly have a situation where that brand loyalty, keeping those customers you already have, will matter more than ever. Every returning customer is valuable and you should be doing everything you can to keep them coming back.

It’s far cheaper to keep an existing customer than it is to pay for a new one.

Let’s take a look at the facts. 65% of visitors leave within the first two pages of a typical eCommerce site. This clearly demonstrates that a huge proportion of your prospects don’t find your website relevant to their search and that typically means a bad customer experience.

Here are some actions retailers can take to offer a more customer focused shopping experience…

At the Product Page offer:

• More descriptive and evocative product descriptions.
• As many images of the product as necessary (and preferably professionally shot).
• Customer reviews.
• Clearly show that the product is available and/or in stock.
• Easy-to-find shipping and return policies, and other pertinent information relevant to the product (warranties etc)
• Wish List
• Compare products

During the Check Out process, provide:

• Multiple payment options (e.g. pick up in store, direct deposit, credit card).
• Where am I in the check out process? A step by step indicator in the checkout process.
• Third-party certifications, secure certificates, and security assurances.

Don’t forget Customer Service:

• Faster and more accurate replies to customer e-mail inquiries.
• Chat options.
• A phone number for questions and problems.

All these are significant factors that customers have come to expect online. Your customers notice little things that can make a huge difference. Providing or assuring people just before they click is the difference between closing the deal or losing them to a competitor who took the time to understand what questions their customers ask at certain steps of the checkout process.

Companies that lavish attention on improving customer focus will reap more sales and will experience superior customer-retention rates in the long term.

If you owned the store on the corner and detected 65% of your prospects taking two steps into your store and hastily turning around and leaving, you’d probably think there was something greatly amiss and fix it immediately; right?

The fact that most online marketers have accepted such a high preliminary exit rate is truly a sign of the former digital age of glut.

The golden rule of store-based retail is to entice your customers to come in and shop through interesting and attractive storefront displays, end isle displays, and in-store attractions. The golden rule of online retail should be no different.