7 Ways to Improve E-commerce Customer Experience
When it comes to running an online business, offering quality products to customers is not sufficient to thrive in the growing competition in the e-commerce industry, not just in Singapore but worldwide.
The only way your customers will stay for good and support your online business for a long time is to make sure they have a remarkable customer purchasing journey and leave a long-lasting effect on your reputation.
How presentable and interactive your e-commerce website is can make or break your brand’s impression on your customers. Thus, improving the e-commerce customer experience (CX) is critical to your success.
What Is E-commerce Customer Experience?
The e-commerce customer experience (CX) refers to the experience of how they interact with an e-commerce website. The moment a customer lands on a landing page and browses through web pages, the e-commerce CX starts.
If potential customers have trouble finding what they are looking for on your e-commerce website, expect them to develop a poor impression of your business, especially if the web pages take longer than 3 seconds to load.
In other words, e-commerce CX is about winning the trust and hearts of your customers. The better the CX is, the more your customers will come back and continuously support your online store.
Here are some different ways that might help you improve the e-commerce CX of your e-commerce business.
7 Best Ways to Improve the E-commerce Customer Experience
1. Build a User-Friendly E-commerce Website
Since the e-commerce CX starts when someone lands on your e-commerce website, you have to make sure that it is easy to navigate, even for users who are not tech-savvy. Forbes reported that if customers cannot find what they are looking for on your e-commerce website, you can expect your potential customers to look for what they need on your competitors’ e-commerce websites.
Prevent that from happening by building a user-friendly e-commerce website. Here’s how:
- Labels should be clear and specific
- Add search functionality
- Make content easy to read
- Include autocomplete options
- Incorporate product categories
- Show related items
2. Optimise E-commerce Website for Mobile Use
More consumers use mobile devices in their daily lives for various things, from listening to music to shopping for their needs, since they are easy to carry wherever they are.
It is not unexpected because more than half of web traffic in 2022 is coming from mobile device users, according to Statista.
Your potential customers might belong to that percentage, which is why optimizing an e-commerce website for mobile use is a must. Below are a few notable qualities of a mobile-friendly e-commerce website.
- Compress images
- Remove unnecessary widgets
- Use responsive web design
Here is an example of a mobile-friendly e-commerce website from UNIQLO.
3. Include Customer Feedback
Today, consumers are getting smarter with their purchases, especially when buying something online. Before they finalize their decision, they tend to do thorough research.
Apart from reading the pros and cons of the product they want to purchase, they also read customer reviews that contain feedback from other customers that describe how good the products are, including the quality of service they have experienced.
According to Oberlo, 9 out of 10 consumers often read customer reviews before finalizing their purchase. Expect your potential customers to do the same, which is why you should include a section on each product page where they can leave their feedback.
4. Use Colour Psychology
Another way you can improve the e-commerce CX on your website is to use color psychology. Many businesses use this method to grab the attention of their customers and nudge them to take action.
For example, the brand Sephora uses the color red to highlight the “Start Shopping” button that is part of their pop-up banner. Doing this helps their customers to notice what they have to offer.
If you plan to use color psychology on your e-commerce website, take note of the following to know which color you should use.
- Red – Excitement, Love
- Orange – Confidence, Sociability
- Yellow – Creativity, Happiness
- Green – Nature, Quality
- Blue – Trust, Peace
- White – Clean, Simplicity
- Black – Formality, Sophisticated
- Purple – Luxury, Royalty
In the case of Sephora, they use black, purple, and white as the primary color of their e-commerce website to showcase the simplicity, sophistication, and luxurious products they have to offer.
5. Properly Link Social Media Marketplaces to an E-commerce Website
Your customer’s experience on social media such as Facebook or Instagram can also affect your e-commerce CX. It is not surprising since these platforms now have marketplaces that allow you to reach out and sell more by linking your e-commerce website.
If done right, you can ease your customer’s purchase journey since they will get directed to the page of their product choice and no longer need to find what they want manually on your e-commerce website.
In the longer run, properly linking your social media marketplaces and e-commerce website help build stronger relationships with your customers. Because of this, they can now shop easily even if they just thought of shopping while browsing their Facebook or Instagram accounts.
6. Ease the Purchasing Process
You can also improve your e-commerce CX by simplifying the purchasing process on your website. Harvard Business Review mentioned in their study that businesses that ease the purchasing process are 62% or more likely to receive more sales.
Here are the different ways you can ease the purchasing process:
- Never let existing customers fill up the same information twice
- Include a button to go back to the previous page
- Allow customers to edit their shopping cart before settling their payment
7. Inform Customers About Stock Availability
Letting your customers know about the number of stocks available on each product ahead of time can prevent issues like customers asking for a refund since they only found out that their product of choice is already out of stock.
One way to prevent this is to give options to customers by asking them whether or not they would like you to reach out to them once you replenish the product they want. Doing this is how you can be transparent with your customers and help improve their experience on your e-commerce website.
Start Delivering a Better E-commerce Customer Experience!
Improving your website’s e-commerce customer experience can be tricky since how customers will behave and interact with your e-commerce website depends on it. Consider broadening your e-commerce and SEO knowledge to deliver a better customer experience.
Read more on OOm’s blog website for more digital marketing tips. You can leave a message on their website so that they can provide you with additional helpful information about how to manage your e-commerce business. Also, have a look at our brand new e-commerce agencies in the USA and e-commerce companies in the UK directories if you’re looking for one.
