About 80 percent of Americans shop online. While a large audience, the online marketplace is competitive as there are more than 100,000 e-commerce retailers. Success in this sector requires a business to stand out from the competition.
High-quality product offerings are a start, but providing consumers with a better experience helps you sustain in the long-term. Learn what every online retailer should do to improve the consumer experience.
Eliminate Account Registration
As a retailer, you're on a constant quest for leads. When a consumer visits your website to place an order, requiring that they sign up for an account provides you with an opportunity to collect their data so that you can market to them in the future. However, this requirement could be the difference between a successful sale and the potential customer logging off the site.
More than half of all people will abandon their shopping carts and find another retailer when they are forced to create an account to complete the transaction. If this is a site feature you have, consider forgoing this step. You can still require an email address that you can use to communicate with the consumer periodically.
Never Underestimate
Consumers don't like to be lied to, and when you underestimate shipping times, they feel like this is what you're doing. If it takes two days for your warehouse to process an order and the shipping company has given you a three-day delivery quote, don't give the customer a delivery quote of three days, as this doesn't include the processing time.
The goal might be to make the customer feel better, but this underestimation only harms the brand. Consumers want on-time deliveries, and when they don't receive them, they have no problem walking away. In one market study, 29 percent of people said they would no longer conduct business with a retailer if their order were late, just once.
Consumers would have a five-day delivery that arrived on schedule than a three-day delivery that was late.
Design Custom Corrugated Packaging
Custom corrugated packaging offers an excellent way to tailor to the needs of your products and customers. First, these boxes are made specifically for your products and goods. This level of customization keeps the contents of the shipments safer during the transport process and minimizes damage.
Just as late shipments might turn a consumer off, damaged delivers may have the same effect because customers may blame you for any issues. If your current boxes are too large and the shipping company factors the dimension of the box into their fee, custom corrugated boxes may also help lower your costs.
When you pass these savings down to the customer, this only further improves their experience. Capital City Container Corp. can design high-quality
custom
options to meet your shipping needs.
Generate Product Reviews
It's well known that consumers place the personal recommendations of others in high regard. In fact, 88 percent of consumers equate online reviews with personal recommendations, and if you add reviews to your website, you can increase your conversion rate by more than 30 percent because reviews give consumers greater confidence in your products.
If you don't have a review feature, now is the time to add this option to your website. If you do have this feature but are having trouble getting reviews, consider creating an incentive program.
For example, notify customers that they will receive $5 off or free shipping on their next order if they provide a review. To eliminate spam, you can also include a verified buyer feature that only allows customers who previously purchased the item to leave a review.
The realm of online shopping is vast and competitive, but you can be successful. Apply these tips and continuously look for ways to improve the customer experience.