In the early days of e-commerce, ‘just another store’ was precisely what the online business amounted to for physical retailers. Today, with online sales expected to make up to a quarter of total global sales by 2025, the need to deliver an all-encompassing online experience as part of a wider customer journey, has never been more important. We invite you to learn more about this critical area by reading this article.
Alternatively, if you would like to get a full overview of how to achieve a 360-degree excellent customer experience in retail, you can download our report straight away.
Here you will find:
- The need for a personalized experience
- The role of great UX
- Understanding how your customers are using your online store
The need for a personalized experience
Retailers have to think, and behave, in a unified manner. And it means delivering a digital experience that delights your customer - from the first interaction to each subsequent one, building loyalty along the way. That means offering a seamless online user experience that includes every touch point from the initial contact and order to delivery and the post-purchase experience that will bring the customer back for more.
The bar is rising, and you need to respond to meet the expectations of a consumer who is increasingly well-informed and expects engaging and personalized experiences when they shop. You also need the agility to respond rapidly to customer demands as they change at speed. That means your online experience has to adapt quickly too.
It's important to remember that your online store needs to integrate as part of the overall experience
Unlike instore, online offers you the opportunity to quickly identify the shoppers, learn more about their needs, and tailor the experience if you have the right technologies and processes in place. You also need to look at the best-in-class retailers in your sector, or in retail in general, to understand what you need to be looking to invest in now and in the future. Online retail is moving at such a speed that even if investments in more forward-looking technologies aren’t a priority now then they need to at least be on the radar to ensure you don’t get left behind.
It's important to remember that your online store needs to integrate as part of the overall experience to ensure it’s not just seen as somewhere to buy things but instead is seen as part of a wider, overall customer experience strategy.
A good example is Swedish-based fashion retailer H&M which is integrating its digital offers with stores to enable a seamless user experience for its customers whatever channel they are using. These include ‘find instore’ possibility, where on seeing an item online customers can use their mobile devices to find it quickly and easily in the size they want in a physical store or online. Instore they can use ‘scan and buy’, scanning the QR code of a product to find and buy the item online in the size and color that they prefer.
The retailer is also piloting AR, with its H&M Home X Augmented Reality pilot allowing customers to review selected home products by virtually placing them in their own environment using their smartphone camera.
Such tactics are driving growth with online accounting for almost a third (32%) of the group’s net sales in 2021, and the brand now selling in 54 online markets.
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The role of great UX
User experience (UX) of your online store is key since any obstacles to purchase or browsing could potentially cause the loss of the customer. An elaborated UX means having a customer-centric mindset when building the website. It should be straight forward and easy to navigate. As user needs constantly change so does the UX, therefore retailers need to modify to stay relevant. Retailers also need to consider everything from imagery and product descriptions to loading time and more as well as the wider context of user experience with regards to payments, delivery and integration with its offline stores business.
Understanding how your customers are using your online store
Data transparency and data-driven insights can create the greatest value for your business
As a retailer, you need to understand how customers are using your online store to optimize the experience you provide. Whether it’s a branding tool, research resource or just somewhere to get social you need to have clarity of your customer’s desires and react to them quickly to provide a seamless, friction-free connected journey. And that means having the right data to understand them and their wants and needs. Get that right and you are building a customer experience and community that will keep your customers coming back for more.
Understanding the technologies that will help drive your online business and integrating it into the wider omnichannel experience is critical. Technologies such as AI and Machine Learning should be on the radar even if wallets might not stretch to investment just yet. Voice shopping, live shopping and augmented reality also need to be considered as part of your wider online strategy.
A data-driven strategy will create the greatest value for your business so a clear view of data and your business through efficient CRM and ERP capabilities is crucial. And working across the business is also important. That means cooperation and coordination of cross-function teams to avoid your data, and your learnings, sitting within silos rather than informing the whole of the business.
Your eCommerce offer must be first-class to compete, even if your physical presence is still the strongest part of your business. Using your data to adapt to real-time trends is important, whether it’s developing inventory plans based on such trends or adapting product assortment.
Online is much more than just another store and business needs to be making the most of its wider opportunity.
