If you’re reading this, I’m guessing you have an online store. Or you are thinking of opening one. And you’re curious about customer journeys, am I right? What does having the perfect customer journey in ecommerce look like? Essentially it’s about making it easy from start to finish that a customer can make a purchase decision quickly and easily. But it also takes into account customer satisfaction and can encourage loyalty. How? Keep reading to find out.
Understanding your audience
You know who your customers are, don’t you? Or do you think you do, but aren’t so sure? Understanding ecommerce customers is important. I’m not talking about creating an avatar here, but understanding who they are, what their paint points are, and why they’re likely to buy from you is really important. You can get to know the answers to these questions by talking with your customers (yes, they’re real human beings who like to chat), or through customer surveys, or data through sources such as Google Analytics. I go into this in more depth in this blog, so take a read to discover how you can understand your customers.
Attracting people to your online store
Before customers can shop your website, they need to discover it. If people aren’t yet landing on your website then you could consider ecommerce SEO strategies, such as using keywords on your website and backlinks from other websites. Social media for ecommerce is also key – allowing people to discover what you’re all about. And then there’s content marketing – making sure you’re creating compelling content, such as blogs and videos, which are going to resonate with your audience.
Would you like to know how visible your marketing is? Take this free quiz to find out and get some insights for improvement.
Engaging customers and keeping them interested
To hook your customers in when they visit your website, you need to design an engaging and easy to navigate website. And it doesn’t have to be fancy in design. In fact think about some of the most successful ecommerce brands. Let’s take Amazon, for example. The website isn’t beautifully designed. It’s functional. It’s easy to navigate and explore and most importantly, it’s very easy to shop!
To improve ecommerce website navigation, don’t use words that people aren’t likely to be looking for. Keep it simple. And if your website allows it, enable a filter search function. This helps people search by colour, product category and more.
Effective product descriptions are also key here. Give the customer as much information as possible, so that they’re not left with questions that might stop them from making a purchase.
Images and videos have become more and more important when it comes to creating the perfect customer journey in ecommerce. Why? Because customers want to consume information visually. They want to scroll through pictures, be able to zoom in and out, and also see dimensions on images. They don’t want to have to read through loads of text to find key information.
Turn browsers into buyers
Once a customer has decided to purchase, how easy is it for them to buy? By simplifying ecommerce checkout processes, a customer can click and buy with ease. Using secure payment options such as Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal means that the customer doesn’t have to go searching for a card in order to pay.
Don’t forget ecommerce trust signals such as SSL certificates too.
Oh and a word about returns policies. Don’t forget to make sure they are clearly displayed on the website, preferably on the individual product pages and a link to them at checkout. This saves customers from being disgruntled after purchase, as the information is clearly displayed.
Encourage repeat business
Once a customer has purchased, is that it? End of relationship? I don’t think so! This is an ideal opportunity to promote repeat business. Make sure you set up post-purchase communication like thank you emails, ask for feedback reviews, and send regular updates. You can also offer loyalty programmes and special offers as customer retention strategies in ecommerce.
Create advocacy
What’s better than having a happy customer (apart from lots of happy customers)? It’s having a happy customer that tells others how amazing your brand and products are! Turning customers into brand ambassadors is one of the best ways to encourage others to purchase. People read reviews and take into account what others have said, so make sure you manage online reviews and use social proof.
Creating the perfect customer journey in ecommerce
To make sure your customer journey in ecommerce is as seamless as possible follow these steps:
- Identify and really understand your customer
- Have an SEO strategy to get people onto your website
- Use product descriptions, images and video to keep people interested
- Simplify your checkout process
- Encourage customer loyalty post-purchase
- And create brand ambassadors.
If you’d like to take steps to improve your customer journey today, but don’t have the capacity for the above steps, then get in touch to find out how I can help you with these and other marketing strategies.
