Sure, you’re selling a great product at a great price. But in the world of ecommerce, that’s simply not enough to succeed as a business. Consumers today make their purchasing decisions based on which brand impresses them the most with a great customer experience.
According to a recent study, 88% of customers believe that the experience a company provides is as important as its products or services. The same study showed that 62% of customers buy from brands that they feel an emotional connection with.
So how do you create a fantastic customer experience for your ecommerce business? In a minute, we’re going to share 13 of the most powerful tips for how to attract, delight, and retain your customers.
But let’s first start with the basics.
What Is Customer Experience in Ecommerce?
The term customer experience (or CX) refers to how customers perceive their experience at every touchpoint of their buying journey, from the first time they see your Instagram ad to the checkout process, and beyond. Every moment that your customer interacts with your brand creates their customer experience.
Running a successful ecommerce business requires you to put yourself in your customer’s shoes and see your brand through their eyes. Studies have shown that emotion drives the customer experience, so consider how your customers feel when they interact with your brand.
"We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better."
Jeff Bezos
Data Source: Oracle, Customer Experience Impact Report
Why Customer Experience Matters
Providing a great customer experience isn’t just a good idea for ecommerce brands – it’s absolutely essential. Why is CX so important for your online business?
It Wins Trust
Online shoppers today are very wary of buying from brands they don’t already know about. Providing an excellent customer experience is the ultimate way to break through that barrier and win the trust of new customers.
By consistently providing value throughout the buying journey, you’ll make customers feel as though you’re there to help them. After a customer has had multiple positive interactions with you, your brand will feel familiar to them and therefore trustworthy.
"If people like you, they will listen to you, but if they trust you, they’ll do business with you."
Zig Ziglar
It Builds Loyalty
Loyalty is a bit of a buzzword in ecommerce, but there’s a reason why everyone is talking about it. A recent study found that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase a company’s profitability by up to 95%. Another study showed that about 50% of a company’s revenue comes from approximately 8% of its most loyal customers.
When you truly make a customer happy, they’ll remember your brand and will likely return for future purchases. This is good news for your ecommerce business, since repeat customers have been found to spend an average of 67% more than new customers.
"It’s easier to love a brand when the brand loves you back."
Seth Godin
It Differentiates Your Brand
If your online business is having trouble standing out from your competitors, an awesome customer experience can be what differentiates you from the crowd. When your potential customers are shopping around for options, they’ll choose the brand that makes them feel the best. In fact, 86% of buyers will pay more to get a better customer experience.
"Exceptional customer experiences are the only sustainable platform for competitive differentiation."
Kerry Bodine
Word of Mouth Is King
Word spreads fast about the customer experience. If you consistently provide a superb experience for your ecommerce customers, it won’t be long until others hear about it. According to HubSpot, consumers discuss specific brands casually 90 times per week.
Word of mouth plays a vital role in marketing your online business. That’s because 75% of people don’t trust ads, while 90% of people believe brand recommendations from friends.
13 Ways to Improve the Customer Experience in Ecommerce
Now that you’ve seen the importance of providing a great customer experience for your online business, you’re probably anxious to get started. Here are 13 proven ways to improve ecommerce CX.
1. Appeal to Your Customer’s Emotions
Making an emotional connection with your target audience is essential to drawing in new clients. In order to do this, it’s important to ask yourself:
- Who is your ideal customer?
- What problems (or pain points) do they have?
- What solution are you able to offer them?
- How will your solution change their lives?
When creating marketing content for your ecommerce business, address your audience’s pain points to make them feel understood and heard. Then frame your product or service as the ultimate solution to their problem, and help them vividly imagine how it will feel to have their problem solved.
A Real-World Example
A great example of this is Dollar Shave Club. An early viral video by the company was memorable and humorous, but it also directly addressed the key problems the company solved: traditional razor blades were too expensive. Plus, they’re something most people need to buy regularly. Dollar Shave Club positioned themselves as the solution: cheap, high-quality razor blades delivered directly to your home.
The video below went viral, attracting more than 27 million views and thousands of orders within days. But, more than that, the company itself was a great success, and was eventually acquired by Unilever for $1 billion.
2. Show Your Human Side
Consumers don’t want to buy from companies – they want to buy from people. In all of your customer interactions, strive to come across as human. Your customers will be able to relate to your brand more easily, and you’ll gain their trust.
When you’re posting on social media, for example, write in a way that reflects your brand and people behind it.
Pay particular attention to your brand’s “About Us” page. This page of your ecommerce website is seriously underestimated for its power to win the trust of customers. Tell the story of who you are, what you believe in, and what you’re dead set on doing. And always include a photo of a real person if you an (no stock photos).
A Real-World Example
A great example of this strategy in action is Bossy Cosmetics. This beauty brand’s About page puts the company’s founder, background, and values front and center. This is reflected through the company’s social media as well, which prominently features the company’s founder, staff, and family along with content about the products.
3. Share Valuable Content
At every stage of your customer’s buying process, and even after they’ve finished checking out, share content with them that’s helpful and valuable. Do this, and your customers will start to see your brand as a helpful resource to turn to for information.
Writing engaging, SEO friendly blog posts that educate people about the problem they’re having can help attract new customers to visit your website.
Offering a downloadable ebook or guide on your website will keep you in front of customers’ minds when they’re ready to make a final purchase.
After the customer’s purchase is complete, keep offering them value by sending them tips on how to get the most out of the product they bought.
A Real-World Example
For example, check out what Beardbrand, a personal care brand, does through all the stages of the sales pipeline.
- Awareness Stage: The company produces educational YouTube videos on beard care and styling, attracting viewers interested in grooming tips.
- Interest Stage: Their blog offers in-depth articles on grooming routines and product benefits, nurturing potential customers' interest.
- Decision Stage: Detailed product pages with customer reviews and usage guides assist shoppers in making informed purchases.
- Retention Stage: Beardbrand maintains engagement through email newsletters featuring grooming advice and updates on new products.
Check out how real businesses are using email marketing in Email Marketing for Dentists, Email Marketing for Lawyers, and Email Marketing for Photographers.
4. Make Your Website User-Friendly
There’s nothing that will deter an online shopper from making a purchase more than a badly-designed ecommerce website. It’s very important to design a website that looks good, functions well, and guides the customer toward making a purchasing decision.
Optimize your website for speed: a slow-loading landing page will result in potential customers leaving your site before even looking around.
Make sure that your customers can easily and quickly find what they’re searching for by streamlining navigation.
Data Source: HubSpot
Set up a chatbot to answer common questions and concerns about your product, and make sure you’ve got a simple contact form on your website for customers to reach out to you if they still need help.
The best way to nail the right design is to consider what your users want and how they will go about finding it. Set up clean design and navigation, and then test test test! Watch how users are navigating your site, watch what they are looking for in search, and set up heat mapping and other tools to understand how they are using your site. Then, continue to optimize your website based on what you learn.
A Real-World Example
Want to see a website with great navigation that puts the user experience first? Check out Pela, an ecommerce brand that makes smartphone cases. Its clean navigation makes its offerings crystal clear and ensures that visitors can quickly find what they’re looking for.
5. Personalize EVERYTHING
Today, consumers expect ecommerce brands to anticipate their individual needs and tailor offerings to align with who they are. Personalization is something you can’t have too much of when it comes to the customer experience.
This goes way beyond just using your customer’s name in the subject line of your marketing emails. By carefully segmenting your customers by their preferences and browsing history, you can show them personalized offers or recommendations that appeal to them specifically.
A Real-World Example
One of the most famous examples of personalization comes from Amazon. Before other retailers were offering personalized recommendations, Amazon rolled out a simple widget: “Customers who bought this also bought.”
But another brand known for doing it well is cosmetics retailer Sephora. Their web presence is all about personalization and ensuring that visitors find what they want. Here are some of their tactics:
- Immediately directing visitors to the right version of the website based on their location. This ensures they see products they are able to buy in their own currency.
- Remembering shoppers’ addresses to give precise information about how long it will take to receive the product.
- Showing the closest retail outlet based on the visitor's location.
- Providing detailed comparisons on each product page that show similar products and their rating, ingredients, and pricing.
6. Step up Your Social Media Efforts
Social media is the number one way that consumers like to connect with a brand. Yet there’s a good chance you’re not getting everything you can out of your brand’s social media accounts.
On most of the major social media platforms today, ecommerce businesses can sell their products to customers from within the platform, making impulse buying easier than ever before.
Facebook Messenger Chatbots can even be used to drive sales for your online business by replying instantly to direct messages from customers with answers to their frequently asked questions. These tools can even be used to directly message people who have commented on your posts with a follow-up message of your choice.
And don’t forget about the power of social media when it comes to doing your research. You can easily monitor what your competitors are doing well (and not-so-well) on social media so that you can adapt your social strategy. You can also use social media listening to see what people are saying about you!
Read: Social Media Marketing for Beginners
A Real-World Example
A great example of a company leveraging social media is Gymshark, a fitness apparel retailer. More than 7.5M Instagram followers are attracted to the brand’s feed for user-generated content, workout videos, and motivational posts. They integrate this with new product drops and other promotional content.
7. Create Compelling Product Pages
Do your product pages make your customers want to jump on buying the product, or do they make them yawn?
Put your focus on designing incredible product pages that compel the customer to take action.
- Write a product description that clearly explains why your customer can’t live without it
- Include frequently asked questions
- Use multiple high-quality photos that capture the product perfectly
- Include photos or videos of the product in action
- Make sure your CTA is clear, compelling, and easy to find on the page
- Consider how it all looks/works on mobile - up to 70% of all ecommerce purchases are made this way!
Percentage of participants who agree that these items influence their purchase decision. Data Source: FiledAgent & eMarketer
"Since your customers can't physically see or touch a product online, you need to make sure your visuals and descriptions do ALL the heavy lifting. You must have multiple high-res images, from different angles, ideally also showing people for sizing. If you have videos - amazing! Another must is detailed descriptions, don't just use standard wording you receive from manufacturers (if you don't make your own products), make sure you go the extra mile. "
Nathan Oakley, Chief Marketing Officer, RJ Living
A Real-World Example
For an example of a company that’s always pushing the boundaries on their product page, check out Nike. In fact, this company has been dominating in ecommerce over the last few years. Examine a product page, and you’ll see that a lot of thought went into it in terms of the customer journey. See how the page below shows photos, color and price up top, then makes size easy to select? After that, it’s straight to checkout - smart!
8. Simplify the Checkout Process
Abandoned carts are responsible for $18 billion in ecommerce sales revenue every year. An overly complicated checkout process is often to blame, causing shoppers to get frustrated and give up on their purchases.
You can avoid this by simplifying the checkout process for your customers. Minimize the number of steps involved in checking out, and make forms quick and easy to fill in by only asking for the information you really need.
Offering a variety of payment options is another way you can improve the customer experience during checkout. This allows the customer to pick the payment method that’s most convenient for them.
And if that customer abandons their cart anyway? You can use your ecommerce platform or email marketing software to set up an abandoned cart automation in an effort to bring them back.
Read: Email Marketing Automation Strategy: How, Why + Examples
9. Optimize for Mobile
People are shopping on their smartphones more than ever before, and mobile commerce is only expected to grow in popularity. Statista estimates that mobile retail ecommerce sales in the U.S. will reach over $710 billion in revenue by 2025.
This makes it essential for ecommerce business owners to optimize their websites to be mobile-friendly. When a potential customer visits your website on a mobile device, you want it to look beautiful and function well.
Mobile commerce is extremely convenient for consumers because they can shop from anywhere. Because of this, having a mobile-optimized ecommerce website goes a long way toward providing an excellent customer experience.
"Speed gets all the attention, but confidence is what actually drives conversions. A checkout page can load in under a second, but if customers hesitate-because they question security, return policies, or hidden fees-drop-off rates spike. In fintech, a payment delay of even two seconds can send users looking for alternatives. The same applies to ecommerce. Every trust gap in the experience creates doubt, and doubt kills sales."
Thomas Franklin, CEO, Swapped
10. Grow a Community
Building an online community around your ecommerce brand is a powerful marketing strategy that fosters a meaningful connection between you and your customers. Members of a brand’s online community tend to be highly engaged and fiercely loyal.
In today’s digital landscape, social media is where people go to find others who share the same interests and beliefs. You can do this on the social media platforms themselves, such as through a Facebook Group or Subreddit. To create a community outside of social media, you can consider software like Skool.
What interests does your ideal customer have? What does your brand stand for? Find the common ground that most of your customers share and create a space where they can connect with one another.
A Real-World Example
As a brand many people interact with every day, Starbucks provides a strong example of building an online community. The company runs lots of campaigns around user-generated content and hashtags, and boosts organic shares of the product online. The strategy brings the brand’s fans together, as though they were all drinking coffee at the same Starbucks location.
11. Provide Outstanding Support
How quickly and effectively your support team resolves issues has a gigantic impact on CX. In a study on customer service by Microsoft, a staggering 96% of consumers said they choose whether to stay loyal to brands based on the customer service they provide.
Offering proactive support in the form of FAQ pages, how-to videos, and knowledge bases, enables your customers to resolve the issue themselves without having to ask for help. When these resources don’t fix the problem, it’s important to have a great support team that’s easy to contact.
"One of the biggest mistakes businesses make is overlooking customer support. Slow response times, unclear return policies, and a lack of live chat can frustrate shoppers and lead to abandoned carts. Another common issue is failing to optimize for trust - lack of social proof, unclear shipping details, and a complicated refund process can make customers hesitant to complete a purchase."
John Mac, Senior Growth Consultant, Fluidic Agency
A Real-World Example
Eyewear company Warby Parker is known for going above and beyond for their customers. Not only do they provide comprehensive resources designed to help customers choose the right glasses for them, they even let people try them on for free! Warby’s Parker’s Try 5 for Free allows customers to order five frames for free, then send them back and buy the winning pair. The company also offers exceptional customer support by phone, chat, text, and email.
12. Be Transparent
Online shoppers want to know that the ecommerce business they’re buying from is honest and transparent, and they will avoid doing business with companies that seem to be playing games or hiding facts.
An excellent customer experience is based on trust, so make sure that your website gives clear and accurate information to customers about what they can expect when they buy from you.
Display product availability to avoid customers checking out and then being told their product is on backorder. Let your customers know what the shipping and handling fees are early on in their buying process, and be clear about when their product will arrive and how they can track their shipment.
A Real-World Example
As a global fashion retail brand, ASOS provides a strong example of an ecommerce company that gets things right. The company is crystal clear about delivery options, shipping costs, and delivery times for each and every product - often before you even put it in your cart. Once you place an order, it can easily be tracked via a tracking code, or the ASOS website.
13. Follow Up
As we mentioned earlier, the customer experience doesn’t end when your customer checks out. It’s important for your brand to retain, and even grow, its relationship with the customer after they’ve made a purchase.
Following up with your customers is a powerful way to improve their customer experience. Check in with them and ask how they’re enjoying their product, whether they need any help with it, and if they’d like to leave a review.
The follow-up email is a great opportunity to let your customers know about new products or services you’re offering or any special promotions that are happening. Including a discount code for future purchases will encourage them to become repeat customers.
"I see some businesses make some big mistakes by not paying attention to the post-purchase experience. While it's easy to focus all your energy on getting people to buy, it's only half the challenge. Keeping up with shipping updates, easy returns, and a simple way for customers to get in touch if something goes wrong can really build loyalty. If the first purchase is a pleasant experience, the chances of repeat business go up."
Paul DeMott, Chief Technology Officer, Helium SEO
A Real-World Example
For a real-world example of a company that pulls out all the stops to make customers happy after a purchase, check out Zappos. Zappos has been known to do things like:
- Provide free expedited shipping to some customers as a surprise.
- Proactively reach out about shipping delays, long before customers have the chance to complain.
- Make refunds easy and process them before the product is even received to build customer trust.
All of these things make customers feel extra special and help ensure repeat business.
Make Your Customers Smile with Every Interaction
If you want to drive sales for your online business, you should make customer satisfaction your primary focus. We feel confident that when you apply these powerful tips, your customer experience will radically improve, leaving you with a loyal, evangelizing customer base.
An important part of this is using the right ecommerce platform so you can do things in the best way possible. But how do you choose the best ecommerce platform for delivering a great customer experience?
If you haven't launched your online store yet, don't worry - that's exactly what we specialize in. Explore our top picks for best ecommerce platforms to discover the best solutions on the market, and feel free to check out our other tools to make an even more informed decision.
