10 Ways to Make Customers Happy with Your e-commerce Site
* This article is part of a White Paper called “How to Exponentially Scale Up Customer Experience in E- Commerce – RIGHT AWAY.”
Here are some tools and tips to help increase customer satisfaction.
1. Reduce the Number of Clicks
An Oracle 2011 survey of European consumer’s satisfaction stresses the importance of simplicity. They call doing that a “simple fix.”
Amazon led the way on this with 1-click purchase on their site and on the Kindle. Other retailers without such a large following will need to find others ways to simplify the flow.
2. Avoid Shipping Sticker Shock
The VWO survey says that 28% of shoppers abandon the cart because of the shipping cost. So shipping costs should be shown or estimated as early as possible as the customer shops.
3. Give the Customer the Discount Left in the Cart from the Last Session
When a user comes back to the site days or weeks later, having left items in their cart, offer them the same discount.
VWO says that 54% of shoppers would purchase these items if they are still offered at the earlier price.
4. Provide Tools to Contact the Seller and Display Seller Stats
Alibaba’s approach to facilitating communications between the buyer and seller goes far beyond, for example, Mercado Libre’s, simple Contact Seller.
The company has a Contact Vendor button too, but it has a better interface to facilitate the back and forth conversation. They also display detailed vendor stats prominently and what they call an assessment, which is their own appraisal.
The site shows the seller’s rating and indicates if the seller has met the rigorous verification process.
5. Allow Product Reviews
Amazon was the first with this idea, offering book reviews when they sold only books. There, readers competed with each other to get their reviews pushed to the top.
6. Give Free Shipping
Offering free shipping is only an option when it makes financial sense to do so. For example, international shipping would cost more than domestic shipping, so might not always be feasible.
But website and mobile app analytics can help to determine when a customer needs an extra push to get them to move to the checkout process. So free shipping could be offered to them as an enticement.
Rakuten is a Japanese retailer that sells clothes, electronics, and beauty and health products all over the world. While they have stores in lots of countries, they also ship to many international customers. They are currently running a promotion of free international shipping for orders over 7,000 ¥ ($100 USD).
7. Offer In-Store Pickup
If you have brick and mortar shops then you can do as Best Buy does and offer in store pickup.
Technology Review says, “It turns out many shoppers like to browse and pay online but prefer to actually pick up that TV themselves.”
8. Use Social Logins
We already said that VWO says 23% of users abandon the cart at the login screen. So they obviously balk at having to create yet another account, when they have so many logins already.
Twitter does not have billing or shipping information, but the retailer can at least let the user log in with their Twitter credentials and then ask them for billing and shipping information later.
9. Let Customer Post their Purchases to Social Media
Shoppers are more likely to buy what their friends have bought. Some shoppers share what they buy on social media.
The ecommerce site or app can do this automatically when the customer allows it. Plus the site can let the shopper share a link to the product on Facebook when the shopper is just browsing.
10. Add new Features and Versions
Customers always like something new and new ways to do it. So on the initial page, or where it is otherwise suitable, show off the new rotating 3D display, customs duties estimator, price comparison tool, or other new feature.