With the growth of the demand for e-commerce, retailers still compete. The best way to distinguish yourself from the crowd is to strengthen consumer commitment on all your channels.
If you run a new E-commerce company or an existing company, it is important to employ the best practices of e-commerce customer engagement. Many e-commerce companies do not make the most of their profits simply because they do not include customers as they ought.
The e-commerce customer is a moving target. I mean that in more than one way:
- Online behaviors and buying preferences evolve constantly.
- Customers jump around relentlessly from apps to messaging platforms, to social sites and websites.
- They’re mobile.
What Is Customer Engagement?
It has many names and various versions. It is known. Some people prefer to call it dialog marketing, and others like it. But it’s all about customer commitment since a committed customer is a happy customer. And a successful client builds loyalty and converts.
Engagement is a phrase I have used in foreign policy on several occasions. So is your client like an extraterrestrial nation?
Customer participation is an activity or activity which makes the customer interact with a brand.
To emphasize the most important part of customer commitment, I have deliberately defined a narrow concept above.
Why Customer Engagement Is Essential to Ecommerce
No wonder people want publicity. It’s not surprising. Nobody wants to feel like a number otherwise.
We are going to spend our money on what we want, but the majority of us are going to pay more when we have better service.
Nor is this a small difference. You don’t know it at the cost of your company.
If it means better customer service, 86% of customers would spend more. By 2021, consumer know-how should be greater than price and even the goods themselves.
So you wish to invest in your customers if you want improved retention and more conversion.
E-commerce was previously considered yet another option to make things more comfortable. Now, however, the universe was overwhelmed and an utter necessity. Why does e-commerce need to increase consumer participation? Research shows exponential annual growth in e-commerce and growth anticipated in revenue between businesses and clients of more than 50% in the next 5 years.
So how do you drive more customer engagement on your e-commerce website? Here’s what you need to do:
DEVELOP YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION
The eternal question for our customers is “What’s there for me?”
Show your clients what makes their goods and/or services better than the competition to stay ahead. To do this, a value proposition is quite important.
Three main components are a good value proposition:
1. THE OFFER
What products or services does your business offer?
2. THE BENEFITS
How do your consumers profit from these goods or services? Do your goods or services solve and change the condition of your customers?
Your business’ importance to your customers is directly linked to how well your value proposition addresses these questions.
3. PROOF
To justify your statements, your value proposal needs to also be supported by proof. It needs to clearly articulate what is different and better for your company than the rest of the market.
As a good example, Evernote’s value proposal is often cited.
It’s straightforward and brief. No needless jargon, even for the most non-tech consumer, can be readily understood. The three elements of a good value proposition are also contained.
STRENGTHEN YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY
In addition to learning how to build a website or blog that offers comprehensive product/service descriptions, you can also pursue ingenious and shared contents that provide true value to your readers. your brand is worth the effort.
Mr. Porter, for example, is one of Britain’s leading e-commerce menswear companies.
Besides, your website has built up a considerable list due to its excellent Journal, which captures content and drives huge quantities of traffic to your website. They use these to guide their audiences to different products for sale by listing some of the products included in their journal.
Make sure to personalize your content based on your particular product or service.
POST AND PROMOTE PRODUCT VIDEOS
A shop-owner for an online store posts tutorial videos of jewelry, which are fun to watch and also introduces the readers to a variety of pieces from their shops for sale.
This is a strong example of the profitable use of product images.
After watching an instructional video of how it first is used, consumers are more likely to purchase something.
BE COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT USER EXPERIENCE
Customer satisfaction is another matter to use to ensure that your e-commerce website has high levels of customer involvement. This means, primarily, that your website should not only look attractive but also concentrate on the following checkpoints:
• Clear site navigation
• Enhanced search
• Easy checkout options
• Various and/or flexible payment methods
• Convenient returns policy
Furthermore, shipping costs are an important factor. This and how quickly the distribution can be carried out must be clearly expressed on your website.
Free shipping (80%) and quick shipping (54%), as per Walker Sands ‘The Future of Retail 2020, remain the key motivations for customers to make additional online purchases.
Recent surveys also show that almost 90% of consumers are ready to wait a little longer for free shipment to be assured.
MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
From now on, three truths are undeniable. First, people are more likely to browse online using mobile telephones in place of computers nowadays. Second, if it is not mobile-friendly, people are more likely to abandon a website. Finally, over half of mobile users leave a site that takes more than 3 seconds to load.
Then what’s a decent website for mobile?
To ensure that your e-commerce website is designed for mobile users use this checklist from Google Developer Pete LePage:
BASIC MOBILE OPTIMIZATION
• Responsive design
• Page speed
• Hosting speed
HOME PAGE AND SITE NAVIGATION
• Keep calls to action front and center
• Keep menus short and sweet
• Make it easy to get back to the home page
• Don’t let promotions steal the show
SITE SEARCH
• Make site search visible
• Ensure site search results are relevant
• Implement filters to improve site search usability
• Guide users to better search results
COMMERCE AND CONVERSIONS
• Let users explore before they commit
• Let users purchase as a guest
• Use existing information to maximize convenience
• Use click-to-call buttons for complex tasks
• Make it easy to finish converting on another device
FORM ENTRY
• Streamline form entry
• Choose the simplest method for each task
• Provide a visual calendar for selecting dates
• Minimize form errors with labeling and real-time validation
• Design efficient forms
USABILITY AND FORM FACTOR
• Optimize your ENTIRE site for mobile
• Don’t make users pinch to zoom
• Make product images expandable
• Tell users which screen orientation works best
• Keep your user in a single browser window
• Avoid “full site” labeling
• Be clear on why you need a user’s location
LIVE CHAT SUPPORT
The lack of a personal connection between the consumer and someone who can address their questions and concerns in real-time is a problem that emerged with the e-commerce boom.
This advantage over online businesses was used by Brick and Mortar stores.
Not anymore.
The already large gap between e-commerce and online customers has become increasingly popular for live chat applications and widgets.
Kissmetrics lists these 5 points on how live chat improves your business.
- First of all, live chat is convenient for customers.
It also takes a lot less than waiting for an officer to help you to be linked to chat support. In addition to almost immediate assistance, the customer is often able to do several tasks while waiting.
- Second, live chat effectively cuts down expenses.
This applies in particular to both telephone costs and the works the time of employees.
Chat interaction costs are far lower than the cost of telephone communication for calling centers. In comparison, unlike telephone conversation, live chat members can handle many chats simultaneously, thereby reducing the need to recruit more representatives.
- Third, live chat increases sales.
Customers are generally looking for help because they are not sure about a certain product or service and have concerns to decide whether they are going to buy or not.
The support for live chats on your website resolves this problem and results in improved revenue for you.
- Fourth, live chat gives you an edge over your competition.
Surprisingly, many online shopping companies still don’t offer live talk. It’s an added advantage over your contestants to have it on your pages.
- Fifth and most importantly, live chat gives you direct insight into how your customers feel.
Pain points are consumer frustrations, complaints, or needs that a company wants to fix. Marketing teams for these pressure points are my forums, boards with messages, and social media. However, no quicker way can be measured than by speaking directly to customers.
With live chat, the members will relieve these pressure points directly by supplying consumers with the assistance or details they need. They will also find ways to boost the goods and services of your business when they speak to your customers.
Consumers also contact help to ensure a product works as promised or announced. They normally want to see if they can take some promotion to get the discount.
Make sure your live chat support team is ready and you will be happy to take care of these issues.
WHAT YOU NEED TO DO
- Make sure your chat support team is well educated and does not sound robotics, it instead interacts warmly with your customers. They must be prepared to provide support even within chats during the first 5 seconds of customer interaction.
- Use analytical methods to assess whether any of your customers visit your website and choose the times of their chat help to optimize their maximum potential.
- Instruct your chat members to invite them to love or leave feedback on your website or social media pages (nicely).
- Provide useful chat features, such as pop-up chat windows, that allow you to resize the text while chatting, and request an interaction transcript.
USE SOCIAL MEDIA AS LEVERAGE
Social Media is one of the most effective resources that can increase the ability to involve consumers and influence purchasing decisions when they are used correctly.
Here are the 7 best things that you can do to improve your e-commerce platform using social media:
1. OPTIMIZE YOUR POSTS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA SEARCHES
Using high-conversion keywords in your posts can improve search exposure and help you attract a broader audience than your current followers.
Find keywords and hashtags popular for search and search for those specifically relevant to your company or your goods and services.
Then integrate them creatively into your posts and use graphics that grab the attention of even busy readers who are scanned.
2. SHARE THE RIGHT CONTENT
Avoid direct sales pitches on your posts as they have been tested and proven to turn away potential customers.
What you need to do instead is to provide useful, informative, and share-worthy content that is geared toward your target audience. Provide helpful tips. Tell stories. Share news.
You should be on your social media page and continue to provide your readers with an updated, social and interactive experience.
Know the right balance between promotional posts for your company and posts which provide your clients with educational, informative, and entertaining value.
3. USE YOUR REVIEWS
By sharing their opinion of your goods and services, use your happy customers as an advantage.
Survey findings show that 84% of people have confidence in online assessments as much as in a personal recommendation. And 90 percent of you can read less than 10 reviews before you make your business an opinion.
In this case, raise and exchange positive feedback to hit 90%. Help them to achieve a good picture of your company, goods, and services even before they start a business with you.
4. ADD SOCIAL SHARING BUTTONS
This is also extremely important and very simple to do. Social Warfare, Sumo Share, MashShare, and Monarch are only some examples of social plugins.
There are also other possibilities. Find out what features of them are ideally suited to your company and content.
5. USE VISUAL CONTENT
Shared photos and videos are just some of the visual material you want to use.
It is useful to share visual content on your blog or website. On the other hand, you can create new ones, such as how-to and infographics, and display your items discreetly at the same time.
Then create links into your subtitle to get your readers back to your website for e-commerce.
6. INTERACT WITH FOLLOWERS
As much as possible, make it a point to directly connect with your readers daily. Monitor your posts. Ask questions. Thank people for sharing your content. Reply to comments and messages.
Showing that as a reader you are interested and appreciate your opinion as customers gain trust and shorten the sales cycle.
Create surveys, join communities, engage with field influencers, and communicate with them. You can also host live chats to answer your follower’s and clients’ questions in real-time.
7. BE CONSISTENT
Never let your social media account stagnate on any of your e-commerce websites. Please post regularly. To improve customer involvement and drive more traffic to your eCommerce site and your business, this is essential.
Plan your posts using Buffer, HootSuite, or Around.io automation software. This gives you plenty of time and enables you to concentrate on other aspects of your company.
CONCLUSION
As trends evolve, you will be able to use more and more tips to get your e-commerce website more traffic and to boost your sales. The points we posed in this article, therefore, constitute a good starting point.
Best blog ever written. Thanks for sharing this useful blog.