How to boost customer experience in an online retail business
Online retail is quickly becoming the norm but when you never speak to a customer face-to-face, how do you ensure they come back?
There are many ways that online retail businesses can improve their customer experience in an effort to draw back customers. Here are just a few simple ways you can begin to build a great relationship with your online customers.
Enhance product search
Shoppers usually break down into three categories and understanding what these are means you can enhance your website in order for them to shop with you. Firstly, there are those who already know what they want. In this case, having a search bar will help significantly, as if they cannot find what they want and quickly, they will more than likely find somewhere else to shop. There are those who are just coming for a browse, so you should provide a way for them to search for specifics, including brand, size or color. Finally, there are the shoppers who need help in finding what they want and, in this case, having categories to browse under is ideal. Providing all of these in your product search means you can boost every customer’s experience.
Social media usage
Using social media is free and it doubles up as a great advertising tool. Not only does this provide another place for customers to connect with your business, but it is also a great place to flaunt new stock and host competitions or promote sales. If you are unsure where to start in the world of social media, follow this great guide.
Great customer service
Customers thrive on great customer service teams and if they cannot get what they want, you may lose a customer. This means being available on several social media platforms and if possible, having a live chat experience. Making a page specifically for FAQs is also a great way for customers to get the answers they want without having to leave the website.
Oracle retail cloud can help your online business improve the customer experience by providing useful data from customer engagement to basket insights. These can all aid in providing a solid merchandising foundation.
Customer reviews
Customer reviews go a long way for an online retail business and often people are worried about buying a product that does not have any customer reviews. Customer reviews are also helpful for you as a business too, as you can see what products are selling best and what the good and bad points about a particular product are. Offering an incentive such as 20% off their next order for reviewing a product is a great way to get customer feedback and engage with customers.
There are many other ways that you can boost the customer experience in your online retail business including personalizing your emails and providing a website that works efficiently. Using platforms such as Oracle retail cloud aids you in looking at the bigger picture to make more informed decisions and help you shift your business from product centric to customer centric.
