As a nation, we love to shop. In the world of online shopping, it’s time we spoke about how to maximise your businesses presence fully. How to capture more of those potential sales, and how to propel your online shopping experience above all of your competitors.
What’s missing?
The vastly expensive chandeliers, the smell and taste of an opulent shopping experience, and brilliant customer service. Can having an online presence make up for all of these things? Well, technically not, but what you can do is something different and unique. If done well, it could be equally rewarding.
In this blog, we have segmented the online shopping experience into three sections:
Your home, bricks and mortar, which is, of course, your website.
Your billboards, flyers, digital adverts and marketing.
The arrival, the product and the packaging.
If your business can smash all three of these sections out of the park, you will have created the perfect online shopping experience.
Bricks and Mortar ️
You can’t have the fancy fixtures and fittings, but what you can have is an amazing website. Businesses tend to overlook the importance of their website until they realise the potential that a good one has. As web design specialists, we hate to see our clients narrowly missing out on significant sales, so here’s what you should keep in mind.
Honesty
Be honest with every word. Don’t exaggerate the quality of a product just because the customer can’t hold it. Tell your story and tell it in a way that will resonate with those you are saying it to, customers are like lie detectors. So don’t do it!
Cleanliness
When it comes to a website, there are few more significant mistakes you can make than being messy. You wouldn’t leave your stock all over the floor, so make sure you don’t do the online equivalent. Your products should be displayed cleanly, and the website itself should be easy to navigate.
Memorability
How well your website is remembered is key to potential sales. These sales may not be quantifiable as a lot of the time it may be word of mouth that drives your leads. “Oh, I got this t-shirt from ****.” Is what you want people to say, and this works in any sector, from clothing to plumbing accessories and everything in between. Although we may not buy a t-shirt from a plumbing accessories shop…each to their own.
Putting yourself in the eye of the customer
Marketing is essential in any business, and we understand most of you already know that. When it comes to the online shopping experience, it’s your marketing which will push your forwards and in turn, edge you closer to making the sale itself. So here are our top tips to improve the experiences you customers have.
It’s only for you
Personalised marketing is very much the here-and-now. We seem to be talking about it all the time, and we can’t stress how important it is. When it comes to user experience, if someone feels special, they are more likely to not only buy from you but also remember you. Personalised marketing can be implemented in several different ways, from the email shot, which offers discounts for repeat customers, to targeted ads which provide recommendations.
Catch the eye
Your marketing needs to be on brand and on point! If you catch the eye of your potential customer, they are far more likely to remember you. Think about keeping your marketing fresh by following current trends in terms of colours and layouts. This will also drastically increase your customers’ experience when shopping with you.
Upon arrival
The experience of the customer isn’t complete until they receive their product. In the period after the transaction, the excitement builds, much like the moment of purchase when shopping in a city centre. This is the most pivotal part of the journey when it comes to the online shopping experience.
Packaging
Often overlooked, but it really shouldn’t be! Packaging is very much a part of the online shopping experience. When your customer finally receives the product they have been waiting for, a tatty looking box that’s almost certainly been dropped by a reliable courier en route, might not be what they had in mind. They want their products to turn up safely, and they want that moment of receiving them to feel special. If your packaging is a little bit special, your customer will remember the positive feeling of receiving an item from you.
Product likeness
If you’ve been honest in your write-ups, then the product likeness should be spot-on when your customer opens it up. There’s nothing worse than a consumer than having to return the item they waited so long for. So make sure your business avoids this where possible. It’s not just the words you select but also the photos you use, that can lead to sales, so make them accurate and show off your products!
E-commerce is a simple sector to get right but an incredibly difficult one to perfect. Following the suggestions above should give you a good starting point. However, learning your demographic and developing your brand is down to you and your marketing team. As a creative agency based in Manchester, we are more than happy to help you along the way, and if you have any challenges you think are too large, you know where we are!
For more information to help your online shop and company in general, take a look at some more of our blogs for helpful tips, tricks and advice:
