Is Your Ecommerce Customer Experience A Dream Or A Nightmare?

March 28, 2021

The main reason that people shop online is that they like the experience. There’s no hassle and they can browse products, find what they want, and order it in a matter of minutes. A couple of days later, it’s delivered straight to the door and they never have to lift a finger. Efficiency and ease are at the heart of the ecommerce customer experience and that experience is the most important thing that you need to get right if your business is going to take off. 

Unfortunately, some new businesses lose sight of this and they don’t realize that their ecommerce customer experience is a complete nightmare, and that’s why sales are plummeting. When you’re trying to work out whether your ecommerce customer experience is a dream or a nightmare, these are some of the things you should look out for. 

Is Your Website Annoying To Use?

It’s easy to get off on the wrong foot straight away with a terrible website. When people come onto your site, they’re not looking to casually browse for half an hour, they’re looking to find what they want in seconds. So, you need a good menu system, a simple layout, and a good search function. The harder you make people work, the more likely you are to lose the sale because you’re not giving them the experience that they want. You also need to make sure that your website is optimised for phones and tablets because the user experience will be completely ruined if it isn’t. 

Are Products Getting There Quickly And In One Piece?

It’s no surprise that fast delivery is a central part of the experience, but it’s not just about speed. You also need to make sure people get the right products and they don’t arrive broken. Usually, problems in this area arise when people try to save money by going with a cheap, inexperienced courier. However, it’s possible to make significant savings on UPS shipping quotes if you shop around online, so you don’t have to make sacrifices where quality is concerned. If you don’t work with a reliable shipping company, your ecommerce customer experience will almost certainly be a nightmare. Make sure to invest in good quality packaging too, so you can reduce breakages along the way. 

Is Your Returns Policy Fair?

Nobody wants a customer to return a product they’ve bought from you, but don’t make the mistake of thinking that a complicated returns policy will stop that from happening. In fact, it will make people more determined to go through with the return because they won’t want you to have their money. Once the process is done with, you can be sure that they won’t be coming back because the whole experience with your business was awful. But if you make the returns experience quick and easy, you leave them with a good impression and they are way more likely to come back. 

The customer experience is the most important factor determining success in the ecommerce industry. Is yours a dream or a nightmare?

Mark Asquith

That British podcast guy, Mark is co-founder of Captivate.fm, the world's only growth-oriented podcast host. A Harvard, TEDx, Podcast Movement and Podfest speaker (amongst many more!), he's a wildly approachable Brit and Star Wars/DC Comics geek.

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