As a business, if you’re doing well, it’s because of the loyalty and support of your customers. Unless you’ve started a business for yourself, customers are the sole reason any business exists. For this reason alone, all your business activities should lead back to the ultimate goal of making them happy.
A method to consider in line with this objective is improving their experiences when shopping online. An increasing number of people prefer shopping online these days because of how fast and convenient it can be. Here are a few ways that you can improve your customer’s online shopping experience.
Optimise Site Speed
When online shopping, one of the worst things that can happen is for your site to load slowly. It can be extremely frustrating, and, in many cases, result in the user leaving the site and going to a site that loads a lot faster. To prevent this from being the case-scenario for your business, optimise your site speed so that it loads as quickly as possible or within two seconds at least. Remember that online users have short attention spans, so you’ve got to keep it while you have it. You can start by optimising all your images for the web so that they aren’t too heavy and looking for broken links.
Make Checking Out Easy
If you want to improve your customer’s online experience, you should make sure checking out is as simple as possible. If not, the cart abandonment rate for your site is likely to be on the rise.
Make sure that by the time users get to the point of sale they don’t have major challenges and you’re able to sell anywhere that your customers are. This means being able to accept payments on any device, whether it be mobile or desktop.
Also, make the option of checking out as a guest is available, as some people are in a hurry and don’t want to fill out any sign-up forms.
Make Help Easily Accessible
Unlike in a physical store, when customers are stuck, they can’t easily walk up to a sales rep. For this reason, making customer support easily accessible can help enhance their experience. Chatbots are becoming an increasingly popular tool to help answer customer questions and quickly resolve challenges. Make sure that you have a quick response time if you opt for email so that your customers know you care about them and their needs.
Ensure They Feel Safe
For those who aren’t used to online shopping, one of the biggest turn-offs can be the lack of security online. Identity theft and fraud are very much existent, so some people are apprehensive about sharing sensitive information online. To help ease this fear, look for ways to make your site more secure. One method to apply is getting an SSL, which you usually pay for annually.
Also, including recognised brand logos of organisations you’ve partnered with, product reviews, and familiar payment logos on your site could help build trust too.
Your ultimate goal as a business should be to deliver a consistent experience for your customers. They should know what to expect from your brand as well as know that even when you fall short, they will be adequately compensated. In doing so, you’re more likely to build a brand that will be around longer than its competitors will.