A major shift can be seen in the field of retail through the past few years– more and more people are choosing the convenience of online shopping over the experience of in-house retail. A number of trends have influenced this shift, including things like personalisation options, AI support, extension into mobile apps, experiential shopping, and more. With the increasing popularity of online shopping, brands have to set themselves apart to attract new consumers such as innovative buy vending machines and catchy marketing strategies as well as retain their loyal customer base. Here are 3 ways e-retailers can improve their online shopping experience:
- Website design and functionality
When it comes to online shopping, first impressions matter. The presence of an overabundance of competitions across markets at the consumer’s disposal means that no one has the time or need to look through an unappealing, terribly designed website. Investing in E-Commerce development by figuring out exactly how the vision of the brand can be represented on the website, in terms of logo, colour scheme, font, picture placement, can significantly boost customer traffic to the site. Websites need to have a fine balance of visuals and informative content to appeal to the target audience.
- Consider moving into mobile
People spend more time on their smartphones than on their computers or laptops; therefore it becomes essential for every brand to tailor marketing efforts in order to make them more mobile-friendly. Thus mobile marketing, in terms of mobile apps, is an effective strategy that will increase conversion rates for e-retailers significantly. Not just on apps, but brands should also try to improve responsiveness on the mobile versions of their sites, being especially mindful of how content and layouts transfer onto smaller screens.
- Bring down cart abandonment
On online shopping sites, the most number of sales are lost due to shopping cart abandonment. According to a study by Statistica, in the second half of 2017 alone, the rate of abandonment for online fashion sites was 67.6%, and the average rate for all industries was 69.23%. To deal with such losses, brands can implement several sales recovery techniques to deal with the various reasons why people abandon their carts. Making sure that there are no issues in the payment process is an essential step as this may frustrate customers. Another strategy is to send personalised mails to customers who leave their carts without making a purchase to get their attention and remind them of their pending purchase.
More often than not, bad experiences while in-store shopping leads customers to opt for online retail where the possible errors of human interaction is replaced with the ease and effectiveness of technology. While it cannot be said that traditional retail has been totally taken over by e-retail, the trend so far has been towards a greater preference for shopping online than in stores, especially in the case of men. With more and more revolutionary changes taking place in online retail, in-store shopping may just become a thing of the past sooner than anyone can predict.