Here’s Why You Should Invest In Your eCommerce CX
Whether it’s a frictionless returns process or a premium on-site experience, brands that succeed put an emphasis on championing great CX in every area of their business. Here’s exactly why you should do the same.
What is eCommerce CX?
eCommerce CX encompasses every aspect of each interaction a customer has with your brand. Whether that’s viewing a social media post, attending a brand event or picking a delivery option.
CX optimisation focuses on creating the best possible experience for customers at every stage. It involves gathering a deep understanding of your customers and how they interact with your brand, then using this to fine tune your eCommerce store to their needs.
There are many reasons why eCommerce brands chose to make CX a cornerstone of their strategy, but here are a few key ones;
Your Experience IS Your Brand
In many ways, the experience you give your customers is your brand. It certainly makes up a large part of how visitors and customers see your store’s brand image.
A really positive and memorable experience can go a long way to giving potential customers the confidence to purchase, as well as the motivation to shop with you again in future.
Conversely, a bad interaction can very quickly undo all of the hard work you’ve done to build trust, sew loyalty and cement a positive perception of your eCommerce brand..
Experience is a Key Differentiator
According to Klaviyo, 77% of brands are planning to maintain or increase their eCommerce spending this year. In short, if you don’t invest in an exceptional customer experience, your competitors will.
Competing primarily on price is often not the best option, or in many cases not even possible. Huge players like Amazon continue to dominate the eCommerce market, so brands hoping to compete by selling DTC need to offer a unique experience to differentiate themselves.
CX can help your brand to deliver a unique experience to customers that they can’t find elsewhere.
Align With Customer Expectations
With many customers increasingly disillusioned by rising prices and shrink-flation, shoppers increasingly want trustworthy and engaging experiences when buying online.
On top of that, the way that customers engage with your brand is more fragmented than ever with brand discovery and connection split across touchpoints including but not limited to;
Organic social media
Search engines
In-person browsing
Influencer recommendations
Traditional media
Online marketplaces
World-of-Mouth
If you’re hoping to engage customers wherever they choose to find you, some level of personalised and optimised CX is essential.
Those customer expectations are also bound to change over time, so it’s key that investing in CX also helps to make you…
Closer To Your Customers
Whether it’s through user testing, surveys, focus groups or any number of other techniques, an investment in CX is also an investment in understanding your customers’ needs and how they change over time.
I think orientating your business towards a focus on CX also brings with it a greater understanding of your customers, their pain points, considerations and their changing relationship with your brand.
The faster you can identify trends in the behaviour and expectations of your customers, the quicker you can react.
You’re Building For The Future
Finally, let's be clear that investment into CX is in many cases not a “quick win”. Of course, there may be opportunities to make more obvious improvements to your customer experience that yield short-term results, but investing in CX is primarily about building for the future.
Investing in customer experience is about aligning your brand to be customer-centric in every way possible, and that takes time, careful planning and expertise.
On the other side of that work however, is an eCommerce store ready for better customer retention, higher CLV and a growing brand reputation.
Giving customers a better overall experience can lead to them buying more, more often and generating referrals.
What Next?
While it can take time and investment, focusing on eCommerce customer experience can bring a whole host of benefits to your eCommerce business.
If you’re where to get started with improving your eCommerce CX, feel free to get in touch.
