Despite the preference of each shopper being different, it’s hard to deny the impact that online shopping and online retail have had over the industry in recent years. Offering customers the opportunity to shop online, especially as the world continues to work through pandemic restrictions, has proven to be more safe and convenient than visiting local retailers. With all of the information available online, shoppers are able to research and compare a number of products much easier than when in physical stores. The growth of this industry also speaks for itself. In just 2019 alone, online retail purchases contributed to more than $3.5 trillion dollars spent globally, with upwards of 2 billion people shopping online for different products and services.
It’s no surprise that the company that currently rules this space is Amazon. Amazon has continuously raised the bar with regards to online shopping and the e-commerce industry over the years. At any given moment, any user can scan through over 12 million different products, some offered by Amazon, many more offered by the third-party sellers they allow on their platform. Their monthly-average user base is upwards of 200 million, so you can imagine the effect this can have on other companies in the online retail industry. In fact, Amazon is partially to blame for the high standards that many customers expect when purchasing products online. One example of this are the shipping expectations that have been established due to Amazon’s prime shipping options.
This can be disastrous for those other online retailers that lack the logistical resources that Amazon has. Struggling e-tailers should keep this expectation in mind and attempt to provide a more seamless shipping experience for their customers. If they’re unable to provide this, these e-tailers should look for other ways to keep their customers happy while waiting for their product to be delivered. One way to do this to provide up-to-date tracking information on every product purchased online. Even if a customer is going to receive a product later than they would have had they ordered it on Amazon, at the very least they’ll be able to consistently track it and know where it stands in its delivery process.
Building off the simplification of the customer’s experience, also consider how user friendly your website is. Do customers have a hard time placing orders on your website? Are they able to navigate and find the products they’re looking for quickly? These are all important factors in ensuring a prospective customer makes a purchase on their first visit to your website. For first time visitors, be sure that your website lets these users create accounts immediately, so they have a quicker way to order when they return. Creating an account also allows users to save information such as billing and shipping addresses so that it can be auto filled in future orders. This saves customers a great amount of time and trouble.
For additional information concerning how your organization can improve customer experience, be sure to review the infographic paired alongside this post.
Author bio: John Hinchey is VP of Sales for Westfalia Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of logistics solutions for plants, warehouses and distribution centers. He has more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing and warehouse automation.