Is Your Ecommerce Strategy Keeping You Awake at Night?

It’s a dark and stormy night. A shopper is searching for a periwinkle sweatshirt and they see “0 Search Results.” Without a second thought, they leave your brand’s website and check out a competitor. Yikes.

Maybe it’s because they misspelled the product, or maybe you don’t have recommendations appearing in place of the zero results found. Maybe your entire search experience was just scary. Either way, this is an online retailer’s worst nightmare.

Brands that are always thinking about their customer journey are often up late running through these worst case scenarios. Customers obviously want their shopping experience to be as frictionless as possible, so what happens if that’s not what they experience at your brand’s website? They take their wallets elsewhere.

Have no fear, rest is here. The following are three ecommerce best practices that promote a seamless and memorable ecommerce experience that will have your customers coming back every time, and always finding something relevant to their search.

Make the Most of Recommendations

According to a survey conducted by Lucidworks within the last year, 85% of shoppers always or often view the recommended products. In fact, 62% of shoppers actually buy recommended products that they had no intention of purchasing when they came on your website. But it’s unlikely that products aren’t the only content on your site! Expanding recommendations beyond products to meet your shoppers’ needs is essential. Shoppers want the experience of a website knowing who they are and what they like.

Almost three-quarters of shoppers do product research on social media, blogs, articles, and product reviews every time or often before making a purchase. If your recommendation strategy is product-only, you could be losing shoppers to other websites during their research phase. Promote relevant content, product reviews, and blog posts to engage shoppers, in addition to making every recommendation count.

Get Personalized

When you go shopping in a store and you’re looking for a specific product, an employee is there to help you find it or to find something similar. In order to recreate this feeling in an ecommerce environment, it is critical that you learn your shoppers’ behavior. Invest in technology that can connect every interaction a customer has with a brand to create delightful experiences in the moment.

A personalization engine is a key factor when it comes to making those real-time recommendations. The engine will track what a group of users like and dislike so that it can make recommendations for someone with similar interests. It creates the best predictions so that your customers can find more products they might like. You are going to need lots and lots of data, which will also help increase your customer loyalty.

Prioritize Loyalty

Imagine a friend who never remembered anything about your last conversation with them, or what was important to you. Probably not staying friends for long, right? Brands should be applying that logic to their digital experiences. Each of the above elements stack up to what a brand needs most: customer loyalty. When customers feel like they are being given personalized recommendations that reflect their interests and understand their intent, they are more likely to remain loyal to that brand. Former Lucidworks program manager Garrett Schwegler explains, “Each customer interaction is an opportunity to better understand your shopper’s intent. Let insights flow between every part of the customer journey to improve the total experience from product development, to recommendations, to customer service.”

Interested in learning how we can help you optimize and personalize your customer’s online experience? Contact us today for a demo and start resting easy!