Customer Experience in E-Commerce: Everything You Need to Know!
Wiebke Wefer & Dr. Oliver Bohl4/12/2023
In this article, you will learn how to successfully build a positive customer experience for your e-commerce and why it is so important.
Table of contents
- What is Customer Experience (CX) in E-Commerce?
- Why is Customer Experience important in online shopping?
- How and with what best practices can you improve the customer experience for your e-commerce?
- What trends are there in the field of CX in e-commerce?
- It is evident that in terms of CX, these are not the only criteria that matter to users, when we take a look at other shops:
- E-commerce platforms and shop systems software & tools
- Fazit
You probably know this: if you're shopping or booking something not through Amazon, Airbnb, Zalando or Real, you often only remember the name of a specific online shop if the entire shopping experience was consistently positive. In order for customers to perceive their shopping as an experience, shop operators need to continuously improve their strategies and keep them up to date.
Whether it's in relation to campaigns, in the online shop, customer service, or dealing with reviews, people today expect a completely pleasant digital information and purchasing process that fits them individually when shopping.
This process towards optimized Customer Experience (CX) is a constant learning process where companies, traders, or shop operators must consistently work on customer perception and satisfaction throughout the entire Customer Journey. Success only comes if this is guaranteed. But how do you create positive customer experiences in e-commerce?
What is Customer Experience (CX) in E-Commerce?
In e-commerce, all interactions that customers have with traders or a brand, including the services, products and services offered, affect the CX. CX is consequently something customers perceive through their interactions with e-commerce traders.
It's important to bear in mind that customers' experiences in e-commerce go beyond the processes in the online shop. And it's not always just about the cheapest price, the largest possible selection, or the fastest possible delivery.
Perception begins with inspiration or the search for products or services, then continues through the actual purchase, payment, processing, and delivery to your doorstep, and also includes return possibilities or communication with customer service during setup, maintenance, or problems. Each of these aspects can contribute to improving or worsening the Customer Experience.
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Why is Customer Experience important in online shopping?
Customer Experience is today considered a crucial factor for companies' success in e-commerce. This is mainly because there are more and more shops (in Germany alone there are more than 800,000 according to the online service BuiltWith) and the channels, touchpoints and opportunities for individual traders are becoming more diverse, making it more difficult to compete in the market.
However, understanding and using the diverse possibilities is essential – because the customer experience begins before a shop or a marketplace is visited. Whether in e-commerce or when streaming music, movies or series – based on the model „If you bought or viewed this, you'll probably also like that“ data analyses illustrate the relevance of a product offered to specific customers. Predictive analysis can thus be used to predict customers’ desires, fulfil them personalized and use the insights obtained in a targeted way for campaigns in various locations.
Once a user arrives at a brand's online shop or marketplace, an intuitively designed user interface and a powerful search function help to show relevant products faster. It's important to know individual users or at least the target group based on user data generated buyer personas, to meet their behavior and expectations. This can improve user satisfaction and simultaneously increase the turnover for the company.
A positive customer experience at checkout is also necessary in terms of CX. This includes providing common payment options and proactively offering support in case a problem occurs. Some companies also offer incentives to motivate more people to buy. This can be in the form of vouchers or special offers. It is important to ensure that the offers are relevant and attractive, that they fit the brand identity and that companies and brands are able to maintain these offers in the long term.
In many respects, delivery speed or reliable, transparent delivery capabilities are also critical. These 'last mile' factors influence how the customer perceives the company. Indeed, in some industries it’s more useful to inform customers that their package will arrive after five days, as long as the company sticks to this timing. At the same time, customers expect to be able to see at all times where an order is currently located.
Even after a product has reached customers, priority must be given to customer service. You learn a lot about your target group: are they satisfied? How do they feel about the product? Customer service is especially important in cases of returns problems, complaints or difficulties with the product. In this case, shopkeepers should react quickly and try to meet the customers with appropriate assistance. For example, by offering your customers a small goodie. This way, it's possible to best avoid negative feedback in product reviews.
Whether it's a large B2C retailer or a smaller B2B retailer: ultimately, the CX determines whether customers return and make further transactions.
How and with what best practices can you improve the customer experience for your e-commerce?
A positive Customer Experience requires that shop operators build on the needs of their target group and make their communication – no matter what channel – clear and relevant. With a solid understanding of customers' desires and behaviors, and appropriate strategies for obtaining and utilizing data and insights, various steps can be taken to improve the experience and the customer journey of users in the online shop.
Here’s an example of what a best-practice Customer Journey might look like:
An enthusiastic cyclist is searching online for a new gravel bike. A trustworthy brand, a good website with large product images, videos and all important data are standard. Classic conversion-rate-optimization strategies are helpful: „X people have also viewed / bought this product“, „These are our top sellers“, or „Other customers recommend ...“.
For the correct frame size, an interactive size consultant is available. A chatbot provides quick and precise help with measuring the stride length. Decisions like „Should I choose the option with more expensive components or not“ can be made easier during a personal consultation in a live chat. Once the order has arrived at the customer's home in a smart packaging and can be easily 'unboxed', the next question is how to correctly assemble the bike. Thanks to a voice chat with Alexa, the happy new customer can act hands-free with audiovisual support.
Factors that influence CX
This example shows that a variety of factors influence CX. These include:
- User-friendly design across all devices: The user must always be the focus, from the first entry to the communication with the third order. Therefore, user-friendly, intuitive services that are easily accessible on all devices should be a given. This means that navigation should appear clear and be easy to understand. In addition, search filters should make it possible for customers to filter quickly and efficiently for sought-after products. Visual elements such as images and videos inspire and assist users in making decisions. As people now primarily surf with mobile devices, an online shop should be optimized for all types of devices – unless the shop already provides an app.
- Smooth, 5G optimized technical performance:
Technical problems can have negative impacts on CX, so companies should place special emphasis on stability and efficiency when setting up the online shop. For mobile shopping, 5G is now considered a standard. An online shop must likewise be fast and performant to allow real-time queries, for example. Further, the technology should be set up accordingly, along with all systems, web services, and APIs behind it. Scalable and performant, headless and composable architectures are good solution approaches in system architecture. - (Real-time) service at all interfaces:
Interacting with customers is an indispensable component for every e-commerce company. Fast response times to inquiries or complaints, FAQs, chat and voicebots as an alternative for support are among the most common measures. With live chats, customer service staff can interact directly with potential prospects and answer their questions. - Consistent omnichannel strategy:
Users today are more connected than ever before and they expect companies and traders to show presence where they are. Users want to be able to track their data – e.g. their order history or shopping cart – across all channels, entries and touchpoints, and be able to continue from there. After all, it is more likely that a seller will succeed in building loyalty and getting customers to come back if they can offer a consistent, seamless, cross-channel experience. A consistent omnichannel strategy is important for you as a trader. You also need to have the technology to support multiple channels and be able to use data across these channels. - Personalization based on previous purchases:
Previous purchases, bookmarked and viewed products: The more data available from a user, the more personalized, relevant recommendations and offers are possible. A strong focus on first data coupled with linking the generated data to CRM or customer-data platforms is indispensable for this. - More payment options:
PayPal and credit card have long been standard payment methods. However, many online shops now also offer options such as Amazon Pay, Apple Pay or „Buy now, pay later“. This provides short-term liquidity for customers, but also carries risks for the retailer. The use of these needs to be carefully balanced between customer satisfaction and in the interest of revenue. - Link to live and social commerce:
Social media integration helps companies build relationships with customers and at the same time enables them to bring products or services into discussion – for example via influencers or creators. In general: From inspiration to purchase, the path must be as short as possible. Therefore, social media components can also be used both on the social media platforms and directly on the shop website. - Immersive experiences:
Many retailers and e-commerce providers are now including three-dimensional product images, virtual fittings or augmented reality (AR) into their product pages. Using these innovations, products can be visualized clearly, such as placing products in a realistic environment and visualizing planned purchases within one’s own four walls. Moreover, immersive experiences bridge the gap between online shopping and shopping in-store. - Sustainability, products & processes:
Sustainability in e-commerce is becoming increasingly important for many people. It is not only about a more sustainable, fair product range, but also factors such as green energy for webshop hosting, energy-efficient processes, less and environmentally friendly packaging materials, climate-conscious shipping, the ability to pickup products, avoidance of returns or the offering of a repair service.
What trends are there in the field of CX in e-commerce?
In recent years, customers' expectations of the e-commerce experience have changed significantly. Instead of focusing primarily on price and product quality, customers today place more emphasis on the overall experience they have when buying a particular brand or product.
The following are trends that are important to keep an eye on in order to optimize CX:
- Personalized experiences and individualized customer dialog: Personalized recommendations, notifications and offers in the sense of customer centricity are considered a crucial factor for business success – not only in e-commerce. Dialogical competence is therefore crucial for retailers and shop operators in order to generate customer insights and then develop services and digital products using targeted analytical measures.
- Shopping in 'phygital' metaverse spaces: The commercial metaverse will in the future provide a framework for shopping-related customer experiences and determine how brands and retailers design offers and customer journeys across industries. They combine online and offline commerce, address consumers via marketing in the metaverse, and use 3D data feeds. Thus, the virtual economy of the future will be as important as the physical economy. Brands, as well as retailers, should strategically prepare for entry into the commercial metaverse by developing metaverse-based retail channels, incorporating virtual worlds and phygital spaces into their marketing mix, analyzing real-time data, and expanding their capabilities in the use of artificial intelligence approaches.
- Social Commerce: Comprehensive ecosystems – often based on social networks – captivate consumers and therefore not only allow them to communicate with each other, but also to directly transact. Whether by attracting attention via high-performance targeting methods, co-creation and/or the use of a service or product – the purchase processes and the entire Customer Journey are radically changed and include the social environment. Not only corporations like Instagram, Facebook or Pinterest benefit from this, but also retailers like Douglas & Co. And: Social Commerce goes beyond live shopping, particularly by making the purchase processes more intuitive. Data-Driven-Commerce combined with AI-supported approaches make „phygital“ shopping offline, online or in the future in the metaverse possible. Virtual Assistants and Sentiment Analysis: Chatbots, voice assistants & Co. provide automated response options to customer questions and thereby help improve the user experience. Chatbots make it possible to offer 24/7 support. For retailers and brands, it is essential to recognize whether a consumer's expressed opinion is positive or negative. Relevant communication must understand and pick up on subtle undertones in order to communicate relevantly. The good news: irony, cynicism, euphoria can now be evaluated in context through AI and can be interpreted in real time. This applies to all conversational marketing approaches – since both voice (via NLP) and transcribed information can serve as a basis.
- More accurate predictions: Users are willing to share data – if companies or retailers handle it not only with care, but also in the interest of the users. And one concern of users is to experience more relevant, suitable communication and transaction processes. For this, they let themselves be inspired by value-adding, relevant services which largely correspond to their preferences as if controlled by a ghost hand. Shop operators must therefore invest in their analytical capabilities and specifically connect creative customer language with customer insights (keyword: Smart and First Data). Target groups are no longer sufficient for this, the segment-of-one becomes the standard and can already be fully realized by powerful systems. The predictions are then not only used for customer communication, but also influence product development.
- End-2-End services and digital ecosystems: Services from the commerce sector, which used to be clearly assigned to a specific purpose, are now broadening their range of offerings. For example, taxi platforms also offer car sharing and other mobility solutions and consequently expand towards logistics services (e.g. food delivery). Around a USP, service providers thus try to cover other adjacent areas and thus supply the customers continuously in their own context. Customers are happy to use these offers, as the provider is already familiar to them and addresses their needs in a relevant way. For retailers, it is therefore a matter of defining their role in the newly emerging or already formed ecosystems. Often, the primary goal should not be to build your own ecosystems. Rather, as a provider, participant or associated service provider, the aim is to position yourself specifically in existing contexts.
- Checkout-Services: For customers, the payment process during shopping is a necessary evil, but one that must still be comfortable. Otherwise, business may be lost at the last meter. Checkout-oriented services help to make payment more enjoyable. These include easy registration thanks to familiar log-in data (Single-Sign-On (SSO), e.g., via Facebook, Apple, Google account or Paypal Express), encouraging early log-in by providing exclusive access and limited quantities of goods, „1-click purchase“ on large platforms or additional services for more convenience (e.g. theme-specific shopping lists for recurring purchases).
- D2C Sales: In addition to marketplaces, (smaller)
- D2C shops are now increasingly popular. This is due, among other things, to the fact that for many consumers overarching issues such as sustainability, local sourcing, exclusivity, fairness, social proof or ratings are becoming increasingly important. One reason is that with their own online shop, a brand image and any unique selling points can be better communicated than via a marketplace. This, in turn, strengthens customer loyalty. The best example of a successful D2C online shop is the sustainable fashion label Armedangels. The shop itself is structured in such a way that customers are provided with information about the origin, savings, and support for projects on the product detail pages. Sustainability and quality are tightly linked at Armedangels. The transparent presentation of the origin of the cotton creates an immediate basis of trust with the customers. An especially created Care Guide is there to help customers to be able to wear the clothes for a long time.D2C-Online Shop Armedangels
Examples of companies that make Customer Experience in e-commerce their focusAmazon is considered one of the pioneers in terms of Customer Experience. Amazon is considered one of the largest and most successful retailers in the world. The company's success factors are primarily based on a huge selection, a low price and fast delivery.
It is evident that in terms of CX, these are not the only criteria that matter to users, when we take a look at other shops:
Regarding inspiration and advice as well as Conversion Rate Optimization
Conversion Rate Optimization Bergfreunde.de
H&M has also made some changes. On hm.com
all of H&M’s brands are listed, including Weekday and & other stories. This allows users to be suggested various themed style boards across different brands – e.g. „Crushing on colors“ or „the modern beat“, which you can also follow on Instagram.Online Shop H&MIn terms of filter options, for example,
Zalando
and dm score high. In Zalando for example, with boots you can filter by the inner lining, the closure type, the heel or the toe shape, or the pattern.It is especially young brands, for example from the fashion and jewelry sector, who primarily target younger target groups, who increasingly focus on social trade. This includes Bruna das Label
for instance. The jewelry brand uses social connecting and primarily promotes its products on Instagram.Social Commerce Bruna das Label
Which tools and technologies can you use to improve CX in your e-commerce?The range of
E-commerce platforms and shop systems software & tools
compared to the ones that are used in the sense of the customer experience, is enormous. And often, artificial intelligence is involved. Consumers come into contact with it in nearly every phase of the online shopping process – often without noticing. Even at the first contact of prospects with a brand, the search behavior is analyzed and combined with mood, location and demographic data to create an adaptive user profile based on trends and seasonal aspects. This allows complex personal recommendations to be made to customers based on the smallest attributes of customer behavior. After the purchase, a chatbot-based support helps with service-related issues. For recommendations, emotion analyses can filter out and evaluate terms to capture a user's attitude towards a product and initiate optimizations. All of these examples help to improve the Customer Experience in e-commerce.The following AI-impacted strategies and approaches have the greatest influence on the customer experience:Customer Journey Analytics: Tracking customer experience in real time
Planning the Customer Journey used to be a best-case scenario without validation option. That means: deviations by customers from the planned Customer Journey were difficult to capture and even more difficult to evaluate.
That has changed: the status quo is that Consumer Journeys, which are provided with
KPIs
, can be tracked based on data. Consolidated real-time analyses of all touchpoints enable the prediction of obstacles in the Customer Journey that should be avoided in time. For this, tools from Oracle, AEM or even could be used.Composable Commerce as a technological basis trboThe speed with which online retailing is developing requires maximum flexibility from retailers in all areas in order to design an excellent customer experience. For the integration of content marketing and e-commerce – the content commerce – online retailers therefore need the appropriate technical foundation. Since customer centricity starts with the choice of suitable technologies and the right
E-commerce platforms & shop systems software
.One of the most important advantages is the flexibility offered by the best-of-breed approach behind Composable Commerce.Under Headless Architecture or Composable Commerce, IT infrastructure is understood
, in which various systems (inventory and external systems) are linked together as modules. Individual tools and systems can be easily expanded with additional interfaces and multiple touchpoints thanks to the technology-agnostic approach if needed. Online retailers can thus quickly adjust to new trends, are significantly more agile than with traditional suite solutions and can scale better and more individually. The speed and flexibility in development also increases.In addition, Composable Commerce allows unique digital customer experiences on all relevant channels. The reason: Every single IT component is not only safe and high-performing, but is specifically designed to meet the needs of customers and retailers. Headless architectures can be developed in parallel by dedicated specialist teams and enable structural restrictions to be overcome and hyper-personalization functions to be used.Among the most important tools in the context of
Headless Commerce
architectures are the API-first content management platform , the content platform and the cloud platform-as-a-service tool Vercel. ContentfulConclusion SanityThe key to an optimized, personalized Customer Experience in e-commerce lies in the interplay of many different strategic approaches, innovative technologies and AI services. Then both retailers and consumers benefit: Retailers gain better insights into the behavior of their customers through generated data, and can then align their marketing strategies and further develop products and services. Customers, in turn, receive personalized, suitable offers as well as customer service tailored to their needs at all stages of the purchasing process. And they might even feel (still) more joy when purchasing.
Fazit
Als Schlüssel zu einer optimierten, personalisierten Customer Experience im E-Commerce ist das Zusammenspiel vieler verschiedener strategischer Ansätze, innovative Technologien und KI-Services entscheidend. Dann profitieren Händler*innen und Konsument*innen gleichermaßen: Händler*innen gewinnen über generierte Daten bessere Einblicke in das Verhalten ihrer Kundschaft, um anschließend ihre Marketingstrategien daran auszurichten und Produkte sowie Services weiterzuentwickeln. Kund*innen erhalten wiederum personalisierte, passgenaue Angebote sowie einen auf ihre Bedürfnisse abgestimmten Kundenservice in allen Phasen des Kaufprozesses. Und empfinden eventuell sogar (noch) mehr Glücksgefühle beim Kauf.
Author
Wiebke Wefer
Author
Wiebke Wefer
Wiebke Wefer ist Business Unit Manager bei Triplesense Reply. Sie verfügt über mehr als 17 Jahre Digital-Erfahrung und ist in Online Marketing-, E-Commerce- und Omnichannel Strategie-Expertin.
Author
Dr. Oliver Bohl
Author
Dr. Oliver Bohl
Dr. Oliver Bohl führt als Geschäftsführer das 70-köpfige Triplesense Reply-Team. Darüber hinaus ist er in verschiedenen Verbänden – BVDW, Bitkom und LBMA – sowie als Lehrbeauftragter zu Themen des digitalen Marketings und der Plattformökonomie an europäischen Hochschulen aktiv.
