9 Best Magento Apps to Improve Customer Experience in Your Store

Originally published on Antavo’s Ecommerce Marketing Blog — The Best in Loyalty News.

Ecommerce marketers are always on the hunt for that perfect app… the app that’s going to create a positive customer experience and increase sales.

But it’s not that easy, because there’s a jungle of apps and app review sites out there. This crowded environment can overwhelm even the most experienced treasure seekers and make it hard to distinguish the regal lions from the jokester hyenas.

This post is here to help! Our team started out by making a list of the typical touchpoints that can either make a great impression or ease the search-and-shop process. For each of these customer interactions, we found an app that has a sparkling track record of improving the online experience.

Let’s start from the beginning, when a customer first starts their own hunt…

1. SERIOUSLY DYNAMIC SEARCH

If a customer on your site wants to look for something, NOT having a search bar forces them out of your store and back to Google. Bad move, but it’s easy to fix.

Instant Search + is on the top of my list because they’re a Magento Silver Industry Partner with a great popularity rating and great reviews. Their advanced search app combines suggestions, spell correct, search filters and speed, minimizing the chances of customers seeing “No results found.”

Here’s the app on Magento.

Instant Search Plus offers customers a more convenient search experience in e-commerce

2. INTELLIGENT LIVE CHAT

If your store has a customer service team, live chat is an indispensable feature. Get a tool that can show you where your customer is in the browsing or buying process and let you step in if they’ve experienced any kind of dead end or problem.

Olark live chat lets you see who is on your website at any given moment, what your customers have been doing on your site so far (i.e. which pages they’ve visited and what they’ve got in their cart). Olark also allows you to get instant feedback once you’ve helped your customers and the chat has been wrapped up. Plus it has a pretty awesome design, simple yet visible… no distractions and pure problem-solving.

You can find Olark here on Magento.

Olark is a live chat provider that gives client profiles and shows actions on your site, allowing you to step in and save the day

3. A LOW-MAINTENANCE LOYALTY PROGRAM

Rewards programs come in all shapes and sizes these days, but I’ve got some insider info for you: store owners are tired of high-maintenance programs that require a lot of development work to set up, and constant adjustments once the program is online.

That’s where Antavo comes in. Our modules make setting up a loyalty program as easy as choosing the types of customer actions you want to reward, plugging it in and watching your results. Sure, you can always make small adjustments, but once you’ve found the sweet spot, you don’t have to lift a finger. Just watch the increase in returning customers (and their basket values) on your dashboard or in our weekly reports.

Find Antavo here on Magento Connect.

Antavo loyalty software gives customers an incentive to keep returning and lets clients choose which in-store and on-social actions they want to reward.

4. THE RIGHT PRODUCT RECOMMENDATIONS

Personalization is a hot topic out there in e-commerce, so this one’s really cool: personalized product recommendations. According to Marketing Sherpa’s 2015 report, 11.5% of e-commerce sales in the study came from product recommendations. This is not to be ignored!

Nosto helps you give recommendations based on actual shopper searches and purchases. Gone are the days of:
– “You might like this, too”
– “Umm..no, I don’t.”

Sound good? Find Nosto for Magento here.

Nosto lets you personalize product recommendations, increasing the likelihood that customers will like what you recommend, and make their next move.

5. THE CART ABANDONMENT GAME CHANGER

Cart abandonment is something that no single tool has the power totally eliminate, but there is one key tool that has shown to help: exit intent pop-ups. These pop-ups are an outstanding way of getting shoppers to reconsider their intention to leave. Experts at http://Sumo.meclaim that if you stick a great offer on that pop-up, you can increase your conversion rate by 3%… or 9% if you’ve got a mega-effective pop-up.

Storeya’s Exit Pop app that tracks user movement and automatically opens an exit intent pop-up when visitors show signs of leaving. They’ve got quite a few samples of pop-up design online, which are worth checking out.

Get Exit Pop on StoreYa.com.

Exit Pop by Storeya is one of the best ways to get customers to reconsider their departure from your page.

6. FUSS-FREE CHECKOUT

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, customers don’t want to mess around with complicated checkout. In 2015, 68% of customers jumped ship before making a purchase. So if you’re demanding 4 pages of personal information and confirmations, the chances are pretty high that you’ve got would-be buyers leaving as a result.

One Page Checkout is as simple as it sounds. Get everything you need from customers on one single page while still allowing for multiple payment methods. This app has a massive popularity score and money-back guarantee, so give it a try and find out if your store sees better conversion at checkout.

Get it here on Magento Connect.

Ain’t nobody got time for that. Let customers complete all the checkout steps on one page with One Page Checkout for Magento.

7. MOBILE FREEDOM

According to SmartInsights 80% of Internet users have a smartphone. As of March 2016, two thirds of e-commerce traffic in the UK was found to be on mobile. In the US that figure is 54%. If your stores isn’t on mobile, it’s time to get there.

SimiCart is an all-around solution for getting your store absolutely mobile-optimized. With a 4.8 star review on Magento Connect and a solid popularity score, SimiCart is definitely one to consider for getting design and functionality right on iPhone, iPad and Android devices. Plus they’ve got a bevy of step-by-step guides and tutorials that show you how to get up and running.

Get SimiCart here for Magento.

SimiCart has all the aspects of mobile design and experience worked out and can get your store ready for the millions of smartphone and tablet users who want to shop on mobile.

8. SMOOTH SHIPPING

Good shipping makes everyone happy. If you’re using Magento or about 70 other platforms,Shipworks is a great app that allows for the automation and scheduling of shipping, removing the logistical headache. One really cool feature is that Shipworks compares shipping carriers and automatically chooses the optimal carrier and service for every single shipment, saving you money.

In addition to a good delivery experience, Shipworks also let you automate a nice set of actions that help build customer relationships, such as customized invoicing, email updates and special offers.

Find ShipWorks on Magento, here.

Make shipping an easier and less expensive part of your business with ShipWorks.

9. KEEPING IN TOUCH

Once a purchase is made you’re allowed to celebrate, but then you have to find a way to get back on each customer’s mind and email proves itself, time and time again, to be one of the best ways to do that. In fact, according to Content Marketing Institute 67% of B2C companiesrate eNewsletters to be effective.

MageMail is a Magento-specific app that lets you remind customers that you’re there and get them back in the buying game. Send emails automatically, triggered by customer actions. There’s a wide variety of triggered emails to choose from.

Get MageMail here.

Just like Mom always said, “Don’t forget to write your thank you notes!” Keep in touch with customers via MageMail.

NOW GO OUT AND CAPTURE THOSE CONVERSIONS!

The tools above, along with your wonderful customer service team, are going to help you get a lot more results.

I’m an online shopper and — just like every other online and mobile shopper out there — I appreciate a good experience. And when stores put everything I’m looking for right in front of me, including ratings, offers and related items, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be checking out there.

Then top that off with a great delivery and relevant follow-up communication and the chances are good that I’ll think of them again next time I need a similar product.

Thanks for reading and please consider leaving a comment about a tool that you’ve used in your store that has made the most difference for your customers’ experience and conversion rates.