The Biggest Problem Facing Retail eCommerce (It’s Not Amazon, It’s You)
Amazon is boss. Period. When I shop there, it’s easy, intuitive and almost always takes me down the path of least resistance. I shop with Amazon on every device I own and the experience is shockingly similar.
The UX makes me feel as though paying for Prime (Amazon’s paid subscription service) is a bargain. And it’s because my family purchases so many things from the behemoth. But for me, it’s easy and fast. I like easy shopping. I like fast shopping. I don’t go down crazy rabbit holes when I shop. Instead, I “spear shop”: I get what I’m looking for and get out.
Okay — I’ll admit I end up buying recommended products occasionally. But most of the time, even if I browsed something a week or two back, I get over it quickly. I only shop for a few things that I research beforehand; most things are need-based (or want-based). So product personalization may win a few occasional bucks more from me, but it doesn’t lead to many incremental buys.
Does Amazon always have the best price? No, and usually I don’t care. It’s close enough.
Does Amazon always have the brand I want? No, and again, I usually don’t care. It’s close enough.
Amazon doesn’t always ‘inspire’ me with beautiful site design and a ‘feeling’ of brand. And, you guessed it: I don’t care. It’s an eCommerce store. It’s actually one of the least appealing visual eCommerce sites I visit.
But what Amazon does, what they do that matters most, is always deliver… figuratively. I can focus on shopping and buying. I have very few questions about what to do when I buy on Amazon. They care about what matters most in this eCommerce economy: winning sales and satisfying customers.
There Is A “But”…
Here’s the other side of the coin: we’re different shoppers. We all shop a little bit differently.
And therein lies the eCommerce team’s dilemma.
We’re all different when it comes to browsing, shopping, and buying. Not just our individual personalities, but we differ from the sites we’re on, the time of day we shop, who we’re shopping for, what we’re shopping for, how much we have to spend, when we need the item, and so on.
Solving this eCommerce pain point through UX design and shopping funnel optimization is table stakes. Traffic is hard to win and sustain. Traffic is expensive to buy.
Don’t try and compete with Amazon. You can only control your site, your experience. Take control and understand what’s available to you — so you can win. You need to A/B test your brains out. You must analyze and pour over the metrics to determine the largest net win you can get out of each page type on your site. Your checkout page needs to be simple and easy. Mobile checkout needs to be effortless. Small incremental gains matter when you have so much traffic. These are literally the tip of the iceberg of what you’re trying to do. So don’t stop these things. Instead, keep making them better.
What you’re doing today is solving many of these problems. The largest problem facing you, whether you realize it or not, is you’re still leaving conversions on the table.
And There Is A “How”…
Optimizing each visit to understand shopper intent and probability to convert is now available to eCommerce leaders. Open yourself and your organization up to new technology and adapt in this new AI and machine learning powered environment.
You have a lot of traffic. You have an awesome product for sale. Your site is beautifully designed. You have a robust A/B testing platform. You’ve optimized the shopper funnel to drive ease of use and conversion. You’re doing everything right based on the technology that’s been available to you.
I’d like to tell you how I think Granify fits in to all this. Granify sees how much conversion you’re missing. In the moment, our technology will assess each shopper’s behavior, identify their struggle and deliver messaging to get them back on the buying path.
We help your shoppers have a painless experience, one where they can focus on shopping and buying.
We ensure traffic efficiency.
We ensure each and every shopper that could buy, does buy.
I’m here to chat if you want to talk about how Granify is helping retailers win.
