Create a dent: Customer Experience & E-commerce
The dawn of a new decade preceded by one where the internet has impacted nearly every aspect of our lives, it’s hard to imagine a time when we weren’t surrounded by screens. From the way we communicate, interact, get informed to the way we consume, our behaviours have been impacted and dictated by new technologies. As technology continues to impact our lives the biggest changes in customer behaviour are driven by technological developments and present the biggest opportunities and challenges with respect to digital marketing and the online customer experience.
Whilst the magnitude of e-commerce has grown exponentially, the shopping desertion rate and the rate of returns present a gargantuan problem, resulting in huge losses for eCommerce players. In the context of e-commerce, it comes down to how the brand manages the experiences and interactions that a customer has across its online store.
Product returns cost UK retailers around £60bn a year and can account for up to 10% of your business
The digital Customer experience (dCX) has fast become a top priority for businesses and 2020 will be no different.
Why are so many companies focusing on the customer experience and why you should be if you already aren’t?
Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. Instead, they stay loyal based on the experience they receive and businesses stand to gain a lot by maximizing on the opportunity presented.
A Walker study found that by the end of 2020, customer experience will overtake price and product as the key brand differentiator.
The experience gap leaves an opportunity sweet spot; price and quality remain top of mind for customers as they make purchasing choices. But when customers think about their interactions, positive experiences influence purchasing decisions in almost every industry.
In today’s digital-driven economy consumers increasingly dictate the kind of service they want, when they would like to purchase it and how they would like to consume it. Customers today undertake multiple roles from creators to critics to unabashed supporters. It is interesting to note that the shopper journey today seems to have undertaken a more customized route where customers seem to want to dictate all aspects of the product by being actively involved in the process and also prefer purchasing products that are more customized. With 9 out of 10 businesses competing mainly on customer experience, it’s the organizations that take customer experience seriously that will stand out from the noise and win loyal customers over.
What can a great customer experience do for a business:
- Double the revenue: Companies earning billions can expect to earn over $700 million within a period of three years post investing in efforts that further their customer experience.
- Greater profits: Great customer experiences can command price premiums of up to 13–18%.
The gap is clear when you look at what customers expect versus the satisfaction they’re actually getting. It’s not a pretty picture. But closing that gap by finding the sweet spot — where technology complements the human element of customer experience without creating new frustrations — is the opportunity right in front of you.
With the world moving from two-dimensional media to three-dimensional spaces. The messaging of various products and services is becoming tangibly explicit with visualization and presentation significantly amplifying the customer journey and experience. There are areas customers identify for improvement, creating clear opportunities for advancements by using new technologies and digitizing more of your product presentation.
Having a great customer experience by harnessing technology minimizes friction, provides customers with information and bridges the gap between the physical and the digital. It has a tangible impact that can be measured in dollars and cents. The price premiums consumers are willing to pay stacks up for organizations keeping abreast of their customer experience and brings together the best elements of their product and technology.
Therefore, the future of customer engagement involves businesses embracing the wave of revamping their customer experience by understanding their customer’s main pain points and addressing them through harnessing the potential of digital trends; creating a greater chance to command a price premium, improve customer traffic and conversions.
Your online customer experience needs a digital transformation.
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