Think Beyond the Abandoned Cart. Fix Consumer Engagement First

The average rate of online carts being abandoned stands at 69% in 2019. (Source) While providing a special offer, a discount or an email reminder to complete a customer’s shopping are the most common solutions to this problem by marketers, what they tend to overlook is that one of the main reasons for cart abandonment is poor consumer experience.

In present times, consumer expectations are always high. By identifying a consumer’s journey while interacting with an app or making a purchase, businesses should optimize consumer engagement and experiences, instead of just focusing on conversions. This will make completing purchases easier and appealing.

“86% of consumers will spend more if it involves a better customer experience. By 2020, customer experience is expected to become a bigger brand differentiator than price and even the products themselves.” (Source). The importance of consumer engagement cannot be understated, not just in the e-commerce business, but also in other fields. The problem of the abandoned cart may be an important cause of concern for an e-commerce store, but it can also serve as an example for businesses in other industries how fixing customer experiences can drive retention and improve sales.

Listed below are some of the ways to increase customer engagement -

1. Engage with unhappy consumers immediately

“Do you know that reducing churn by 5% can increase profits by 25–125%? “ (Source)

Customer churn is indeed a serious problem that needs to be tackled. The difficult part, however, in this case, is that consumers don’t always let a brand know that they are unhappy and are thinking of shifting their loyalty. Research says that for every 1 customer who complains about something they don’t like, 26 customers will not say anything. (Source)

The best way to deal with this is to engage with your unhappy customers without any delay before they make the decision of leaving your brand. Satisfaction surveys are a good way to understand how happy/unhappy your customers are with your service. It is important to act fast whenever a customer says that he/she is unhappy and try to solve the issue. It conveys that the brand cares about them, and customers feel important eventually leading to increased brand loyalty.

2. Personalize customer communications

To be successful in your business and to allow your brand to grow, personalized communications are a must. A study found that “83% of retailers who have a

budget dedicated for personalization were able to exceed their revenue goals.” (Source)

Personalizing customer communications makes the conversations more relevant, and your consumers are more likely to listen to you and engage with your brand. Things like recommending products based on a customer’s purchase history and personal interests, push notifications to send out marketing messages or special offers on important days like birthdays and anniversaries are also a good way to fix consumer engagement.

Source: semrush.com

3. Solicit Reviews

“85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.” (Source) Reviews will not only help customers who are reading it to trust your products but also keep customers engaged with your app by writing one.

“7 out of 10 customers are likely to leave a review if prompted.” (Source) The best time to ask for a review is just after a transaction has been made, as customers will be more enthusiastic to give their feedback after completing an action. Ensure that the process is smooth and easy, as a complicated process can lead to customers skipping it.

Source: Google Play

Another smart idea is to introduce a reward program for consumers whenever they are providing a review. For example, with personalized pop-ups, rich push notifications and live chats, you can ask customers to review and provide feedback. In return, make use of their e-commerce personalization data to reward them with discount coupons or special offers.

4. Offer loyalty programs

Loyalty programs are another great way to keep your customers engaged with your e-commerce store. The benefit of loyalty programs is not just rewarding monetary benefits, but also customer recognition. It will help increase your profit margins as well as improve consumer retention.

“69% of consumers say that their choice of retailer is influenced by where they can earn customer loyalty/reward programs.” (Source) Customers who earn reward points will always come back to the app to make more purchases in order to use the points. This will ensure that your ongoing customer engagement is on the right track, which will eventually lead to lesser cart abandonment.

5. Make optimum use of social media

It is estimated that in 2019, there will be around 2.77 billion social media users in the world. (Source) So, being on social media is an important aspect of every business. However, there is a difference between just being present on social media and optimizing its use for customer engagement.

Ensure that you’re posting relevant content once or twice every day based on the industry you belong to. Tracking the engagement you receive will help you decide better how many times you need to post on social media. It is also important to monitor what people are saying about your business on social media — and react accordingly. Address complaints, resolve issues, answer questions and share testimonials to keep your customers engaged and for longer retention time.

Get the SmartKarrot advantage for increasing customer engagement:

The world’s first Engagement Optimization platform, SmartKarrot is an intuitive platform that offers businesses with a comprehensive set of features to engage, motivate and incentivize behaviour change for their audience. You can easily create, manage, monitor and tweak engagement journeys with a simple SDK/API integration.

Salient features of SmartKarrot:

SmartReferral — Boost your application’s growth by integrating referrals in a few easy steps without the hassle of coding.

SmartSurveys — Know what is on your audience’s mind by designing surveys in various options and get instant feedback.

SmartSegmentation — Enhance engagement for different segments of your audience based on insightful behavioural and demographic data.

Smart A/B — Put out the right message by running multivariate tests for custom audience based on their preference.

How does SmartKarrot work?

• Quick Setup: Without the hassle of coding, testing or deploying, use any of the features in minutes on the SmartKarrot platform. All you need to do is a simple API/SDK integration.
• Cross-Device Targeting: Track users through various implementations of your application and also ensure that your context is maintained, with continuous engagement.
• Minimal Coding: Drag and drop elements to define your user journey without getting involved in the tedious process of coding. This flexibility will enable you to fulfil your unique business needs.
• Infinitely Scalable: Whether your app has very less or a huge user base, SmartKarrot platform can help you manage it without affecting the performance.

Get the SmartKarrot advantage for improving customer engagement now!

SmartKarrot is an Engagement Optimization Platform, currently in its Beta phase. You can sign up for SmartKarrot Beta to test these features for free. There are many more features like User Journey design, Incentivization, Geolocation etc. in the pipeline. Stay in touch with us to know more about the SmartKarrot platform.