It’s 2018, and technology has surged ahead with a whole load of innovations. From making shopping comfortable with the help of VR and AR to making payments convenient with wallets and NFC, the technology has indeed made eCommerce fast paced.
If you want to survive the tough competition posed by this segment, then you ought to match this pace. Reinventing yourself technologically as well as with consumer-centric core will help you get the profits.
5 Tips that will help you stay relevant and competitive in the year 2018:
#1 Personalize your offerings
Remember those offline stores that you used to visit to buy the monthly groceries? Why were you loyal towards a single store then for years together? The store owner knew just what you wanted, would greet you when you came in, and make sure your groceries were ready in a packet within minutes. That is the biggest example of personalization.
You will need to personalize your eCommerce business if you plan to survive the growing competition. You will need to understand what the customer is looking for, and how they are accustomed to making the purchases. AI and Big Data will help you both gather and analyze the data to build insights on consumer purchases, their buying behavior and what gets their ultimate loyalty.
When you send them emails that contain the items they are either planning to buy or would be interested in, you have caught their attention. It is just a matter of time before you convert this into purchases.
#2 Incorporate sensory search abilities
Many times, your user has an image in the laptop or the mobile, of the product they want to buy. However, they do not know what it is called. At such a time, searching with the image is their last straw at identifying the item. Same goes for the voice-based searches. Sometimes, you know how it is pronounced or are comfortable with saying the name but, you are not sure about the spelling or don’t want to type the product’s name.
The e-commerce business should be sensitive towards these needs established by the user and should be able to include the sensory search abilities in the store. This will also help make the website or app more accessible to the users, and improve their ability to look for what they want on your website.
This will get you more visitors and along the line, improve your conversions.
#3 Keep it very simple
From the user interface to the actual model of your e-commerce business, make sure it is user-friendly and easy-to-use. The idea is to incorporate the learning curve established by the user and build your user interface along the same lines. It will take some time to understand how your user works, and what is the best UI for them.
Study the data that will point towards the existing UIs that the user has used, and what they know. This data will help you keep the interface relatable and easy to learn.
In case, you are adding something new, then you should always have small pointers that help towards easy on-boarding.
If you see Amazon, their interface is the simplest and even a person who is no pro-technology can use the mobile app to place their orders. You need to bring your interface to this level of simplicity and ease.
If your interface is easy on the users, the engagement levels go up, and you are bound to have more customers spending more time on your e-commerce site.
#4 A smarter consumer journey
As we have already discussed, a lot of e-commerce businesses are incorporating AR and VR to improve the user’s buying experience.
VR will allow the user to check into the website, try the clothes, and see how they fit them. This will take virtual shopping one notch closer to the actual shopping experience, and this is something you ought to try.
Again, AR will augment the shopping experience by allowing users to get custom clothes, jewelry and even shoes as well as furniture and other stuff for themselves by augmenting the reality into the virtual space.
A smarter consumer journey means more engagement and relatively increased levels of conversion for your business.
Combine this with personalization, and you are bound to get amazing results.
#5 Adding real-time assistance
The time has come when you go and support your customer at a time when they are facing troubles. You no longer need to wait for a day to respond to their communications, as you have technology that responds immediately and solves some of the basic issues that arise.
Make sure you have your own customized chatbot for your business and other real-time assistance providers incorporated in your website for the perfect communication with your customers. The real-time communication assures the customer that the business is looking into their issues and will respond soon.
Conclusion
It is the time to go personalized with your offerings, and it is important you are in sync with the customers’ needs. This will help with increased engagement levels and add to your conversions.
Stay ahead of the competition by incorporating all these pointers, and by being user-centric in your recommendations and offerings. It is time for smarter and experiential e-commerce stores.