We will now discuss how you can use analytics to continuously improve the e-commerce experience for your customers, and we will discuss optimizing according to different electronic devices, optimizing browsing and searching, optimizing also optimizing your product pages, and finally using customer accounts to enhance the payment process.
Use analytics to improve your e-commerce experience
Well you've already started selling online and your customers are buying directly through your site, that's great! But are your customers as happy as they should be?
Is your shopping and paying experience as smooth as possible?
The first step to improving the e-commerce experience is to make sure that the purchasing process runs smoothly on all the electronic devices your customers may use.
These days, that includes more than desktop and laptop computers.
1- Optimization according to different electronic devices
Let's say you check your analytics data and notice that many people visit your site on mobile devices but rarely make a purchase.
This is evidence that mobile or tablet shoppers may not be able to view your product pages properly or move smoothly through the checkout process. Now you have Some work to do.
To solve this problem, one excellent option is to implement a “responsive design” for your website, which can adapt to different screen sizes.
Or if you want to ensure a more consistent shopping experience on smartphones, you can create a mobile website.
2- Improve browsing and search
So now you are confident that the problem is solved for different types of devices, and you have another chance to improve your shopping experience.
But let's say your analyzes show that many people visit your homepage but don't take the next step by inspecting your products.
In this case, you will definitely want to make it easier for your visitors to browse and find what they are looking for; So you need to start with a browsing mechanism that your visitors can easily understand and use.
In all, you'll use primary and child categories to organize your product list in any number of ways. Let's use the furniture maker as an example.
For example, you can start with broad categories for different rooms in the house, and then you can add subcategories to individual pieces of furniture in each, such as bed frames, desks, or dining room tables. So, what's the best way to go about this?
Well the answer is simply what your customers prefer. You can take a formal test to see how your customers interact with different arrangements, or you can simply take a survey among your friends, family and trusted customers to find out what they prefer.
3- Optimizing your product pages as well
No matter how you arrange browsing on your site, there will always be people who would rather search for something in particular than browse through the different main categories and subcategories.
That's why it's best to provide both options and include search functionality on your website and another great way to improve your shopping experience is your product pages.
But what if you notice that many people visit your product pages but don't add any product to the cart?
You can add a video in action or a gallery of photos from different angles that allow your customers to get a closer look at a particular piece of furniture, but make sure those photos are professional quality and quick to load.
You can also write great descriptions, providing all the details and measurements, which can give the customer confidence that they are ready to buy.
The last thing we'll cover is how you can improve your e-commerce experience by using customer accounts.
Using customer accounts to enhance the checkout process
For example, you may notice in your analytics data that customers shop on your site and put products in the shopping cart, but they leave before completing the purchase, what is the solution then?
You can encourage customers to create an account to simplify the buying process and reduce the chance of leaving before the purchase is completed.
As the customer completes the online purchase process, you can allow them to store their shipping and billing information and payment preferences in an account on your site, and this will also facilitate future purchases.
If you're ready to go a little further, you can use a customer's previous purchases, recent searches or recently viewed products to be able to recommend specific products they might be interested in.
For example, if he just bought a dining table, he might recommend the best chair set that matches the design and decoration of the table.
Of course, always remember to reward your loyal customers with offers and discounts tailored to them, as many shopping cart solutions offer these features by default.
Summary
Improving e-commerce is a continuous process, which requires that your site be compatible with various electronic devices, arranged in a smart way, and that the payment of fees is smooth using customer accounts.
Taking this direction will help you in your quest to provide the best possible service to your current and future clients.
See: How Do You Use Data to Understand Your Audience