The Value of Customer Experiences Top Reasons Your Company Needs to Create a Great Customer ecommerce Experience Companies succeed or fail today based on the kind of customer experiences they offer. The cost of providing bad service costs businesses an estimated $1.6 trillion each year. [1] about three of four people spend more money with companies when they have a history of receiving positive customer service and user experiences with that company. Customers are seven times more likely to try new products, five times more likely to buy from a company again and four times as likely to make a referral based on strong, personalized service. The user experience is an especially important aspect in ecommerce UI/UX. In B2B sales, the right user interface can increase sales conversions, simplify searching for products and make ordering easy when using a phone. A better ecommerce experience leads to conversions. Gartner research shows that in 80 percent of B2B conversions, the user experience and a personalized user interface were the most critical areas that influenced a buying decision. [2] That’s why it’s critical to develop a strategic plan using a customer-centric philosophy. Marketers and decision-makers must determine which features impress customers and which features are turn-offs in ecommerce and focus on adding or improving those in their online ecommerce storefront or marketplace. A modular ecommerce platform, like Clarity ecommerce, can help by providing exactly the modules and functionality you need now, while providing a highly extensible platform to handle future growth and new features. The Value of Customer Experiences Facebook bought the company Oculus in 2014 because it generated great customer experiences with virtual reality. Customers can go anywhere and view products with 3D technology. [2] Some customer ecommerce experiences of successful marketing companies include: Discovery-based Experiences Many companies generate a discovery-based browsing experience that delights customers with aesthetic and functional design, detailed product descriptions and strong graphics and visuals that make it easy and rewarding to explore the websites for ideas. Showcased / Featured Products Highlighting key products pushes customers to buy without heavy marketing. The use of white space, highly visible company logo and copy that mentions where the product has been featured result in better browsing experiences and increased sales. A/B Testing Testing the responses of customers leads to better experiences. A better ecommerce experience leads to conversions. Testing can determine subtle design influences such as changing the product color during checkout. Competitive Insights Company competitors often use customer features that are appealing. When companies have an integrated platform with a strong API layer, it’s easy to add new features and modules as needed to stay competitive. Best Design Practices for Spectacular ecommerce Results It’s important not to rely on generic photos and manufacturer ads. B2B companies want to establish their brands with customers and relying on stock images damages that effort. Taking photos of company products helps to define the brand and generate customer loyalty. Clarity has even created a custom module for their ecommerce platform that can overlay your company watermark to copyright and protect your images from being stolen online by competitors. Good ecommerce design doesn’t just happen--it takes work and testing. Adapting web displays to each user’s device is also important to deliver the greatest possible impact on mobile phones and other devices. Some areas of a given sales platform need to be enhanced based on each user’s profile. Managing all these issues is simpler when the platform is fully integrated for ecommerce. Other best practices for ecommerce include: Emails Automate marketing practices to send emails based on customer profiles, seasonal sales, new products and other criteria. Personalize the emails (both for the recipient and who you want them to call). Social Media B2B companies can use social media to post their best videos, photos and information about trending products. blog posts and texts are ideal for promoting last-minute sales and keeping customers up-to-date on company milestones, special sales, shipping status and other reminders. Optimized Platform An integrated ecommerce platform produces great ecommerce UI/IX. Better ecommerce experience leads to conversions. An integrated site loads quickly, adjust to small phones screens to prevent endless scrolling and provides easy-to-see-and-use navigation aids and forms. Clarity has done over 3,000 integrations over the last 13 years and our integration platform, Clarity Connect, provides the integration middleware for those ERP, CRM, Supply Chain integrations. The Fundamentals of a Great ecommerce Experience B2B companies experience difficulties in engaging their customers using self-service. That’s why it’s important to build 360-degree profiles of customers that can deliver better ecommerce UI/IX to each site visitor. Finding about the demographics and buying habits of the ideal customer can guide marketing displays for new users until the customer information can be upgraded with real data from the browsing experience, business intelligence, buying history and information that the customer provides. Some of the ways that companies can customer collect information include: Communicating with customers directly through customer service, website surveys, social media pages and website forms Asking customers to provide unbiased reviews Analyzing site data Accessing market research and third-party surveys Reviewing customer complaints It’s important to provide multichannel engagement forums, which are called omnichannel by many marketers. Providing this kind of fundamental support enables customers to engage with the company where they spend the most time. It also allows companies to connect with customers when they haven’t visited the company website lately. Gentle reminders of events and new products show customers that the company cares about them. One of the most successful promotions involves offering free shipping. Free shipping attracts new prospects and existing customers. Offering customers faster shipping options can also generate sales. about two-thirds of CMOs make these kinds of decisions, and 23 percent of B2B CMOs already feel that improving the customer experience is one of the most important challenges of B2B ecommerce. [3] One study even shows that 72% of customers surveyed said they’d abandon their cart if the company didn’t offer free shipping. Choosing a Developer to Integrate, Design and Upgrade Your Platform The challenges of coding your site to be mobile-friendly, integrated and upgraded are greatly reduced when you hire an experienced B2B developer. The best developers work with your company to make ecommerce, UI/UX and integration changes easy, provide personalized marketing experiences to your customers and test products and design features to get the highest possible conversion rates. Give Clarity a call today to discuss your ecommerce project. References: [1] Visioncritical.com: 13 stunning stats on customer experience (including the $1.6 trillion cost of bad service) https://www.visioncritical.com/customer-experience-statistics/ [2] blog.hubspot.com: The Year of Customer Experience: How ecommerce Brands Can Prepare https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/customer-experience-ecommerce-brands-can-prepare [3] Cp2experience.com: 15 vital customer experience statistics for 2018 https://www.cp2experience.com/customer-experience-stats-2018/5053/