When we talk about the shopping experience, we refer to the different steps and emotions that a customer goes through when purchasing the product or service you sell. It is an experience that we live daily when buying and it becomes a very important pillar when it comes to whether or not your customers buy your product or service. In this blog article we will teach you how to create the best shopping experience for your customers.
The shopping experience initially referred to physical points of sale. But in this new digital era and electronic commerce, they have enhanced their importance even more.
Regarding the digital aspect, the shopping experience is the feeling that your visitor will have when browsing and buying in your web store. It will determine if it is easy to navigate, if it is fast, the payment methods and how friendly it is.
The shopping experience is, then, the sum of the emotions, feelings and stimuli that a customer feels in a shopping situation. This may take effect at the time of purchase, such as when consuming or using the product at a later date and in future loyalty.
Below we will see some examples of the advantages of creating the best shopping experience for your customers.
Advantages of offering a good shopping experience
Currently, many digital businesses have competition, and differentiating yourself from them by offering a better shopping service is the best alternative when it comes to building customer loyalty. We will mention some of the advantages of offering a good shopping experience for your customers.
Encourage visitors to come back to buy: If your visitors have an easy browsing experience they will be able to find what they are looking for and then buy it again.
Remember that all your buyers go through a series of steps before purchasing a product or service if they don’t know the brand yet.
Because selling is not just presenting products, but you must present solutions to what your customers are looking for and you must offer an easy and organized online experience.
Build customer loyalty: As a digital agency we know that getting new customers can be difficult. Right now there is a lot of competition and that is why we all seek to differentiate ourselves with our services and the way we show them to the world.
Whether you offer products or services, once you get a satisfied customer, they become a regular customer. If you want to know more about The Best Strategies to attract and retain customers, click on the link.
Clients become ambassadors: In these times of Social Networks it is very normal to see that our friends and family accounts recommend enterprises and businesses. And this is not for nothing, we explain it as the end result of a successful sales process. Your client is satisfied with the purchase process, with the product or service and feels safe to recommend it to other users (best of all, it’s FREE).
Now that you know the benefits of offering a good shopping experience for your visitors, we will analyze the elements that you must take into account to create a good strategy in your physical or digital business.
What are the elements within the shopping experience of your customers
Create the best shopping experience for your customers. If you have your own business, regardless of whether it is physical or an electronic commerce, you must take into account the following elements that will be part of the purchasing strategy that your customers will have.
It will be these aspects that in many cases will be decisive when a customer buys your product or service or not.
Environment: Of course, when we refer to the “environment” in which the sales process takes place, we are talking about the decorative and functional aspects of your store or e-commerce. If we talk about a physical store, we can mention the right color for the public to which you sell, the lighting, the music and the organization by sectors.
Virtual stores have their own version of the environment with the colors of the page, the images that are used and the correct calls to action with the purchase buttons.
Service: Even if you sell products, you are actually also offering a service to your customers. Try to build relationships of trust with them to build a long-term relationship. Once your customers know that they have your service, they will trust you with the purchases they have to make. In this example, if we talk about physical stores, we will take into account how the sellers express themselves, if they advise customers and their customer service.
When referring to online stores we will take into account the ease of finding products, loading speed, payment methods and if you have a virtual help service.
Transparency: We as buyers are increasingly aware of the decisions we make before buying online, and we highly value access to company information if we were not yet aware of how it works. It is important to be transparent and honest with the expectations you offer of your products, and to have a clear policy in case of returns or inconveniences.
A free way to build trust with your prospects is to ask former buyers to leave reviews about their experience shopping on your website or store.
The shopping experience does not end when the customer has paid for your product or service. Sometimes what you offer requires follow-up and support, whenever the client allows it, make a follow-up call and ask what did you think of the product/service?
Experience says that for every 100 follow-up calls, 20% converts into a new sale. It is also very important that as a seller you know 100% of your product or service.
Since on many occasions buyers only need good advice or clarify their doubts to end up buying what they needed. If you sell through a website or e-commerce, you should keep in mind that it has to catch the attention of visitors.
You must carry out metrics and investigate what are the times and the specific products that have been viewed the most.
It is worth remembering that currently all businesses can be digitized and it is very important to have a digital presence to attract new customers. If you want to know how we can create an online store for your business or how you can reach new customers with paid advertising, send us a message to Mano Digital Spain.
Resources to create a pleasant shopping experience
Now that you know the elements to take into account in the shopping experience, we can learn about the digital tools we use to attract the attention of new users and retain them on our website.
Interactive pages: If we talk about resources to create a powerful shopping experience, you should know about interactive pages. These interactive pages use content that requires the user to perform some action, be it filling out a form, answering a question, or others.
Some examples of interactive content that you can include on your page are:
solution seekers
interactive calculators
It is clear that this content is created to arouse stimuli, generate user engagement and, above all, produce data of interest in leads.
In addition to taking care of the SEO optimization of your ecommerce, your store can take care of usability and UX through this interactivity.
Payment options: Virtual stores allow you to reach audiences located anywhere in your area of operation. In other words, you have the possibility to serve customers with different payment habits.
For example, if in physical stores you can pay with cash, with a debit or credit card, or with coupons, the options are expanded with e-commerce platforms.
Within your e-commerce website you can have new payment methods for your products:
Financial devices such as Stripe, PayU or Paypal.
Payment by transfers or Free Market.
One-click payment systems.
Free demos.
Payments against delivery.
Distribution of payments in installments.
Use Big Data: One of the characteristics of the digital world is the large amount of information that you can collect hour after hour about your current and potential customers. Get organized and use it to make the best strategic decisions. Data-driven personalization is a strategy with which you can create unique and individualized proposals and also anticipate the actions that the client may take.
We are talking about using the interests of a very specific group of people to adjust the offers and offer products aligned with their needs.
In this sense, Big Data can collect a large volume of data, with great variety and speed to find more correlations, offer deeper personalization and be able to perform real-time and continuous analysis of what happens in your digital business.
Manage your blog of interest: Just like Xavier Sánchez we manage our own blog where we share information about Digital Marketing, Web Development and online business management.
It turns out that this strategy costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates approximately 3 times more leads.
And among all the content channels that exist, the blog is one of the most efficient.
In fact, 82% of marketers who blog see a positive ROI from their Inbound Marketing efforts. This through editorial calendars and keyword research relevant to your business.
Through the blog, you can frequently share educational, informative and promotional content, which will increase the visibility of your brand, build a relationship of trust with your users and reduce uncertainty before the purchase. In our case of offering the blog writing service, you can consult any of our articles and see how we do it.
Improve the customer shopping experience
It is holy word, the customer experience is related to the increase in sales. Since satisfied users will want to return to your business if they have been well attended and their expectations have been met.
In this section we will help you learn the techniques that will help you work on the process of optimizing the shopping experience.
Distinguish your potential client: And it is that if you do not know who you are selling to, you will not be able to sell to anyone. The first step to work on the experience is to identify valuable leads, they are those who need your product or service and also those who do not know they require it.
Once you identify your leads, you can begin the approach so that they know you, you can contact them to send promotions and request some information that will later be useful to you.
Find what motivates your consumers: Once you know your customers, you should investigate what encourages them to purchase the products or services you sell. It is important to know your thoughts, emotions and feelings. We know that what you want is to sell, but to achieve this you must first captivate your visitor. Use all the information you know to attract their attention.
Focus on the experience, not on the product: If you decide to focus on the material instead of what catches your consumer’s attention, you will lose their interest. It’s not about what YOU want to sell, but what your customer needs.
You must put the customer first. The customer is interested in your product, but they do not like to feel that you are “selling” them.
The customer must trace their journey: Not all customers will enter your website from the same channel, and you must take into account the path that the customer travels when entering your site.
It is important that you offer an adequate experience, from any means from which you enter your online store.
Personalized Marketing: We all like to feel special, right? If your visitor feels unique it will improve the experience.
Surely you are wondering how you can personalize it… You can start customizing what you offer based on the preferences and needs of each consumer.
Take value surveys: Do not take surveys that do not add value to your business. The best way to get information is from the direct source (your ideal customer). It is important to know what the client thinks, what he likes and what he needs.
You can use a customer satisfaction and loyalty indicator, where you will know if consumers are happy with the brand and if they would recommend it.
