Here are three simple ecommerce projects and trends that can increase your conversion rates, improve your customer experience, and help your ecommerce business grow.
Ecommerce Trends:
1. Say No to Returns
I know what you’re thinking: free returns have been the standard for years now, and no customer wants to lose that option. However, offering customers the choice of opting out of returns for a small incentive is an emerging trend. By giving customers the option to opt out in exchange for a discount or free shipping, you’re giving them more choice. It’s a win-win. Jet.com and other retailers have offering this with surprisingly high customer adoption.
2. Get Personal
Marketers spend considerable amounts of time, energy, and money trying to drive conversions. Educating users on product information, features, and benefits critical for enticing customers to make a purchase, but all too often the customer experience ends there. Marketers need to engage consumers beyond a conversion, and a great way to do this is implementing personalized post-sale campaigns. These campaigns aren’t intended to drive immediate follow-up sales but, rather, ensure customers are getting the very most out of the product and slowly yet surely create brand advocates.
Let’s say you sell cookware. You’ve educated the customer on why your product is the best choice and convinced him or her to make the purchase. The customer orders, you ship it, and life is good. Now, your job is to make sure he or she gets the most out of that product. Sending a personalized follow-up email that includes a getting-started tutorial, recipe ideas, or tips and tricks for cleaning can be a simple but invaluable way to drive return visitors and repeat conversions. The opportunities are endless, and these types of campaigns drive an incredible customer experience that builds trust and loyalty for years to come.
3. Show Don't Tell
According to a survey conducted by BigCommerce, nearly half of all shoppers report not being able to physically touch a product is the number one reason they don’t make an online purchase. Product videos fill the gap between an in-person buying experience and a digital buying experience, yet only a small fraction of online retailers are using it.
Although high-quality video is important, you don’t need to be Steven Spielberg or have the latest and greatest production equipment to pull this off. The key to a successful product video is to create content that puts your product in scenarios your customer will actually experience. Many will argue that a good product video should be 20 seconds or less.
Instead of focusing on a specific length, focus on the best experience. If that means you need a 5-minute video to provide the information a prospective customer needs, so be it.
Start by taking your most frequently asked questions and turning them into answers delivered by video. It’s quick and simple, and your conversion rates will skyrocket.