How to Achieve Customer Delight and Avoid Disappointment in eCommerce

It is not news that eCommerce sales have been booming the world over. The industry saw some of its biggest online sales in 2016. Which shows that consumers are finding it extremely convenient to shop from their screens and comfort of their offices and homes. As a result, a large number of webstores have cropped up in the past couple of years to take advantage of this upturn in business. However, it is not all unicorns and rainbows for every eCommerce venture. And to succeed in the face of such high competition and strategic planning means you need much more than an online presence and luck. You need an edge over competition and an in-depth understanding of your customer – what they want but also what they don’t want. In other words, finding out your customers’ pet peeves when it comes to online shopping can help you prepare better to deliver a ‘delightful’ experience and avoid their dissatisfaction.

1) Amazon and eBay customer reviews
You read that right. If you browse through some of the irate customer reviews on these and several other eCommerce websites, you will get a fair understanding of what ticks them off. Learning from the mistakes of others is a great way to avoid making your own. For instance, you can find out more about customer expectations for packaging, delivery, product description, post-sales service communications – all by reading just a couple of reviews.

2) Inaccurate product descriptions
Both product photos and product descriptions help customers decide whether the product is right for them or not. But many eCommerce sites use content that tends to gloss over some details and misrepresent the rest. Product descriptions should help answer the Five ‘W’s and How following the fundamentals of journalism and help the customers find their answers in the description.
This helps your business further by minimizing the chances of returns and refunds as customers get what they see and avoid disappointment. Ensure that your photos are well-captured and reflect realistic sizes and colors. Ideally, choose a white background for photos so that there is more clarity.

3) Pricing transparency
Many eCommerce stores have a long and convoluted process to display the total amount after adding shipping, COD, and all the extras. This results in angry customers and cart abandonment. Be upfront about the pricing and the extras so that customer is well-prepared and aware when he/she adds the product to cart and not surprised at the time of checkout.

4) Inventory mismanagement
Overselling is one of the major issues in eCommerce and understandably very frustrating for a customer. Ensure that your listings are always in stock or at least show that they are ‘out of stock’ at the right juncture. This issue intensifies when you scale up and expand your channels of sale. The easiest way to avoid this is to make sure your stock levels are accurate and always display correctly on your product pages. Use a sophisticated order and inventory management solution that integrates all your selling channels and syncs your stock in real time when you make sales.

5) After sales support
Poor after-sales-support is one of the most common grievances and customers don’t like to be treated as though they don’t matter once the sale has gone through. In fact, after sales is when you romance the customer to make them feel valued and enhance their customer experience. Provide dispatch confirmation details and tracking ids via email and SMS. Offer bonuses or discount when they make the first purchase on your website.

Seek their feedback and ask for their suggestions to improve your service, about 2 weeks after the delivery. If your eCommerce brand has a personality – it should be an approachable, accessible and positive one for customers to keep coming back.

Summary
There are many factors that result in a consistently superior customer experience also called ‘customer delight’ by marketing professionals. The key is to frame your eCommerce policy and strategy around customer preferences and satisfaction and avoid overpromising and underdelivering. All aspects of your webstore from inventory to website performance, logistics and supply and product quality must have customer support at the heart to stand apart in the masses of webstores. Do you have any suggestions to make the customer experience more fulfilling? Let us know your ideas in the comments section below.

Contributed byhttp://www.rishabhsoft.com/