Customer engagement is to eCommerce is what cheese is to wine.
If you find yourself struggling to meet your targets, increase
eCommerce sales, or drive revenues, it might be because you
aren’t driving sufficient efforts in engaging your customers.
In a world where it has become so easy for customers to move
from one online brand to another, customer engagement is
central to digital success and must be a constant priority for
businesses.
Customer engagement is a critical aspect of any
eCommerce strategy
, as it helps organizations deliver better experiences and
foster stronger (and longer) relationships with customers.
Here are the 7 top ways to improve customer engagement and
increase eCommerce sales:
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Opt for a content-first strategy:
In the eCommerce era, product content is the driving force
of successful digital commerce. Since today’s customers
always expect useful, accessible, and high-quality content
across all channels, organizations need to work towards
creating, publishing, and distributing content efficiently
and effectively. Opting for a content-first strategy means
accurate, enriched, and consistent product content lies at
the foundation of your business. Since customers need to be
able to easily find (and trust) your products, a
content-first strategy provides all the information your
customers need to make quick and easy purchasing decisions.
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Provide rich (and right) details:
Unlike in a brick-and-mortar setup where it is fairly easy
for customers to reach out to a retail worker to have their
query answered, in eCommerce, you must provide rich and
accurate details to customers at every touchpoint of the
buying journey: beginning from awareness to consideration,
purchase, and support. By providing detailed product
information, technical specifications, instruction manuals,
product comparison charts, buyer guides, product reviews,
and FAQs at the right place and the right time, you can
drive exceptional engagement led by your content and
experience goals.
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Today’s tech-savvy and context-aware customers reach out to
brands not just to buy products, but also to seek expertise.
Another way to strengthen customer engagement is by creating
a powerful customer-centric experience w.r.t the products,
i.e., a Product Experience for the ages. Modern cloud-based
platforms like Amaze can enable seamless and efficient
management of products, data, and experiences – in a single
location, allowing you to easily manage all your product
information and unlock your product’s potential via rich
content and a meaningful, well-designed interface. Make sure
to provide an experience that gives all the answers to
customer questions as they navigate through your digital
portfolio. From robust search engine performance to seamless
discovery and objection handling – a rich and curated
product experience is a great way to align customer needs to
brand offerings and establish a trustworthy and efficient
journey that fortifies loyalty and advocacy.
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Enable personalization:
When customers engage with a business, they don’t want to be
just one among many; they want to feel special and cared
for. They want the business to understand their needs and
offer products that best fit them – even if it comes at a
cost! Do you know? Customers are ready to spend
17%
more for a good experience! Leveraging data and insights to
enable personalization is a great way to drive engagement
and capture an increasing share of the customer’s wallet
while efficiently growing average order values. With the
right data, you can clearly gauge current (and future
needs), buying behavior, and preferences and deliver the
right assortment of products, bundles, and accessories while
creating optimum cross-sell and up-sell opportunities.
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Seek feedback and reviews:
Rich customer engagement is not just about providing
products that customers desire; it is also about giving them
a platform where they can voice their thoughts, views, and
opinions. Such feedback can allow you to feel the pulse of
your customers while helping you stay a step ahead in the
market; it can help you in measuring customer satisfaction
as well as in making better business decisions. Seeking
ratings, feedback, and reviews from your customers can not
only help in creating a sense of “being heard”; it also
allows you to incorporate their feedback into your products
– to continuously improve customer experience and
engagement.
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Build on loyalty programs:
For customers who are loyal to your brand, offering the best
and most lucrative loyalty programs can help in boosting
ongoing engagement. Offering uber-curated offers and
discounts is a great way of rewarding and incentivizing your
loyal customers. If customers feel good about purchasing
products from you, they will most likely keep coming back to
you for their product needs – giving your business an edge
against your competitors. With the right offers, you can
improve customer loyalty and retention while boosting sales
and organizational growth.
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Get mobile (and social):
As buyers become savvy, they are increasingly using their
smartphones to conduct search across multiple screens. To
keep up with the growing expectations of customers and drive
engagement, organizations must operate with a mobile-first
strategy that makes content accessible at the right time and
in a manner that the buyer expects. Offering mobile-specific
features like geotagging, AR, push notifications, beacons,
and NFC is certain to pave the way for a seamless and
trustworthy buying experience that translates into revenue
goals. At the same time, it also makes sense to strengthen
your social media presence; this includes regularly posting
about new products and features on different channels,
promptly responding to concerns and queries, and engaging
via contests and events.
Given that customer-centric companies are
60%
more profitable, organizations need to constantly up their
digital commerce game. Opting for a content-first strategy,
providing rich details, strengthening product UX, enabling
personalization, seeking feedback, building on loyalty
programs and improving mobile, and social capabilities are
great ways to improve engagement, boost, revenue, and
transform your digital future.