Marketing
How retail leaders can better create a seamless website experience
Jason Rosenbaum, COO of Crowd Favorite, offers up a series of questions retailers need to answer in the quest to provide consumers with the best customer experience possible.
March 17, 2021 by Jason Rosenbaum
It takes a lot for consumers to change fundamental behaviors. Research and sales trends show that not only has the pandemic had a lot to do with immediately changing retail sales, it's giving us a preview of the future.
According to IBM's U.S. Retail Index, the pandemic accelerated the shift to digital shopping by roughly five years. While millennials who can't remember a day without a smartphone have increased activity, NPD Group noted from January through October 2020 it was actually consumers aged 65+ years that were the fastest-growing segment in online shopping. Not only did their numbers climb nearly 50%, their frequency of purchases rose 40%.
Just as it did with traditional shopping habits, retailers can expect consumers to cling tightly to the many conveniences and heightened customer experience now offered online. Not only will growth continue organically, the success of remote work is further embedding digital into our lives. This is especially true whereas technology is evolving around consumer lifestyles. Things will not go back to the way they were once the pandemic is over.
As a result, today's e-commerce sites need to provide seamless and powerful user experiences, ones that are dynamic, relevant and exceptional. Personalization is table stakes, speed and performance a must when seconds could mean lost customers. Providing this type of experience for customers now is about survival — major retailers who have made investments in past years have carved out a lead. Still, no matter the size of your company, that gap can be closed with the right approach, technology, and partner.
Addressing the following questions can help you anticipate what's ahead, select the right tools and vendors, work more effectively with web teams, and compete more effectively in the year ahead and beyond.
Are you nimble and quick?
While commodity items like grocery staples from toilet paper to dry goods will be bought online, people enjoy face-to-face interaction for more involved or personal purchases. However, when the pandemic lifts, people will remain wary about spending too much time indoors in small spaces. There will be less browsing and the focus will be on expedited brick-and-mortar experiences.
To keep up with this shift, retailers must be diligent with their online presence and website. It's expected that a consumer should easily be able to scroll through a page, identify what they want, visit a retail location and be back in the car with a purchase in ten minutes versus wandering around a store for an hour.
That's just one of the many possible trends, and properly functioning websites can help retailers capitalize by supporting a better CX. Consumers are increasingly purchasing online and picking up at curbside. Some fashion retailers enable shoppers to select a range of items online, and when they visit, they're waiting to be tried on — a rep simply stands by to ring up purchases and have them brought out to the car. And with new tech developments such as 3D and virtual try-before-you-buy experiences being perfected, retailers need to be ready.
Are these 'hottest' digital solutions really what you need?
You only get one chance to make a first impression, so your site needs to be ready to perform when consumers are ready to buy. Companies with a great deal of promise have watched helplessly as their websites struggle to perform as expected, chasing away potential customers for good. In fact, easily preventable things like not carrying login details across a platform -- requiring consumers to constantly log back in -- can prove frustrating enough to result in lower conversion.
What retailers need today is a digital experience platform (DXP) that can integrate across an entire organization, unifying content creation, sales data, CRM functionality, marketing campaigns and a multitude of other touchpoints. Not only can the right solution ensure performance, a broad range of information and applications can be integrated to yield critical data ranging from cost of acquisition to lifetime value.
Unfortunately, many large, proprietary DXP options fall short due to a lack of functionality, excessive complexity, or hidden costs. Customizations, add-ons, and complicated upgrades are often needed and closed codebases slow development cycles and add costs. That said, a growing number of retailers are embracing an alternative option for building and managing websites -- an open source-based DXP. This offers greater flexibility to respond to change, as well as a lower total cost of ownership than traditional or proprietary solutions.
Do you have the right web partner and team?
Just because you are a major retailer with an established online presence doesn't necessarily mean you're going to win in the customer online experience department. Technology can level the playing field, and if you have a web development partner that's looking out for your best interests, you can catch and even overtake competitors that have been doing it for years.
We're approaching a tipping point in the move from brick-and-mortar to online, and as businesses mature, they're going to need to pivot fast. Consumers require a seamless, personalized journey on the front end, but in order to provide that, there are thousands of things happening across a multitude of systems in the backend. You need specific expertise to ensure integrations and customization are right, and with flexibility and scalability priorities, preferably one versed in open source.
When working with a web partner, ensure they will make the UX as simple as possible. Also, industry knowledge can provide huge benefits. The right web partner can help with planning and anticipate needs. For example, when a luxury store added a curbside solution long before the pandemic, planning enabled a staggered roll out across location to ensure each was a success. What's more, special promotions were created, supported by functions like an ability to fill a cart preemptively with items months ahead of time of a holiday.
When your website can give a prospective customer the right item faster through a personalized experience, you'll gain more loyal customers. And, after implementing what you've learned, you'll be in a better position to perfect your offerings and capitalize as retail momentum continues to swing toward online.
Jason Rosenbaum is COO of Crowd Favorite
About Jason Rosenbaum
With a focus on business administration and growth strategy, his restructuring of small businesses, managing multi-disciplined teams, and expertise in integration activities has led to success in building companies and delivering enterprise client services. Jason’s passions include sports (especially golf), reading, movies, and politics.
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