Winning On Ecommerce
Beginning with the first lockdown, a massive change in consumer habits was seen with a multitude of new shoppers and sellers coming online. Ecommerce companies were also quick to adapt to the new social and government norms. To quote a few examples, Zomato introduced sharing the body temperature of the delivery person on their app with the customer or ride-hailing company, Blusmart introduced details of when the hired car was last sanitised to enhance user confidence.
If you look at it objectively, ecommerce is another sales channel that is rapidly growing. And to win on ecommerce, just like instore shopping we need to get the customer experience right. We are in the era where customer experience is everything and within ecommerce re-creating that same experience like in offline retail, is a mammoth task in the absence of the physical product being in front, or the absence of retail store associates contributing to that
experience.
Factors Critical For Ecommerce Success:
Zero friction: If the customer has entered your platform they are interested. Now, it depends on how you hold on to their interest. Customers lose interest even on the smallest points where they aren’t able to figure out anything. Hence, the online sales environment has to be designed to be extremely easy and seamless to hold the customer. For example, if a page takes more than usual to load, it’s very easy for the user to press the back button on their phone or shut the window. Or if there is the slightest confusion in the user’s mind on how to do anything, say read product details, add to cart, a payment gateway that takes longer or anything similar, you have lost the customer. These friction points must be identified and eliminated.
Informed shopping experience: When shopping in-store, customers reach out to the store associate to ask questions and get validation on their purchase decisions. While they can’t ask a store associate online, the information that a customer might need has to be available on the page and be easily discoverable. Few ways to address this could be done is by the usage of chatbots, easily comprehendible and detailed video testimonials and clear product shots that don’t leave an iota of doubt in the customer’s mind.
Effective marketing: If you had a shop in a mall, people would visit it, by coming across it or looking at it. But on an ecommerce platform, the shop is on the internet hence we need to ensure that it is adequately visible to the right audience to know about the same and subsequently visit the online shop as a first step to the customer’s ecommerce journey with your brand. Various data-science backed strategies exist with online publishers to match a customer in need of a specific product with a brand offering it.
New age ecommerce strategy adoption: Social or conversational commerce is just like you are roaming about in a mall and you see a shop. Similarly, you already are wandering on social media platform or a chat app, and naturally, the shopping experience comes to you with minimal friction on what you are doing. With Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp having the biggest userbase in India, it’s a palpable opportunity that only very few brands right now are adopting. At present, largely these social and chat channels are being used for customer service or to enhance customer experience via ORM, etc. but soon will pivot themselves towards doing the actual transaction itself with AI chatbots, etc. helping people on these platforms to narrow down and buy the right product end to end without leaving the social or chat ecosystems.
Post-purchase experience: This aspect is very important due to the slight apprehension people have because of the lag between buying and receiving the product. It is also extremely critical from a lifetime value or a repeat purchase perspective. If there is a delay in getting an order confirmation email or message, it leaves a bit of bad taste as the user keeps wondering if the order has gone through or not. It only adds to the experience if you keep the customer engaged or informed till they get the product. For instance, a WhatsApp message on when the product is ready to be shipped or is getting delayed or the exact delivery notification on when it would be delivered is a delight. Ensuring the return process is easy and seamless or meeting the delivery timelines committed on the platform is also critical from a post-purchase experience standpoint.
The author is Chirag Bhatia, Senior Vice President – Account Management, DDB Mudra
