Online statistics portal Statista predicted that sales of B2C online shopping business will reach 2356 billion dollars by the year 2018. The online retail sector is growing at exponential rate due to addition of new products and new companies on regular basis. It is essential for every company to strategically optimize their business to ensure longevity in this domain.
Here are some essential tips that must be followed by online retailers to offer maximum satisfaction to customers and ultimately improve the sales.
1. Take advantage of live chat
Live chat plays a key role in turning prospects into customers as it is the most convenient way for website visitors to get the information. In fact, ‘Connecting with Consumers Report’ from Live Person stated that 83 percent customers required some type of support while doing shopping from an online website. And live chat is one of the most convenient ways to assist someone to make the shopping experience more fruitful. The chat agents can use this medium for cross selling and up selling through recommendation of various products that match the customer’s preferences.
2: Do not make it compulsory to register
There are several website visitors who do not prefer to fill those long forms before making a purchase from your website. And you definitely don’t want to lose them!
Therefore, make sure that registration is not compulsory on website for ordering a product. Allow the visitors to checkout as a ‘guest’ if they are comfortable with this option.
3: Streamline your email campaigns
Very first step for streamlining the email campaign is to utilize bullet points and numbering in the body. You must also write the message in the personalized manner with a conversational tone as receivers feel more connected to the brand this way. Avoid asking unnecessary details while receiving contact information from the potential customers.
4: Create question and answer section for each product
In this section, the customers can post their queries or doubts related to a specific product. Other customers can post relevant answers for these questions which will be beneficial for every visitor who goes through this product. You can also ask visitors to vote the right answers to improve the relevancy of the answers.
5: Create a mobile friendly website
Even if you have created a mobile application for your online store, designing the website that is compatible with every mobile device is essential step. This not only influences smartphone users to browse your website on the go but is also beneficial from search engine optimization (SEO) point of view.
6: Categorize the products properly
Several times, the online retail firms use highly technical terms or cheesy names for the category for the sake of creativity. Make sure to avoid this mistake and use straightforward names for the categories which clearly define the type of products.
Also, put the products in both broad and narrow categories so that customers do not find difficulty while exploring different options.
7: Have a robust customer support
Do not depend only on single customer support channel like phone as internet users prefer other mediums for resolution of queries. Invest in channels like email, social media and chat support to make the customer support more robust and flexible. You can even hire companies offering call center outsourcing solutions which have years of experience in this sector for offering better service to the customers.
8: Quick delivery
It is possibility that you may lose a sale if your competitor is offering faster delivery than you for a same product. Therefore, try to offer next day delivery or same day delivery if you want to impress your potential customers and improve the size of sales.
9: Message order status on regular basis
Major phases like order confirmation and order dispatch should be informed to customers via email and text message. Also, customer should be regularly messaged about the status of the order after dispatch. You can even go a step further and inform the customer about service centers of the product within the city after the product has been received by the customer.
10: Take feedback through phone and email
Feedback gives you essential insights on overall experience of customer throughout purchase cycle. These feedbacks can become important source of information that can be utilized for making better business decisions. You can even post the aggregate of positive feedback on your website to develop a better reputation that will definitely attract more customers to purchase from your store.
11: Constantly update FAQ section
‘Help’ or frequently asked questions (FAQ) section should be constantly modified on the basis of common queries asked by the customers. You can even include screenshots along with the videos in the answers for covering the basic issues of the customers.
Conclusion:
All these tips will not only help in raising the satisfaction level of your customers but will pave the way to make you most trusted online retailer.
