Exceptional Customer Experience: How to Deliver Incredible Retail Experiences
(This post was originally published on January 13, 2015. We’ve updated it for accuracy and completeness.)
Customers don’t just buy products anymore. They buy experiences. They buy communities. They buy identity.
That means trying to sell anything less than “wow” (to borrow from Michael Hyatt) will not work. In a market where your customers have all the power, you cannot afford to under-deliver on customer experience.
You need to understand what makes up an exceptional customer experience. You need to understand how to deliver them. Let this post be your guide.
Why Customer Loyalty Programs Don’t Build Loyalty
Enrolling customers in a loyalty program is a common practice for retailers. The value proposition for a loyalty program is simple: the retailer gets to track customer data, the customer gets discounts or some kind of incentive for loyalty. Sounds like a win-win.
But, the reality is that customer loyalty programs are not as effective as most retailers think or expect.
Creating a customer loyalty can be an effective strategy for retailers, but to be successful you need to do more than hand out membership cards. You must focus on customer experience to create loyal customers.
How to Get More Shopify Product Reviews
When is the last time you bought something online without reading a review?
Buying a product without any reviews is like going on a blind date. You don’t know what you’ll get, and you only do it if you’re getting desperate. Reviews are important, according to a study by Advances in Economics and Business. It says that 85.57% of participants read reviews “often” or “very often” before they purchase online.
Product reviews are a critical factor in consumer purchase decisions, but many companies are doing nothing to encourage reviews. This blog post will discuss why you need product reviews and how to get them (specifically with Shopify). (more…)
How to Provide Personalized Product Recommendations
To provide product recommendations you really only need two things: products and recommendations.
In the offline world recommendations are easy. You see someone looking at a nice skirt, you show them the matching top. If someone is browsing through videogame consoles, suggest your favorite game.
But what if you can’t see your customer? What if you don’t know how your customer is browsing your store? This is the problem online retailers struggle with, daily.
This blog post will discuss what you need to do in order to provide online product recommendations that actually work. (more…)
Infographic: Top Reasons for Shopping Cart Abandonment
Shopping cart abandonment is a big problem for retailers; a problem to the tune of $18 billion/year. If customers are selecting products in your webstore, then deciding they don’t want to buy, you are leaving money on the table.
Many of the cited offenders are outcomes of mismanaged multichannel strategy.