In the online world of shopping, it's only natural that your customers will express concerns or ask questions about the products. Nowadays many e-commerce platforms have the opportunity to chat with a customer service representative which can immensely help personalize the shopping experience. As an online business owner, you want to prevent frustration from the start and make the shopping experience as painless and enjoyable as possible. The better the customer experience, the easier it will be for you to make that first sale!
You can facilitate the shopping experience in other ways by doing the following:
Personalize communications.
Cookie cutter type communications and transactional emails don't give off warm and fuzzy feelings to your customers. You want to build a loyal customer base, right?
The need for stay-in-touch marketing varies from business to business, and one may not be the same as another. Generally, you'll want to increase the numbers of subscribers on your list, and request feedback on an ongoing basis. Many of the established e-commerce sites have already built-in marketing systems to help you reach those prospective and established customers.
Give your customers a great "feel-good" experience
Whether you're helping your customers make the right decisions about credit card consolidation or cowboy boots, your customer wants to know as many details as possible about the products or service. Is your team prepared to handle constant bombarding of emails? Field all the questions from previous customers and then add the additional details for you product line. Think like an Amazon buyer. Think like a customer. How would your customer feel with a limited amount of information about your products?
Offer discounts
The good thing about an e-commerce site is that is requires little or no overhead and employees needed to run it. An e-commerce platform already automates the buying and selling process. So why not use some of these lowered costs in the form of discounted prices that will motivate your customers to return? Consider also advertising, marketing, organic search traffic, pay-per-click, and social media as effective ways to lower your operational costs.
Use video to engage your target customers
If you have demonstrable products, why not use video to grow your subscribers via social media or to attract new customers?
The answer is pure and simple - video engages. It's puts a face to your business and website, and helps raise conversions. Plus, it can easily be shared on social media bringing in additional traffic and potential prospects to your website!
Depending on the kind of products you offer, you might want to use a short two minute video to provide tips, tutorials, strategies - anything you feel your target audience would find helpful to know more about the products.
Analyze demographic data through web contacts and social media
Not making enough sales or attracting the right customers could be a big problem when you're trying to build a loyal fan base at the same time. This is why it's important to analyze demographic data through web contacts and social media. Your e-commerce platform provides analytics features and tools to help understand your buyers and provide a profile. This will help target the right kind of communication relevant to your customers. This article provides a good start to understanding case studies and how you can use them more effectively in your marketing.
As you can see, providing great customer service is all about implementing these strategies. By building trust, your customers will feel more confident and connected about purchasing your products and services. This is how you build brand loyalty from the ground up.