Online stores have made it convenient for customers to shop for items from the comfort of their homes. Ordering gifts online and getting them delivered to loved ones has now become easier than before. On special occasions, many customers order customized gifts online and have them sent to family and friends. With the growing number of online gift stores, how can a store gain a competitive advantage and become the number one preferred choice for customers? Here are some tips to enhance the experience of your online customers to ensure they keep coming back to you.
The trend of shopping on tablets and mobile devices is steadily growing. About 80% of consumers regularly use their smartphones to shop online. Keeping this in mind, having a responsive website holds immense value. Responsive website designs can adapt to multiple resolutions automatically, eliminating the unnecessary zooms and side scrolls.
Proper item categorization works wonders in improving customer experience. The more products you offer, the more important it becomes.
Having a user-friendly web design is one of the most important and effective ways of retaining customers. For example, a gift shop website should be very colorful and captivating to the eye, serving the entire purpose of buying a gift for someone.
Secondly, it should have proper and extensive information about each article along with the prices and good quality pictures from different angles. It is important for gift websites to make it easy for customers to find products. After all, if customers can’t find a product, they can’t buy it.
When buying products online, customers will have several questions regarding the size for instance or quality of an item. Can they get a discount if they buy 3 of a particular item? How soon can the delivery be made? All these questions need to be answered and are important to address so that customers don’t switch to a competitor’s online store.
This is where Live Chat for website comes into play. All these questions and more can be easily answered by a customer service representative online. Secondly, your CSR’s need to be proactive – a lot of customers need support before they make a purchase so instead of waiting for a customer to take initiative to click the Live Chat button, send them a message asking if they need any help.
A direct and real time connection between the customer and live chat operator helps businesses in retaining customers. Live chat adds a human touch to your website.
When shopping online, the products that arrive are often not according to the expectations of customers. Therefore, it is important to have a flexible return or exchange policy. A concise and clear return policy gives consumers a feeling of security; that what they are buying is guaranteed to be what it is defined to be. If a retailer doesn’t give this guarantee, then consumers tend to get rather skeptical and avoid buying the product.
Details such as shipping cost, delivery time and return policy should all be clearly elaborated and defined on the website for the convenience of online customers.