4 Common Mistakes in Online Customer Service

Modern customer service is a much different animal than it was in the past. Now we have several channels of communication whilst once it was just phone and letter. This gives us an unprecedented opportunity to really connect with customers though and to really get brand messages across. All this helps ensure that customers are kept happy.

Despite this, mistakes in customer service still occur frequently. Some businesses that have been around before social media changed everything stick to outdated methods of communication, whilst others just don’t put effective training in place. We’ve all heard of the many social media faux pas that ruined companies' public reputations with a single tweet or comment. However most companies that underperform at customer service do so quietly, without a big viral bang. What about those we don’t hear about? Are eCommerce companies getting it wrong still, or has the business world finally caught up with everything that technology has to offer?

Some businesses have been great at customer service right from the start, whilst others fail year in, year out. For example, for the past five years in the telecommunications industry, I’ve seen the same names at the top of the list when it comes to failing at customer service., It seems some just aren’t learning. What is worth noting: delivering great online customer service is not a matter of luck, nor is it impossible to learn.

With that in mind, let’s have a look at some of the most common customer service mistakes and the steps that you can take to ensure that your eCommerce business isn’t the one failing.

#1: One Way Communication

The internet is a wonderful medium for marketeers and it’s common for eCommerce companies to push marketing messages out over customer review sites and social media. However, communication should be a two-way street. ll too often we see the sales message being pushed out without effective customer service when it comes to responding to reviews – whether positive or negative – or questions posed.

The importance of addressing this cannot be emphasized enough. For the customer, there are few things more frustrating than being ignored. Ignoring only makes the situation worse. Angry customers take to copying and pasting their comments onto several threads in a desperate effort to be heard and customer service reps only make things worse by deleting these comments.

Or worse – the service reps repeat the same scripted message over and over.This makes the customer feel more like a statistic than a person. Even if the customer has played this card first, no company should answer like that. Customers will alwayshave the advantage when it comes to comment quantity. So when you answer, pick out a representative critical comment and answer specifically. The first step to a publicly presentable reaction is real dedication.

The same can be said of website communications. Many companies only allow contact through phone or contact forms, or worse, they insist that the customer searches through endless FAQ before making contact. But customers want instant results. The site that doesn’t provide this will lose out to the ones that do.

Live chat is useful for all kinds of customer queries, but is most commonly used for quick questions and answers to support a buying decision. Complaints tend to be made using email and general enquiries using the phone. Communication by phone canfrustrate customers when they are put in a queue. Also, plenty of people cannot bring themselves to call and explain their issue, especially when it is a negative comment or reclamation. Not to lose this group completely, offering live chat is an effective alternative.

#2: Using Outdated Methods

The internet is by nature a hotbed of competition and as such, you have to push the envelope a little when it comes to standing out. Those companies that don’t have a social media presence will lose out, as will those that keep relying on outdated modes of communication. That doesn’t mean that today marketing and service strategies are all alike and a company just has to have any mix of communication channels. Instead, the mix has to be there and it has to be adjusted to the specific target groups. This is an ongoing task, of course.

 

 

Some customers will always want to communicate by phone and are not willing to change their habits to suit you and that’s fine. You should offer a rounded means of contacting you that covers all eventualities. However, for the more web savvy customer, you should offer various channels for getting in touch and ensure that they are all properly manned. This means keeping someone on the phones, whilst monitoring email, SMS, live chat and social media.

Phones are fine and create a personal contact, which however also is their downside. Emails are more discrete and can be reviewed before sending, but they mostly don’t offer a quick answer. Live chat is arguably the best way to give customers answers when they are needed quickly, discrete and personal at the same time. This is especially true when it comes to questions that customers have when they are on the site, as they are likely to make a purchase. Modern CRM packages integrate live chat with other channels so that you always have a means of communicating with the customer in their preferred manner at the time they need your help.

One reason why live chat is implemented in most CRM systems these days, is a widespread acceptance throughout customers. In fact, live chat has the highest level of satisfaction when compared to any other customer service platform, with 73% reporting this to be the preferred method. Further to this, research has found that 31% of customers are more likely to go ahead and make a purchase after using live chat.

#3: Ignoring the Customer

A pet hate of just about everybody, it can be fatal for a company to not respond to anything the customer sends its way. For the most part, this problem manifests due to a lack of customer service staff. Since no one person can man the phones/email/chat on a 24/7 basis, it’s vital that you make it clear what hours your business keeps with regards to getting back to customers.

While it’s not good to stretch your customers’ patience in general, it can be seriously dramatic to leave them with a feeling that their message is sent into a black hole. If you can’t offer all day-round support, send a notice that the message has been received and will be answered in a certain time span. Make it a top priority to stick to that time span, be it mail, phone or chat.

For the social media world the same rules apply, with amplifications of negative outcomes. Recent research has found that 27.1% of people who were ignored on social media after making a complaint would stop doing business with the company in question. 50.7% said in a survey that they currently use social media as a means to communicate with brands online. Of those respondents who had dealt with companies on social media, almost a third (32.5%) said that they were either neglected or completely ignored.

There is no excuse. Technology – that great enabler – has given you all the tools you need to effectively communicate with all customers in one way or another and social media is no exception. The exact same tools are available for any customer and using them is for many is a relief of pressure, or even fun. This makes it likely to blow up in your face if you ignore complaints or any other query on social media.

Likewise, if you have a chat function on your website, or you’re planning to get one, then it’s hugely important to cover as much time of the day as possible to answer questions. Of course, it isn’t always possible to have enough chat agents for being available round the clock. In this case, focus on the peak times of your business. Also do make sure that your chat widget clearly states when it’s manned on the front of it.

#4: Not Empowering Customer Service Reps

The employees on the front lines are the ones that have to deal with all manner of enquiries and complaints. This means that they should have the power to deal with these instantly. However, the rep can only work within the constraints of policy and if these are too tight, it’s likely that they will deliver a poor service to the customer.

 

 

For example, a customer may pop up on the chat and ask the rep about an order they’ve placed but which hasn’t yet arrived. The common response will be to give the customer an email address or phone number they can use to contact the relevant department directly. They may then wait days, or even weeks, before an email is responded to, or they may find themselves in a phone queue and subsequently passed on from one department to another as each employee refuses to take responsibility for something that they don’t view as being in their job description.

On the employee’s part, this is usually caused by fear. They know what policy dictates and it may be that they don’t have the authority to offer any recourse to the customer and know that a) they’re likely to be shouted at and b) are powerless to do anything about it.

Firstly, again, modern technology is good enough so that the customer service rep should be able to access customer records through their CRM dashboard whilst still on chat. They should then also be given the power to effectively deal with the query. If the delivery is late, for example, they could offer free next day delivery on the next purchase and give the customer an answer as to where their item is.

The rep should also have the power to advise the customer that they won’t accept abuse. If you allow this, then the rep is more likely to stay in the job as they feel that they have a voice within the company. Having helpful rules even for when a customer gets “out of hand” will make your reps more confident and take away their greatest fears.

Don’t allow your reps to go at the customers by telling them to calm down though, even if this would “serve a quicker resolution of the issue”. So, while you shouldn’t let your reps discuss emotional states of customers, they should not be focused on just the technical details either. The feeling of talking to a robot will inspire plenty of customers’ anger. There is a thin line between coldness and offense. Train your reps to find this line of professional sensitivity and they’ll be fine.

Outstanding Customer Service
It’s not especially difficult to deliver excellent customer service across all platforms, but it does seem that many eTailers continue to get it wrong. There are now plenty of solutions available to pull communications together and ensure quick and effective responses to customer queries. Live chat is swiftly becoming the premium method for helping customers in real time and should be taken advantage of, but it’s important to understand too that customer service should be excellent across all platforms. his means adequate staff should be in place, alongside robust training.

To View Original Article: https://www.userlike.com/en/blog/2015/06/19/common-mistakes-online-customer-service

Add to Cart: How to Get More People to Take Action on Product Pages

by Ott Niggulis  Aug 24, 2015

Today is Monday. On Wednesday I have an long-haul flight to São Paulo and I just realized my traveling sneakers are done. I need my sneakers to be comfortable, because with my luck, the gates for connecting flights are always on the other side of the airport. 

 

I need to find a new pair ASAP.

 

With everything I have to do to prepare, there isn’t enough time for a trip to the mall. In-between thoughts of the presentation I'm preparing, I browse different online stores and I find what I’m looking for.

 

But there’s a problem - I need my sneakers delivered overnight or I risk not having them in time for my trip.  That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.

 

I look around the product page of the first store - there’s no information on shipping on that page, none.

 

I end up buying from my second choice simply because they clearly state next-day shipping is available.

 

Later I find out that first store also provided free next-day shipping, but that information was provided on the last page of the check-out flow. What a waste.

 

Have you noticed something that is extremely important in all ecommerce, but that I didn’t care about at all? Something that is the cornerstone of every site that is selling online, but in this instance, didn’t play any role whatsoever?

 

That all-so-important thing is the “Add To Cart” button.

 

It didn’t play any role in me passing on my first choice and buying from somewhere else. That button is extremely important, we have written about it before here and I personally have written a whole mega article just about that button here.

 

While the “Add to Cart” button is important and it’s one of the defining features of an ecommerce site, it does not carry the entire burden of of getting itself clicked.

 

You can have the most “optimized” button in the world but if it doesn’t work with the rest of your site or you’re just plain sloppy and forget to mention next-day shipping (for example) on your product pages... you are still going to lose business.

 

This article will try to give you a more holistic picture on what else you need to pay attention to when selling stuff online besides that damn button.

 

So let’s get started.

 

How Do We Discover Why People Aren't Clicking "Add To Cart"?

Image via Hello Matcha

 

So imagine that we’re online tea sellers, specifically we’re selling Matcha green tea online. The above picture is of our product pages.

 

We have high-quality product photography, psychological pricing, prominent “Add To Cart” button, some shipping info, instructions about making the tea, brief intro into Matcha teas and so on. Everything seems to be in place.

 

Additionally our Google Analytics data which tells us how many people land on this page (and how they got here) and we can see how many people clicked our buy button.

 

This is pretty good, but we also see that only .56% of our traffic is clicking "Add To Cart". That's not enough. 

 

What we really want to know is what we should change about this product page to make even more people take steps towards buying.

User testing is one of the tools that can help us with accomplishing this goal.

 

User Testing Helps You See The Page Through Your Customer's Eyes

Your shop is online, you have your customers and because you are a smart marketer you have set up email list segmentation which allows you to email different segments (repeat, biggest spending etc) of your customers.

 

Before we go forward with changing things around based on “best practices” we must first get an understanding on what the buying experience is like for our customers.

 

You’ve looked at your product pages hundreds of times and you know by heart where everything is situated and it all makes sense... to you - very often, this is the exact opposite scenario for the majority of your visitors.

 

To solve this, use remote user testing to see first hand how visitors are using your site.

 

Remote testing works by recording audio & video of what’s happening on your visitor’s screen via screen capture software.

 

The facilitation is done either through pre-loaded prompts that appear over the top of the website being tested (when using professional user testing software) or simply in the form of activities do be done sent to the testers email.

 

In the end you will get a video recording where you can see and hear exactly what was going on.

 





Image via GotGroove



 

What Do You Ask During a User Testing Session?

As questions go, our goal is to understand what information is lacking from the buyer's perspective that makes them hesitate clicking "Add to Cart" and if the information they need to feel comfortable purchasing is easily accessible.

 

If I’m the owner of an online shoe shop, a customer would most likely want to know if they have my size, shipping info, materials used etc.

 

Possible tasks for user testers would include:

• Browse around the site, what kind of shoes is X selling?
• Find a pair of men’s loafers that you like.
• Do they have your size in stock?
• Add a pair of loafers to the shopping cart, then open the shopping cart and change the size of the shoe one size down.
• Find another pair of shoes you like and add that to the cart.
• Are the shipping options clear? How much are they, and what is estimated delivery time?
• Etc..

 

You get the picture. Try to imagine yourself in your customers shoes and what they would need to know to buy from you. Then derive tasks from that and use them.

 

Once you have gone through the process once with your current setup, it’s time to analyze and improve based on that feedback and then go again for another round.

 



Image via Dale Ahn Design

 

What Customers Do You Ask To Participate?

The question of who should to the testing is an easy one - your own customers!

 

Like I said earlier, you are a smart marketer and you have set up your list segmentation already.  The only thing left is contacting those segments and asking for help with improving your site - you can offer discounts, free shipping etc to get customers to be more willing to join you.

 

As segments go start with your best customers, since they have bought from you numerous times already they trust you and are more willing to help you out. Be aware though, that you shouldn’t only rely on them - they have used your site extensively so try to include customers from all segments to get a fuller picture.

Additional segments you can test might be:

• New users
• Email visitors
• Social Media visitors
• Referral visitors
• High spenders
• Etc

 

Displaying different messaging to these kinds of visitors can be configured with an optimization tool such as Optimizely.

 

For actually conducting the user test, full service providers like UserTesting.com, YouEye.com, OpenHallway, TryMyUI and others which have made specifically for this task.

 

If you need to make a case before investing in these tools, you can use any screen capture software, and instructing users to follow the think aloud protocol as they perform a set of tasks given to them in an email. Windows 10, for example, has screen capture build right into it, so your users don’t need to install any additional software at all.

 

Using Session Replays And Heatmaps To Watch How Visitors Interact

User testing on it's own can lead to some serious bias however. Because people know they're being watched, it can influence the answers they give.

Session replays are similar to user testing in that it enables you to see customers interacting with your site - where they click, what drives attention, which form fields they hesitate on etc. - without having a test administrator standing over their shoulder. 

 

With the session replay, you're viewing videos of users screens as they use your site - there is no possibility to make them complete tasks or ask questions afterwards.

 

It’s biggest strength and weakness is that it records everything that everyone does - so depending on what you're trying to find, you may need to watch a lot of replays to get what you need.

Let's say you're wondering why more people aren't clicking "Add to Cart" and you watch through some session replays. In the replays for one of your more popular items you see that a significant portion of people are clicking the "size" dropdown, but one of the sizes is out of stock.

 

After which they either 1.) Leave or 2.) try to find another item in a similar size. If they leave, it's an easy assumption that they had no reason to click "Add to Cart" because you just didn't have what they wanted.  

 

 

Using Heatmaps to Find Where Your Visitor's Attention Does And Doesn't Go

Moving on from session replays, heatmaps are the next step to find out how to get more people clicking "Add to Cart".

 

Strictly speaking heatmaps are divided into 2 categories - click-tracking heatmaps (see where the user is clicking and moving with his/her mouse) and eyetracking heatmaps (tracking users eye movement). By far the more popular is the clicktracking variety simply because it’s way more cost effective.

 

Another big difference between them is that click-tracking is used in real-time while eye-tracking requires specialized equipment and is usually done in focus groups and in a lab environment.

Then there is the debate if mouse-tracking has a high or low correlation with eye movement.

 

Meaning that, depending on who you listen, my mouse is either always around the area I’m reading or my mouse is in a random place while I’m reading. There really is no right or wrong answer here, so just use it with caution.

 

As a word of advice, use heatmaps that show actual clicks and disregard everything else.

 



Image via HowerOwl

 

With either tool however, the point is to see where the "hotspots" are on the page, or if the right elements are getting attention at all.

 

It's not uncommon to discover when viewing heatmaps for the first time, that important areas of the page aren't grabbing the visitor's attention, and therefore might as well be invisible. 

 

Click-Tracking Heatmaps

Click-tracking heatmaps enables you to get progressively more data. With user testing realistically you’re getting data from 20 - 25 people, with session replays around 150 - 200 (you don’t really want or need to look through all the thousands of sessions).

 

And finally with heatmaps it combines clicking data from all your store's visitors and overlays  them graphically over your website with easy to understand “hot” and “cold” areas - with the hottest ones getting the most clicks and vice versa.

 

Popular Click-Tracking Tools

As far as tools go, most of the popular ones include both session replay and heatmapping capability along with a host of other features like form analytics and scroll maps.

 

Tools also different on the definition of what a heatmap even is - some include mouse movement (hover) data while others count only clicks.

 

CrazyEgg, for example, has click-maps that show different traffic sources in different colors - great for visually seeing how behaviour differs between traffic sources.

 

On the other hand, it doesn’t include session replays which more advanced tools have. So your best bet is to read up on a couple of tools and their use cases, what they can and can’t do and decide then depending on your needs and budget.

 

When it comes to analyzing, go and read “Analyzing Survey Responses” section in this article to get started. It talks about user surveys, but same principles hold true here.

 

Tools to consider include Hoverowl, HotJar, Lucky Orange, Inspectlet, SessionCam, Clicktale, CrazyEgg & SumoMe.

Last two include only heatmaps, no session replay capabilities unfortunately.

 

Image via UXPin

 

Example - Heatmap Of Category Pages

To see heatmapping in action, let’s look at an eyetracking study that Nielsen Norman Group ran on ecommerce category pages from Pottery Barn and Amazon.com:

Image via Nielsen Norman Group

 

In the case of Pottery Barn (left picture) thumbnails of bookcases were studied intensively, while descriptions were mostly left alone. The opposite was true for an Amazon page which featured TVs (right picture) - only 18% was spent on photos, while over 80% was spent on the text.

 

In the case of the TVs, pictures were of no help whatsoever when deciding. Are you really going to choose your TV based on what’s on the display? So because you like football and there’s a picture of a football player on one of the TVs I’m going to buy that one? Of course not.

 

Still, be very careful when making these sweeping generalizations. Just because it works for Amazon doesn’t mean that it will work for you and vice versa.

 

There is no substitute for running tests yourself on your products with your audience. This is just to exemplify that different things work in different product categories and surprising results can be found.

 

Using Exit Surveys And Live Chat To Discover Why Visitors Leave Without Buying

Remember the story at the beginning of the article when I chose another vendor because I wasn’t sure that they provided overnight shipping?

 

If the store owner looked at their data, all they would have seen was that I was looking for sneakers, landed on a product page and then left without clicking "Add to Cart".

 

Fortunately there are ways for marketers to get more context on why I left and thus make changes to make me stay longer on my next visit and possibly buy. I’m talking about exit surveys and live chat.

Exit surveys pop up usually on the right side of the screen just as you’re about to leave the site. They can either provide text based answers where you choose the correct one or a free form field. In the shipping example the exit survey could have looked like something like this:

 

Image via Qualaroo

 

While this wouldn't have persuaded me to buy, it would give me the opportunity to let them know why. But for me as an business owner it gives me an answer to why people are leaving which I can then use to improve my store.

 

Another way to achieve the same goal is to use live chat where customers and potential customers can get answers to their questions and continue shopping with the piece of mind that what they were searching for is either available or not.

 

And that is exactly what your customers are doing - already back in 2012 customers said that they liked live chat because they get their questions answered quickly (79% of responders) and 46% agreed it was the most efficient communication method. We'll be going more in-depth on Live Chat later this week (subscribe to the blog to get notified).

 

Image via Shopify

 

Now I understand that all this feedback and mountains of data can be overwhelming. 

 

User tests, session replays, heatmaps, live chat etc all produces a lot of data and it takes a lot of time to go through it all. But here’s the thing - you don’t need to go through every single piece of data and analyze it like a mad person.

 

The idea is to “triangulate the truth” by watching and learning, and to develop a well-informed hypothesis, which will be the basis of a testing plan focused on getting more people to click the “Add to Cart” button.

 

Use Personalized Content To Tailor Messaging To Specific Traffic Sources

Image via Vizion Interactive

 

It’s no secret that traffic from different sources converts at different levels.

 

You can’t reasonably expect that traffic coming from your newsletter and traffic coming from organic Google search will convert at the same level. That’s never going to happen.

 

Different traffic sources want different things and their behavior and clicking patterns are different. People that know you (like your newsletter subs) have bought from you and they trust you already, while people coming from other sources may have never heard of you and so you must work harder on earning their trust.

 

One of the easiest things you can to do earn great trust right away is to make sure the messages you're promoting outwards on your social channels, ads and the like match what is happening on your actual pages.

 

Take a look here at this Facebook ad:

 

Image via Unbounce

 

And now compare this with the messages on their landing page:

 

Image via UnBounce

 

It’s a perfect match!

They are using the same words and call to actions (not to mention graphics) on both the ad and the actual landing page. That’s the way all clickable ads should be done.

 

Personalization

Getting messages to match on ads and their respective landing pages is relatively easy but what if we could personalize pages for all the different traffic sources you are likely to encounter?

Now that would be awesome, and luckily for you it’s doable.

 

We already have all this data that we gathered through Google Analytics, user testing, watching session replays and exit surveys and live chat and heatmaps and more.

 

So why not put this into good use and instead of simply visually seeing how different sources interact differently with our pages but also change the pages depending on their browsing behaviour?

 

This is where personalization and behavioural targeting software comes into play. There are a multitude of different companies that offers these services starting with your favourite A/B testing software like VWO or Optimizely and a bunch of companies like Personyze, Monoloop, Monetate and more that offer these services.

 

Essentially what they offer is an interface that allows you to choose your variables and then what kind of content they should be greeted with.

 

Image via VWO

 

You can segment by traffic source, previous purchases, their location and more. This is where all the research that you have done before comes in handy - you are creating different experiences for different customers based on what works best for them.

 

This is the holy grail of ecommerce - customer sees only the things that interest them in a way that is personally unique to them.

 

Conclusion

"Add to Cart" - these 3 simple words are the most important words in ecommerce, although you might be mistaken seeing as I have only mention the actual button once or twice throughout this article.

 

It is unquestionably a very important piece of the ecommerce puzzle.

 

You should most definitely think about things like placement, contrast, size and words on that button, microcopy surrounding it, guarantees, shipping info and more.

 

All these small things play a huge and important role in your success. Just remember,it doesn’t live in a vacuum and to be truly successful you need to look at the whole picture and work on all the different parts of the puzzle.

 

It’s not going to be quick, it will take time and hard work but I promise you it will pay off in the end.

 

 

To view the original article please visit: Shopify

 

Interested in more articles like this one? Check out these articles:

6 Scientific Principles of Persuasion All Smart Ecommerce Founders Know

3 Usability Issues That Keep Visitor Groups From Buying

3 Usability Issues That Keep Visitor Groups From Buying

By: Tim Ash

E-commerce web usability is a game of probability, not possibility. If you try to allocate the same weight to elements that attract product-oriented purchasers as you do comparison shoppers and casual browsers, your site will fail all of them.

You need to review which groups of users you have the most of, then allocate your site's real estate to serve their needs. Web analytics is your friend here. Once you spot the patterns and know what kind of primary and secondary visitor groups you have, it's time to roll up your sleeves and get to work prioritizing changes to your website.

1. Comparisons are too hard to do: If a significant chunk of your visitors view a lot of your pages without going directly to the cart, your site may be getting viewed by comparison shoppers. Not converting that segment of traffic on the first go-round is OK. If you do a good enough job of getting them the information they need, you're at least in contention by the time the user is primed for the sale.

One thing that trips up analysis about mobile conversions is actually related to this phenomenon: people often compare products on mobile phones, but when they're ready to make a purchase, they use their laptops or tablets for easier typing.

If you're driving a significant number of comparison shoppers to your site, your resources should be devoted to keeping user reviews in tip-top shape. Consider having not just reviews but information about the reviews and the top reviewers, along with summarized keywords for positive and negative reviews.

Try your hand at making comparisons as painless as possible, and don't empty out carts between visits. Remember, this is a segment with a delayed payoff.

2. Searching for products is troublesome: If a sizeable set of your visitors are running through the product pages and the shopping cart page quickly, you may be dealing with product-oriented visitors. There are a few ways to fail this group of visitors:

• Search may be unforgiving: Misspellings should be possible to recover from, and your most commonly searched items should have prescribed or featured results. Product-oriented visitors are looking to get from point A to point B as quickly as humanly possible, so search has to be both functional and zippy.
• Descriptions may be missing: This is actually a fairly recent trend. Some pages are making the hero shot of the product and the call to action so prominent that short, meaningful descriptions of the products are getting pushed to the wayside. Don't fall into this trap. You can have useful, prominent product photos and clear, visible calls to action while keeping short descriptions readily available above the fold. Your product-oriented visitors will be looking for this information.

3. Too much information is required: If a lot of your conversions come from first-time visitors, and your products skew toward being one-time needs, you're probably dealing with a large group of one-time purchasers.

If that's the case, descriptions will be just as crucial as for product-oriented visitors. On top of having short and distinct descriptions, you're also going to have to up your game when it comes to information entry:

• Never require registration for checkout. The customer lifetime value may be low for each visitor, but you'll make up for it in volume. Adding registration will raise your abandonment rate without really adding to the lifetime value of a one-time purchaser anyway.
• Let visitors enter information the way they enter information. Fault tolerance for things like entering credit card information is key. With spaces, without spaces, your system should be able to handle it all.
• Allow users to use autofill. Remember, your visitors are trying to do a task efficiently once. Your job is to make it easy, then get out of the way. Autofill for forms helps significantly with this.

Most sites don't cater to everyone. Trying to please all possible visitors is futile at best and disastrous at worst. You need to figure out which types of groups are coming to your site, then adjust so that you optimize the experience for the majority of your probable visitors.

To view the original article please visit: http://www.mytotalretail.com/post/avoid-these-3-usability-issues-keep-visitor-groups-buying/all/

What is the Return on Omnichannel?

Kerry Lemos

April 14, 2015

This article was published in the April 2015 issue of STORES Magazine.

 

Digital efforts helped Macy’s fourth-quarter sales increase to $9.364 billion, up 1.8 percent from the prior year.

Many retailers are initially very excited to embark on an omnichannel journey. However, once they begin plotting their strategy, many start to wonder if the substantial effort required is worth the investment.

It’s no small task: Inventory processes must be upgraded, websites updated and employees trained. But 50 percent of all U.S. retail sales are predicted to be omnichannel by 2017, according to Forrester, and for many retailers, the concept of omnichannel helps better paint a picture of a repeat customer’s total value. With the probability of repeat customers buying a product between 60 and 70 percent and the prospect of new customers doing so below 20 percent, it’s clear why so many are looking to omnichannel for answers.

Successful omnichannel strategies incorporate several components, often including shipping from a retail store. A CIO might suggest integrating the store’s retail software with a distributed order management system in order to roll out a ship-from-store program, the goal of which would be to double inventory turnover. The CFO might reject the project entirely, citing an increase in shipping costs, resulting in an overall loss. Organizational priorities need an alignment to move forward; it is imperative to leverage the benefits of any part on an omnichannel strategy to solve a current business need.

One popular omnichannel strategy for retailers is buy online, pick up in store. Macy’s expertly integrates the online and in-store experience, which is reflected in its most recent financial results. Digital efforts helped fourth-quarter sales increase to $9.4 billion, up 1.8 percent from the prior year. Among its strongest performers were dresses and men’s and women’s shoes. In those particular departments, Macy’s tested a single view of inventory between stores and direct-to-customer warehouses.

Can smarter fulfillment routing based on the most profitable location result in more balanced inventory and fewer markdowns leading to savings that can offset any new shipping costs? Even though sales didn’t come from the highest-profit departments, they added up to an overall success as new inventory efficiencies were found and radiated sales were made when customers picked up the orders.

Sephora is also a leader in omnichannel strategy. In addition to a successful network of physical retail stores, the brand has a strong online presence and even hosts its own online “BeautyTalk” community.

The retailer integrates online with in-store activity through the constantly evolving Sephora to Go app, allowing customers access to their “loves” list on any mobile device. As customers are encouraged to cross channels with their omnipresent shopping lists, rethinking how sales and costs are attributed across channels becomes a priority. Sephora is looking to evolve the experience, deploying beacons in stores throughout the United States to deliver personalized alerts to shoppers who opt in.

The trend is clear — no matter the evolving processes or technology, the target is on continuing the retail relationship with the consumer across all platforms, channels and mediums. Correct sale attribution, together with tailored retail experiences and customer nurturing, is critical to the strategy. It is no longer just a mobile sale or web sales volume driving development of that channel: It is the retail experience and the brand story. And the rising spend per customer and elevated loyalty metrics are the return on investment measurements for the omnichannel investment.

In the end, this holistic approach to retail enhances the shopping experience, which leads to satisfied, loyal customers. And that’s an investment well worth making.

To view the original article please visit: https://nrf.com/news/what-is-the-return-omnichannel

5 Things Retail 2.0 Can Teach Brick and Mortar

By Henry Helgeson, CEO, Cayan — January 27, 2015       

A new brand of retail companies has been popping up in recent years. Call it Retail 2.0. Many of them started out with e-commerce, focusing on delivering tailored, unique offerings within stagnant industries such as eyeglasses and jewelry.

Now many are moving to open brick-and-mortar stores as well, but they aren't doing it the traditional way. Instead they are redefining what retail means, by thinking about the customer experience holistically and not just stopping at the storefronts they occupy.

For example, many of these storefronts are pop-up shops -- showrooms that turn the concept of showrooming on its head. They actually encourage shoppers to check out the goods in their stores and then, often, to purchase online (or order in-store for home delivery). It might seem like a simple tactic on the surface, but it's completely disrupting consumers' expectations of what they think a retail experience should be.

As the creative strategies of today's e-commerce startups shake up how Americans view retail, traditional brick-and- mortar companies have a lot to learn. Here are a few examples of lessons from the trenches of the Retail 2.0 revolution:

1. Don't go against the grain
Example: Warby Parker
 People often like to shop online for convenience. They also know it's easier to shop around and make sure they get the best deal. But there are certain things we still prefer to shop for in person. Many consumers want to touch fabrics, try on clothing, examine jewelry, see colors in person, etc. It's silly to try to prevent people from showrooming (as some big-box stores have done) - instead, recognize why they do it and think about how you can use it to your advantage. Warby Parker realized long ago that people will happily buy glasses online (especially for $100 a pop), but they prefer to be able to try their frames on first. That's why they offer at-home try-ons. But they've also taken it a step further, opening showrooms in Boston, New York, Los Angeles and beyond. Some of the more traditional big-box stores, such as Best Buy, have similarly found that trying to defeat showrooming isn't going to work. As senior vice president of marketing Scott Moore explained, "The thing about showrooming is it's not the ideal experience to do research at home, go to the store, do more research, then hit pause, go home and order and hope it arrives on time," he said. "There's a better way." In other words, if you can't beat ‘em, join ‘em.

2. Maximize space, minimize investment
Example: Bonobos
Bonobos's CEO has said that, "Brick and mortar isn't going away but it is evolving into something more exciting." Bonobos Guideshops have no inventory. The company doesn't have to deal with carrying costs or buy a "scale" of different sizes and colors, some of which inevitably end up being marked down and sent to the outlets at traditional retail stores. Additionally, Bonobos' employee costs are lower than traditional retail stores because there's no need for a huge staff to interact with everyone who's browsing, manage all the inventory and run to the back room to retrieve stocked merchandise. Without the need for a store room, Bonobos uses less real estate (its stores max out at 1,500 square feet) and its overall costs are lower. Sound like something that can only apply to this special scenario? In fact, brick-and-mortar stores can try many of these tactics. For example, look for ways to minimize costs by keeping samples in the store and storing inventory in less expensive warehouse space. Then offer cheap or free shipping right to customers' doorsteps. If you make it easy for them to get the best of both worlds, you can save costs while delivering a better customer experience.

3. Take customer engagement seriously
Example: Blank Label
Blank Label, a Boston-based men's custom clothing retailer, knows that happy, engaged customers buy more clothes. The company started out with an online shop where men could purchase bespoke shirts, suits and more. Using a simple online tool that collects information such as height, weight and typical clothing sizes, Blank Label has been able to offer customized fits without the need for measuring. This type of personalized, high-quality service is not only engaging for the customer but highly scalable. Recently, the etailer opened up two Pattern Shops in its native city where customers can get the tactile experience that many of them crave when it comes to purchasing clothing, especially high-end goods such as dress shirts and suits. Of course, it makes a lot of sense for a bespoke fashion retailer to take this approach, but brick-and-mortar stores of all types can learn from it. They should focus on how they can increase engagement and provide a more personalized experience to a wider range of consumers. Today's shoppers expect attentive service, personalized marketing and a seamless online to offline experience, and Blank Label provides a pattern for how to make this work in the current climate.

4. Test the waters without diving in
Example: Gemvara
 Gemvara tested out a pop-up shop on Newbury Street in Boston from November 2013 to February 2014. Ultimately, the shop didn't get much foot traffic, so the company decided not to open a full-time brick-and-mortar shop. Although this type of "failure" may seem like a bummer on the surface, it was a smart, low-investment way to test out the concept without committing to a full-year lease in an expensive area. Ultimately, Gemvara elected to open two appointment-only stores in Boston and New York, allowing their customers to get the hands-on experience without hiring round-the-clock staff. Many restaurants are trying out similar tactics today as well -- testing concepts via pop-ups or food trucks before they open actual brick-and-mortar spaces. Trying out your ideas at a market, opening a limited-time storefront or testing a pop-up in someone else's retail space can be a worthwhile experiment even for more traditional types of businesses. Ideally, lessons learned can be translated into a better customer experience, whether that ultimately lives online or offline.

5. Use real estate for marketing (and market research)
Example: Ministry of Supply
Some companies get caught up in thinking of their storefronts as simply a place to sell things. But it's important to recognize that physical retail locations are also (perhaps more importantly) a way of marketing your company -- getting the word out and letting people experience your brand in a visual, tangible way. Boston's Ministry of Supply recently opened a pop-up to help get the word out in the city about its futuristic, space-age men's wear for commuters and professionals with an active lifestyle. The brand picked Newbury Street, a popular shopping avenue in Boston, to get in front of the right customers at the right time, in a way that's hard to do while you're growing your business online. Traditional brick-and-mortar companies should also think creatively and look at real estate as an opportunity to find new markets, test new products and develop a coherent brand over time.

Technology is changing the way we shop and shifting the relationship we have with brands. The five Retail 2.0 companies mentioned above have some valuable lessons that more traditional brick-and-mortar companies can learn from and put to work improving their businesses.

What is your company doing to stay competitive in the age of Retail 2.0?


Henry Helgeson is CEO of Cayan.

To view the original article please vist: http://apparel.edgl.com/news/5-Things-Retail-2-0-Can-Teach-Brick-and-Mortar97965
 

The new shopping behavior that is creating big challenges for the retail industry

Shoppers browse merchandise at an Old Navy store in San Francisco.(David Paul Morris/Bloomberg)

By Sarah Halzack February 11

Think back to December, when you were in the thick of your Christmas shopping.  How did you pick out that perfect scarf you put under the Christmas tree for your sister?  How did you know you got a good price on those Beats by Dre headphones for your nephew?

If you’re like most shoppers, the answer is likely that you did plenty of research before opening your wallet.

The Web has made it easier than ever for consumers to make price comparisons and to access product reviews, and that has meant that today’s shoppers are frequently armed with reams of research by the time they pull the trigger on a purchase.  And they’re not making impulse buys like they were in the days before the recession.

This dynamic is creating major challenges for retailers, who must now figure out how to thrive in an era when the consumer is ultra-knowledgeable–in many cases, more knowledgeable than the store’s own sales staff.

A new study of U.S. consumers, conducted by professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, shows just how prolific this shopping behavior is becoming.

In its annual shopping survey, PwC asked shoppers how likely they are to conduct research before making specific types of purchases, including everything from jewelry to toys to clothes.   As you can see in the chart below, the share of shoppers who did not conduct research was already fairly small in every category back in 2013.  But more striking is how much the figure decreased in every category in 2014.  In each case, significantly fewer shoppers are not researching before they buy.

Chart Courtesy of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

This may not seem especially surprising if you remember the “showrooming” panic that became a fixation for brick-and-mortar retailers several years ago.  Back then, they were worried that shoppers were coming into their stores to try on or test out merchandise, only to go home and purchase them online from Amazon.com or another e-commerce competitor.

But that perceived threat hasn’t quite materialized the way many retailers expected.  In fact, the PwC survey, along with many other recent research studies,  suggests that “showrooming” is far less common than its opposite, a practice the industry has dubbed “Webrooming,” in which people browse online before ultimately going to a store to make a purchase.

Chart courtesy of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

So here is the gauntlet that consumers have thrown down for retailers:  They continue to want to shop in physical stores in large numbers–for now, only about 7 percent of purchases in the U.S. are made online.

But by the time they get to the store, shoppers already know exactly what they want, and they want to get in and out of the store quickly.  And this attitude makes it extremely hard for retailers to upsell them on a fancier kitchen mixer or persuade them of the merits of buying a protective case for their smartphone.  And it makes it hard for them to provide outstanding customer service, since store clerks now have to assist shoppers who might are already be experts on what they’re buying.

The silver lining in this data for traditional retailers is that it makes clear that stores are hardly becoming an obsolete part of the shopping process.  In many of the categories above, including grocery, sports equipment and even consumer electronics, more than half of consumers want to visit a store at some point in their path to purchase.  And so even in the digital era, those expensive store leases are still playing a critical role in driving sales.

To view the original article please visit: The Washington Post