Why a personalised and convenient engagement with shoppers is critical in online stores. Consumers are expecting more personalised and convenient experiences from retailers and brands in the B2B space.
Research shows 58 per cent of online shoppers expect retailers to provide a more personalised user experience while 64 per cent of consumers have purchased online because of free shipping.
That’s one of the key conclusions shared at a recent seminar in Hong Kong jointly organised by digital retail-experience agency Moni and e-commerce platform Magento, to share best practices in the industry and guide retailers on successful strategies for rolling out an e-commerce platform in Asia.
Ensuring a superior customer experience cannot be achieved by adopting a one-size-fits-all prospect. It is critical to deliver consumers an excellent experience across every channel, including e-commerce.
“Experience-driven commerce provides a comprehensive and flexible platform to make every moment personal and every experience shoppable,” says Mel Lim, enterprise sales manager – APAC at Adobe Magento.
Delivering a personalised, customised experience of providing product recommendations based on a customer’s browsing history, presenting a dynamic call to action and saving abandoned carts, for example, are just some of the prime goals for online retailers in today’s multi-channel environment.
Today, 77 per cent of consumers expect retailers to provide an end-to-end, connected experience which is consistent and integrates in-store and online.
“Designing a true omnichannel experience is to provide customers what they want, when they want and where they want it – by delivering seamless experiences across all channels,” says David Francois, MD at Moni.
The success of an omnichannel initiative depends on a combination of the brand’s presence – not only through an e-commerce store, but also on marketplaces, by initiating social commerce and by how well the online and offline experience is in sync, he says.
Marketing automation can boost sales
Cart abandonment is a constant challenge for e-commerce companies worldwide, with US$4.6 trillion worth of merchandise left unpurchased in online carts every year. The 77-per-cent cart-abandonment rate can be minimised by optimising an online store, taking steps such as simplifying the check-out processes and implementing marketing-automation tools to capture the lost sales.
Magento has more than 4400 extensions to empower the platform, including an abandoned-cart automation tool powered by Dotmailer that produces professional, personalised email communications and reports user data from a company’s Magento store.