How to achieve a personalized customer experience for your online store?
How would you feel when you walk into a restaurant and the proprietor is aware of your booking and your order? Here, you’ll feel welcomed and pleasant and would rather prefer having your usual Sunday brunch over a Michelin star overcrowded establishment. As a token of appreciation for your patronage, the restaurant owner may occasionally send you a kebab. That is what a personalized experience is.
As compared to online stores, Retailers in physical stores are able to provide customers with a purchasing experience that is not possible online — “the ability to test products”. However, not all is lost in online shopping. You can apply innovative rules to personalize your customer's experiences and make them feel cherished and come back for more.
While you may not have met your customers in person, using the right tools and techniques to learn more about your customers and sending them personalized product recommendations is a warm gesture and is greatly loved by online shoppers around the world. Collecting previous statistics of your sales and applying them to provide customer satisfaction goes a long way in improving consumer loyalty and customer happiness. In fact, it can help you save tonnes of time, lower the cost of product returns and grow your business.
Here are some simple strategies you can apply to personalize the customer experience with your online store:
- Provide the Correct-Sized Apparel
Did you know that inaccurate size is one of the primary reasons for product returns and customers avoiding purchases from positive websites?
Women, for example, rarely get the proper-sized bra. Although finding the correct-sized bra in a brick-and-mortar store remains a challenge for many women, you may still discover what makes them comfortable. Someone is most likely a length 32C, but they have a cushy sporting length 34A — there is no technology explaining the sizes.
To eliminate the size concerns offline, you can design healthy quizzes to assist your customers in determining the right size. The questionnaires will help you determine the correct shape, precise length, and product quality.
While the unique length charts can be a cherry on top in this state, they will additionally help you in customizing product suggestions for your client.
Implementing size quizzes for your brand is an excellent way to help you to promote items that have unique sizes, including boots, pants, canine collars, and menstruation cups, amongst others.
As a brand that is selling online, you can reduce your return rates and achieve customer satisfaction by ensuring customers receive the correct size and quality.
- Product knowledge and customized content
It is critical for a customer to first understand themselves and then the product you are offering. This has a specific relevance if you are in the business of skin and hair care brands. To reduce the likelihood of product returns, before your consumer chooses any skin or hair product, it is imperative that they should first be able to determine whether it is appropriate for them.
For example, the greatest moisturizer for dry skin will not work for someone with oily skin. While it may appear to be common knowledge, most customers may find it difficult to identify their skin type.
Instead of publishing a slew of science-backed blogs and FAQ pages, guide your customers via a quiz to help them determine their skin type.
As a result of the quiz, you can help customers to know their hair and skin type. Based on the results, you can also offer your products to them and there you go with personalization at the ease of just some mouse clicks!
The quizzes not only assist your customers in selecting the proper products but also help you in understanding what your client wants and stocking your store as needed. The more you guide your customers, the more you know about their likes and dislikes.
You can compare the recommendations with alternative products and show your customers the differences based on the data from the quizzes.
Today, every time you visit a website, you will get a pop-up message that says, “Hi I am X, how may I help you?” Such chat programs allow you to converse with your consumers and know about their needs.
You can keep the FAQ and blogs, but add personalized content and education sections to help your clients based on their specific needs and queries.
- Bring physical store experience at your online stores
Online buyers want to be able to touch and feel the things they view, similar to how augmented reality is. While it may not be realistic, you can still provide your customers with an in-store experience.
We’ve all had the experience of walking into a showroom and being greeted with a cup of coffee. Furthermore, they speak to us kindly and make us feel at ease. When an offline store speaks with a customer, they learn about all of their wishes, which helps them determine the perfect product for them.
So how can you as an online retailer provide your clients with the same experience that they would have received in a physical store? To that end, go ahead and offer a quiz section where, as they browse through the products, the clients can also express their demands and desires.
This procedure makes online buying more interactive. According to a study, interactive content converts twice as well as passive information.
You can also ask your customers to leave their email addresses after the end of the quiz and if they would be further interested in receiving offers, deals, and similar product recommendations from you.
You can also provide a free after-purchase service to enhance your online store experience. This might be in the form of a video call or a chat to answer consumer questions and better understand their needs.
These kinds of services might assist you in better understanding your customer. By doing so, you can direct your time and efforts where they are most needed, resulting in long-term relationships with your customers.
- Return & Refunds
Returns are prevalent in many online retailers, but personalization allows you to limit the number of returns. Because every brand expects returns, it’s wise that you have a fairly simple and easy return and refund policy.
According to a study, 95% of customers are willing to return to your store if your return policy is favorable. Giving your customers more ownership over returns, and providing a painless return experience is what has shown to drive maximum customer loyalty.
To summarize:
- Understand your customers and influence them before they make a decision
- Suggest products based on who your customers are, what they prefer, and what they have purchased before
- Make online transactions as seamless as offline.
