The pandemic has changed, not only the world order but the international business landscape. The new business models are here to stay, to say the least. Brick and mortar remained largely insignificant throughout the year. Companies with strong E-commerce not only survived but thrived.
Amazon is a winning example. The company powered its way through the pandemic with skyrocketing profits and revenues. In fact, the company’s E-commerce sales nearly doubled at a time when most businesses around the world were shutting down. Consumer spending on Amazon’s website went up by 60% just between May and July. This didn’t only happen because Amazon has an impressive supply chain system and delivers on time, Amazon also offers one of the best E-commerce user experiences in the world.
You can do the same by making your E-commerce website more interactive and engaging!
We have compiled a few techniques to help you do so:
What does it mean to have an interactive website?
An interactive website means a positive user experience. However, the exact definition of interactive largely varies. Any meaningless interaction with the website visitors will do you more harm than good. Make sure the interaction aligns well with your business goals. Your aim should be to provide a personalized online experience that goes beyond that just browsing a website. No matter how you plan on making the website more interactive, make sure it’s enticing and makes the user feel empowered. It should evoke both engagement and action.
Communicating with the visitors is important, but what’s more important is to convert them into paying customers. If an interaction isn’t resulting in any value for the company or an increase in conversions, you’re most likely not doing it right. The goal is to make visitors spend more time on the website. This will result in an average time per session and bounce rate and a lower cart abandonment rate. They’ll only do so if they see quality content.
Your visitors won’t like being talked at. Please remember that there is a lot of difference between talking at and initiating a positive conversation. Take your time to strategize your way through this. You can choose among a wide range of tools such as hover states, audio visuals, animations, and sliders to trigger user response. To make the website more interactive, it should be compatible with all sorts of mobile devices, operating systems, and screen sizes. By interacting, we are not only referring to clicks and scrolls—that’s very basic. Look beyond what the rest of the websites offer. The website designs has an important role to play.
Live chat and customer service
Your users often need instant answers to their queries. They don’t like being put on hold or waiting for the team to get back to them with an email. It’s often hard for companies to address their clients’ queries—especially during the holiday season—since most customer service employees are on vacation. Unfortunately, this is also the time when most of the shopping activity happens.
Businesses in Canada particularly need to amp up their customer service efforts since the pandemic turned a massive number of Canadians to shop online. 2020 was in fact, the year of peak online sales. As the holiday season approaches, E-commerce businesses need to invest in smarter customer service solutions. There is no better proposition than AI-powered chatbots.
Chatbots mimic human interaction with perfection, round-the-clock, and uninterruptedly. They neither need to be on a break nor take some time off to celebrate Christmas with the families. A chatbot handles the website’s customer service function and can also be programmed to offer recommendations and suggestions to the clients—even beyond the working hours. A chatbot could also be programmed to help the customers with the checkout process, product specifications, different aspects of the sale, and any after-sale concerns that they might have. This also humanizes the brand and makes the consumer feel like their concerns are heard and answered.
Live customer support also helps your business understand the consumer pain points and the website aspects that aren’t exactly user-friendly. This helps you improve the overall user experience and customer convenience. It helps you adopt more of a proactive approach to offer faster problem resolution. The data obtained from the live chat feedback can be further used to generate meaningful analytics and use it to see where the E-commerce business processes are going wrong. In the long run, this could help you beef up online sales and reduce expenses.
User-generated content
Good and authentic content is what sets your E-commerce website apart! However, instead of outsourcing the function or hiring an in-house team of content creators, you can always get the users to generate content on their own and contribute to the website. UGC could take up any form, including text, reviews, images, and even videos. The companies then share the content on their social media and other marketing platforms. You can always ask your consumers to try out the outfits and send their pictures to be featured on the website or one of the social media platforms.
UGC promotes authenticity.
Since it comes directly from first-hand users, it establishes credibility for the brand. A user sharing a cute picture of their baby wearing a pink floral dress will wow the users more than a staged shoot with a paid baby model. Real content resonates with audiences. Those who share their experiences on your website are your real fans! When you promote the content on further platforms, it fosters brand loyalty and makes them feel like the company values their feedback.
It also creates a sense of trust.
Users trust real and honest recommendations compared to what a brand ambassador or a sales representative tells them. This further drives purchase decisions and create a brand desire.
Most of us would prefer going to a restaurant that has a decent online presence and good reviews. We opt for beauty clinics and salons, preferably after seeing real, unfiltered, and unedited pictures of clients. This is the power of user-generated content. You get to provide your customers with an immersive and interactive platform to share their experiences.
UGC also helps you to showcase the experience that your business offers from a visitor’s lens. This especially comes in handy for tourism and lifestyle brands. At the same time, you get a massive credibility boost without investing any extra effort or funds.
You also get to build a massive content library!
Creating new content is particularly challenging at a time like this, when a pandemic has forced most of the people inside their homes. Having user-generated content means your website landing pages and Instagram feed will never be dull and boring.
Tip: Always credit the original creator and request their permission before sharing it anywhere on your online platforms.
Surveys and polls
Adding a poll to your website isn’t difficult, as long as you’re aware of those free poll websites or have the right help from a website development service won’t cost you anything but will generate instant feedback from the users. You can always incentivize the process and offer some discount for those who answer the polls. Use compelling CTAs and tell the users that you need their feedback to improve the overall process.
You can also incorporate the survey in the form of a customer satisfaction form—users like being asked about their experience. Please don’t make it too long and time-consuming. Someone looking just to check out won’t have a lot of free time to fill out extensive surveys. Don’t force your visitors to fill these out. Make it sound like you want to collaborate with the user to create a better user experience. Send them a thank you email after they’re done filling out the survey.
E commerce marketing services in Ottawa
Whether you’re a manufacturing or service-based business, E-commerce probably isn’t your prime forte. There are thin chances that you have good web developers and digital marketeers on the team if you don’t have that kind of expertise on a company level. Leave these functions to the pros.
MEDIAFORCE is one of the leading E-commerce marketing agencies from Ottawa that also offers its services in Toronto, Vancouver, and New York. Since its inception in 1996, the company has helped numerous businesses create a robust online and social media presence across multiple business verticals. Some of the agency’s most sought-after services include digital marketing, website development and design, analytics, artificial intelligence, secure web hosting, website maintenance, and search engine optimization.
