Disappointed customers and falling behind competitors could be one of the worst nightmares of any business owner. Though this could be true if you don’t keep up with the ever-changing world and your competitor does. For example, riding the eCommerce wave. Now, what is that basic approach or strategy that makes every business grow, have you ever given thought to that? Well, to be precise it’s about generating relevant leads, a strong customer base, and ways to consistently increase user engagement. And this is no exception for online businesses as well.
eCommerce – The Present and Future of Shopping
Did you know that Amazon’s 28th birthday is around the corner? Yes, Though the term eCommerce might have gained popularity its roots have been placed a while ago. Despite the fact, eCommerce has come a long way, there is a long way to go! Today, eCommerce stores such as Flipkart, Amazon, and Myntra have become the de facto places for shopping for many of you, especially after the COVID pandemic. Earlier there was a time when connective eCommerce was considered a niche concept and today it has become a sure-shot norm for both businesses as well as end users. Right from offering predominantly books to CDs, today anything or any kind of product such as clothes, apparel, accessories, shoes, handbags, jewellery, cosmetics, etc can be brought online.
Of course, eCommerce is pretty much in vogue among the young generations, especially among Millennials and Gen X. So if you are planning to launch an eCommerce store, you must know 137 million people you might happen to target at the same time. How is an eCommerce website beneficial for your business?
#1 Quick Buying
In today’s fast-paced world, nobody has time to shop physically from one store to another. They want to buy products quickly and get back to their chores. With such eCommerce stores around the corner, you can shop whenever and from wherever you feel like. This surely means buyers can get their favourite products within a short span of time. For example, Amazon offers 24 hrs delivery, especially for its prime members.
#2 Reaching New Customers
When you use your online presence, you can reach new and new customers in the least amount of time. eCommerce makes it way easy for different companies to reach new customers and that too globally. No kidding! Not to mention, here you do receive a plethora of benefits in regard to social media advertising, email marketing and SEO. Just keep in mind that you will be connecting with none other than ready-to-buy the target audience.
#3 Cost-effective Solution
Another interesting benefit offered by these eCommerce stores is that they turn out to be one of the most cost-effective solutions available. Imagine you are launching a new store without any kind of physical storefront. This surely reduces the upfront investment costs.
On and all, the future of eCommerce seems to be pretty rosy. Businesses small and large are more likely to jump into the eCommerce bandwagon and make the most out of the lucrative field.
Now enough being said about why you should develop a unique and intimidating eCommerce store. It’s time to focus on once you develop the store and how you will increase user engagement and that too for the long haul.
Further below, I would like to mention some of the best approaches or Tips to keep in mind while increasing user engagement in your eCommerce store
How to Boost User Engagement in eCommerce?
After the severe rise in the eCommerce realm, everyone, yes every single individual is ready to open an eCommerce store. Now if the entire globe is painted in white then how can one stand above the other? Well, that’s when these tips and tricks come to the rescue. First of all, you need to understand the term customer engagement or user engagement. Customer engagement is one such emotional connection that gradually develops between two parties, one is your brand and the other is your end users. And this is only possible when you end up delivering an amazing buying experience.
Take customer engagement as a service utility tool or one can say it is a marketing desideratum. This is mainly done to keep your end users more and more interested in you, promote your brand and be loyal for ages. However, all this is only possible when you end up offering them an outstanding experience. Further, I would like to focus on certain ways and tricks through which one can enhance eCommerce custom engagement and see fruitful results.
#1 Live Chat Support
One of the core strategies or approaches to consider is live chat and AI chatbots. This surely leads to seamless on-site engagement. Usually earlier what happened was, if the end-user encountered some kind of problem while buying the product or after the product was delivered. All they were supposed to do was contact via the boring IVR and in the end, they were compelled to switch to the competitors. After the inception of live chats and chatbots. It was found that with the incorporation of such a customer service channel, the satisfaction level has surpassed 70%. No wonder because all the hassle of waiting in the queue for hours and hours can be skipped. In addition, customers and brands can develop an emotional connection with time passing by.
For us as humans, getting a quick reply is very important and this is done only with the chatbot feature. In fact, by simply answering routine queries, you can seamlessly scale up the business by almost 80%. Of course, chatbots are more like machines, they cannot be as intelligent as humans but they do ease the burden by answering relevant queries and support in needy times. In fact, chatbots definitely can assist in redirecting the query to the live agent.
#2 Omnichannel Experience is Required
Another way to increase user engagement is by offering your end users a unified experience like never before. In fact, according to several resources, more than 70% of shoppers tend to use multi-channels while purchasing online. Now in order to nail down the omnichannel experience, businesses must tend to scale customer support across a wide range of channels. Now how is Omnichannel eCommerce beneficial?
- Consistent brand management
- Proactive customer support
- Understanding the journey of your end user
- Personalizing their experience
#3 Do Not Ignore Social Media Platforms
Another interesting way to enhance customer engagement is through the use of social media platforms. The entire world is on social media, no two ways about it! This is one of the most prominent places where you can engage with your end users in the least amount of time possible. In fact, it has been observed that more and more of your potential customers tend to visit the social media page and see how real users feel about your products and then buy it from your store. So your social media page could be the best way to create an outstanding first impression. The question is how to use it effectively.
- By creating regular and engaging posts
- Opting for relevant paid ads
- Share relevant icons in regard to products, promotions, etc
- By adding relevant stats and reviews on the social media page
- Showcasing all the latest products and activities via your social media page.
Apart from these three, there are several other ways such as enhancing sales with your own content, adding high-quality product images, minimizing the hassle-full checkout process, giving importance to customer reviews, delighting them with more and more promotional offers and the list goes on! On and all, whatever you do, it will be worth making an effort.
#4 Push Notifications for User Engagement
Last but certainly not least way to increase user engagement is by using Push Notifications. If you want to have high user engagement within budget and a user-friendly process, push notifications are the best option for it! All you have to do is choose the right type of push notification –
- Informative Push Notifications – Send updates about sales, product launches, special discounts, etc.
- Transactional Push Notifications – Send updates after purchase from your e-commerce store.
- Geo-Location Push Notifications – Send special discount updates instantly for festivals, special seasons, etc.
Push notifications are beneficial in a plethora of ways such as highly increase user engagement, boosting revenue to a great extent and conversion rates. Push messages also assist well in targeting the right audience, tracking or monitoring end users in regards to what they like and what not they like, etc. Now to make the push notifications effective and hit the bulls eye?
- Send personalized push notifications
- Keep an eye on push notifications timing
- Try automated notifications to save time & effort
- Track them to enhance engagement
- Segment audiences for more clicks, views and engagement
Among the push notification service available in the market, Truepush is a free push service that provides access to all advanced features with no hidden charges. You can send free notifications to unlimited subscribers with this push notification tool.
Final Word
Overall customer is someone you can never give up on! And if you want to run an eCommerce business successfully, you must keep your existing customers intact and grab the quick attention of your potential customers. By following all the aforementioned pointers, I am pretty sure you will be able to ensure an amazing customer journey and experience.
So that’s all for now! I hope you did enjoy reading the post and if so, feel free to share this with your peers and help us out in spreading the word. In case, if you still have any doubts or queries, feel free to mention them in the comment section below.
