5 Moments When You Have to Deliver a Perfect Site Experience

Consumers today have a surplus of shopping options. With ad costs increasing, budgets for internal resources decreasing, and economic instability in full swing, things have never been harder for retail leaders. 

It takes just .05 seconds for users to determine whether they like your site or not, and in turn, whether they’ll stay or leave. Plus, brands rarely get the opportunity to fix a bad customer experience. 88% of e-commerce shoppers are unlikely to return after just one lousy site experience. 

Here are 5 moments where delivering a flawless experience will capture satisfied customers who come back to your site again and again.

1. When you mess up

We talk a big game about having no room for errors (we dream of a utopian e-commerce paradise on the regular, what can we say). But, it would be crazy to assume that issues won’t come up for even the best-equipped e-comm leaders. Whether it’s an out-of-stock item, a misconfigured promo code, or a 404 page error, things happen.

Shoppers are smarter and more savvy than ever, and they want to know that the brands they shop from are authentic and own up to any missteps. Being transparent with your customers and showing them how you’re fixing any error (aka getting it right the second time) will go a long way in solidifying trust with them. It’s critical to understand where exactly any errors are happening and the impact they’re having on your business in real time so you can fix them as quickly as possible.

2. When you go above and beyond to personalize the customer experience

The hottest party in town right now: first-party data. More and more brands are adopting this method of data collection as privacy regulations are working against their abilities to utilize third-party data. Most e-commerce companies already have a treasure trove of data being collected directly through their website. Plus, customers want more personalization: 87% of Americans are willing to exchange personal details for more rewards and personalized experiences.

But, there’s no use putting so much effort into using first party data to personalize the customer experience if things are going to break at checkout. Before you get into the hyper-personalization game, focus on a friction-free site.

3. When you work hard to reach your customers where they are

Customer journeys now happen across more channels and devices than ever before. Not only do you have to be on all channels these days, you also have to be consistent across them to ensure you keep your customers satisfied.

Let’s say you’re a brand with a major Instagram presence. You’ve created a thriving community of nano influencers – and those higher engagement rates are helping drive a ton of qualified traffic to your site. Now, you need to back up the high influencer praise with a great site experience. The right digital experience analytics partner can help you pinpoint any issues on your site to prioritize and fix what matters, fast.

4. When your customers are ready to buy (on whatever device).

You thought having an issue-free desktop site was hard? Add mobile, app, and social channels, just to name a few. 98% of Americans use multiple devices in the same day, and there’s no way to know which channel they’ll be interacting with you on.

Understanding which customer touchpoints happen where will help uncover your customers’ preferences during each stage of their journey. But, you also risk losing customers if their experience is fragmented by data or connection gaps across channels. Customers expect a seamless interaction with you across the board, so any issue on any platform is enough to sour their perception. It’s critical to have the right tech stack that monitors and repairs any issues across every channel.

5. When ad dollars are on the line

If you’re like most online businesses, you’re spending serious money to bring users to your site. But bringing users to a page with an out-of-stock item, or worse, a fully broken page? Crushing. Your ROAS suffers when you don’t convert it, and rising ad costs aren’t leaving a lot of wiggle room.

Recently, we worked with Taos Footwear to help them understand dropping performance in their Facebook ads. After implementing Webeyez, Taos was immediately and automatically notified of an increasing number of 404 errors and realized all the traffic they were paying for was inadvertently being sent to a broken page. Fixing these errors helped Taos immediately boost return on ad spend (ROAS) by 15%. 

The Bottom Line

The best bet your e-commerce brand can make is in the right digital experience analytics tool. Doing so will provide you with invaluable real-time visibility into site errors occurring at every stage of the customer journey, and help you prioritize which ones to solve first.

Schedule a demo to learn how Webeyez can help.