If you want to know to improve the online shopping experience, we’ve studied the latest research to provide you with this definitive guide. There are five critical areas of focus: payment, product, website, logistics, and customer service. We’ll cover which of those areas should be your top priorities and how you can improve them.
What Factors Drive Positive Online Shopping Experiences?
A 2022 online shopping customer experience study identified three primary dimensions that affect the online shopping experience:
- Payment Experience. The payment experience is influenced by factors such as privacy, security, speed, payment options, and user-friendliness.
- Product Experience. The product experience is influenced by factors such as product quality, price, variety, return policies, and product information.
- Website Experience. The website experience is influenced by factors such as how easy it is to use the website, how well designed it is, how fast it is, and how trustworthy consumers perceive it to be.
Other Factors to Consider
While the payment, product, and website components were found to be the key drivers of good online shopping experiences, there are two other vital factors to keep in mind:
- Logistics. The logistics experience is influenced by factors such as delivery time, order tracking, and shipping.
- Customer Service. The customer service experience is influenced by factors such as complaint resolution and the perceived helpfulness of customer service agents.
How to Improve Online Shopping Experience
The most impactful ways you can improve the online shopping experience is to make changes that improve the three dimensions of customer experience.
Improve the Payment Experience
- Offer different ways to log in.
- Be PCI compliant.
- Get an SSL certificate.
- Use credit card logos and security seals to improve credibility.
- Have prominent checkout buttons.
- Highlight your refund policy.
- Make it easy to contact you.
- Include a confirmation page before final checkout.
- Accept mobile payments.
- Send a confirmation email.
Improve the Product Experience
- Display reviews.
- Build an effective product discovery platform[1].
- Make your product pages as interactive as possible.
- Provide detailed information on every product.
- Be clear about your return policy.
- Include product photos and videos.
Improve the Website Experience
- Include a Contact page.
- Include an FAQ page.
- Have a privacy policy.
- Organize your products in categories and sub-categories.
- Enable shoppers to search, filter, and sort products.
- Add live chat.
- Use website tracking tools[2] like website visitor identification to improve eCommerce personalization.
- Use ecommerce analytics tools[3] to measure and optimize website performance.
For more information on how to create an eCommerce website, check out our eCommerce website checklist.
Optimize the Online Shopping Experience
Improving your eCommerce company’s online shopping experience is one of the most effective ways to increase revenue. It helps shoppers trust your brand, make purchasing decisions, and shows them that their private information is safe with your business. Once you’ve perfected your payment, product, and website experiences, you can further improve by focusing on logistics and customer service.
[1] Pick the Right Product Discovery Platform Easily
[2] 3 Website Visitor Tracking Tools to Increase Sales
[3] Top 5 eCommerce Analytics Tools Based on Customer Satisfaction