Companies that joined the eCommerce trend are beginning to observe a cautious but steady comeback to brick-and-mortar shopping after enduring COVID-19 for two and a half years. Despite returning to in-person shopping, customers view their purchases to satisfy varied requirements. But now, the prospects’ purchasing pattern & behavior is completely different from what was reflected in Lockdown. 75% of US shoppers research and make purchases using online and offline channels, so they seek a smooth omnichannel approach that balances both.
There’s no need to be concerned if your business operates online. Most significantly, people will continue to expect a hassle-free online shopping experience, and companies that can only meet this standard will retain potential customers.
We propose reading up on the typical best practices for the front end of your websites, such as carefully chosen product recommendations, an attractive homepage, and the capability to postpone payments to assure success during peak season amongst these trends (buy now, pay later).
Merchandising
Use Category Landing Pages To Make Browsing Easier
By creating the ideal digital browsing experience for customers, retailers may enhance the purchasing experience with little technical investment. Prospects frequently arrive on your website with an idea of the person, event, or thing they want to locate. Category landing pages arrange your products so that clients may search for similar possibilities they might not have thought of, supporting these expectations and fostering opportunities for discoveries.
Present Relatable Products
Additionally, product recommendations assist clients in finding new products, locating those that best meet their needs, and boosting sales. The Adobe Commerce platform includes an AI-powered product recommendation engine as a key component. It makes pertinent recommendations in a matter of seconds by analyzing customer behavior using Adobe Sensei, a tried-and-true machine learning system. Additionally, the engine is always learning as it amasses a growing body of shopping-related data, resulting in better recommendations over time.
Additionally, you can add a range of product recommendations, including “also viewed,” “also bought,” “best-selling,” and more, quickly and easily using Page Builder to practically any page in your online store. If you still need to incorporate product recommendations into your buying process, we advise introducing and testing them before the busiest time of the year.
Suppose you prefer to utilize something other than the built-in product recommendation tool. In that case, you can link your Commerce instance to a custom program or one of the numerous third-party services offered in Adobe’s Commerce Marketplace.
Page Content
Create A Warm Environment At Home
Your homepage is the initial point of contact with a prospect; therefore, it must be carefully crafted to leave a good impression. Before launching your campaign, highlight your most well-liked categories and products. You should also include links to frequently asked queries. Compelling homepages should also prominently feature a brief, one-sentence summary of their return and shipping policies (referring to more information) and indicate curbside or in-store pickup (if they’ve been made accessible).
Along with providing vital information to new visitors, reduce friction as much as possible to advance clients to the next stage of the purchasing process. Calls to action, such as “locate a store,” “view products on sale,” and similar phrases, should be clear, attractive, and clickable.
Be Where Your Clients Are Looking To Land
Spend time investigating and examining the most frequent landing pages your clients’ access via search engines and referrers. If your homepage ranks highly on this list, ensure to include the top 10 pages users often access after discovering your website. Similarly to the site, make the content on the ten pages more accessible by having details on shipping, refunds, and sales. Verify that all of the material on these pages, including the descriptions, color choices, customization options, and photos, adheres to your current brand guidelines.
Consider both recent and historical trends when completing this page analysis. We recommend comparing your site’s performance to the same time last year to determine which pages generate the highest conversion rates.
When It’s Time To Ship, Don’t Budge
Customers want to be reassured about their transactions’ cost, delivery alternatives, and timeliness. Throughout the consumer journey, be sure to express delivery expectations in clear terms. Also, make sure to display shipping information on product detail pages prominently. At the very least, customers should be able to see details about available shopping options, costs, and delivery windows.
We strongly advise providing other delivery choices, such as curbside collection and buy-online-pickup-in-store (BOPIS). Giving customers the option to choose how they receive their items allows them to select the speed and timing that works best for their daily life. With Store Fulfillment for Adobe Commerce by Walmart Commerce Technologies, our mobile-enabled BOPIS solution for omnichannel fulfillment, you can discover more about how your storefront may provide BOPIS.
Additionally, having a free shipping option won’t harm (and may even assist) your sales; this type of marketing has been effective for eCommerce firms in practically every industry.
Engagement
Make Sure You Can Be Found
By using Adobe Sensei to do a thorough analysis of aggregated visitor data, Live Search, a native search tool offered by Adobe Commerce, produces blazing-fast, hyper-relevant results. This information creates incredibly interesting, pertinent, and tailored buying experiences when paired with the site’s inventory. We advise implementing and testing Live Search before the peak season if you still need to do so.
Don’t Let Sign-Up Disappoint You
Many clients may cancel their orders if you make them register for an account first. We recommend setting up a guest checkout option before peak season if you don’t already have one. Conversions have been shown to rise with guest checkout.
Once the guest option is set up, it can be a fantastic idea to encourage (but not require) customers to register for an account or opt-in to a newsletter throughout the checkout process. Include context on the advantages of joining up for an account or newsletter rather than just asking straight questions.
For account signups, describe how an account can improve future shopping by enabling speedier checkout, faster returns, and qualifying for loyalty programs. If you don’t currently have one, you can rapidly create one with Adobe Commerce’s native features. Additionally, let readers know if there are coupons or discounts in the newsletter. Make sure your signup procedure utilizes the reCAPTCHA security tool in either scenario.
Allowing users to register for an account using their social network credentials is another approach to speeding up the process. You can choose from a vast selection of social integration extensions in Adobe’s Commerce Marketplace.
Converse With Your Clients
Offering a live chat tool is a good substitute for quick, individualized consumer communication. Consider whether you require preformatted responses, how you’d like to set up your administrative interface, and how live chat might work with other web extensions when choosing the best technology for your online business.
Payment Alternatives
Beyond The Credit Card
Although credit cards are essential for online purchasing, having various payment options helps speed up checkout and lower cart abandonment. We advise looking at integration possibilities for PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and the entire range of goods available in Adobe’s Commerce Marketplace. It has always been simpler to handle the various ways customers pay online. Study up on Adobe Commerce payment configuration.
Don’t Be Afraid Of Postponement
In challenging economic circumstances, deferred and structured payment systems can benefit clients who might require some support to finish transactions. Customers are given the option of deferred payments during the checkout process by extensions like Klarna and PayPal Credit. The addition of these versatile payment options will draw clients and enhance the overall purchasing experience.
One step to success
We advise using solutions that assist clients in quickening the sales process to decrease abandoned carts. The native Adobe Commerce feature Onepage Checkout can increase conversion by minimizing the number of clicks required throughout the checkout process. For registered users, Instant Purchase can speed up the checkout process by utilizing data stored in their accounts. In Adobe’s Commerce Marketplace, many more extensions may be used to improve the checkout process.