- U.S. eCommerce sales are expected to grow by 8.8% in 2024 and more than 20% of customers expect to make eCommerce a part of their shopping interactions.
- By focusing on a few specific areas of your business’s digital shopping experience, you’ll help ensure that your customers return and are satisfied.
- Key eCommerce strategies include a user-friendly platform, free shipping, data security, a clear return policy, and positive reviews.
Regardless of your business’ size, it’s important to engage with your digital customers. Not only can it expand your business’ reach — and open new revenue streams — but most of your customers expect eCommerce to be a part of all their shopping interactions. In fact, 20.1% of retail purchases are expected to take place online in 2024, with eCommerce sales expected to grow 8.8% within the year, as well.[1]
If you’re new to offering a digital shopping experience, or simply want to optimize your offering, it’s critical to ensure this part of your business functions seamlessly. Here are some suggestions:
Make Your Online Platform User-Friendly
Not only do 76% of online shoppers say that they shop online for convenience[2] — including things like discovering, searching, purchasing, and more — but almost 70% of shoppers abandon their carts[3].
Although customers abandon carts for many reasons, having to create an account deters 24% of shoppers from buying, while a complicated checkout process keeps 17% of shoppers from clicking purchase[4]. The easier you make it for customers to go from putting an item in their cart to having it arrive at their front door, the more likely they are to complete the entire process.
If you’re having trouble understanding why your customers aren’t completing their purchases, consider using a heatmap. This tool provides you with essential data — represented by different colors on the screen — to show where your customers spend the most time on your site. If customers are completely missing the checkout button, for example, it might help to move its placement on the screen.
Offer Free Shipping
Approximately 83% of U.S. online shoppers say that free shipping is important to them when shopping online, listing it as the item with the highest-rated level of importance[5]. If covering the shipping cost seems like a poor way to lose money, start by considering the money you’re already losing when customers leave your site after realizing they must pay for shipping.
Once you consider how important free shipping is, there are several ways to make it more affordable for your business to offer it to customers. Some ideas include setting a minimum order amount, or offering free shipping to members as part of a loyalty or rewards program. You could also offer free shipping as a perk for something else that you’re asking a customer to do, like refer a new customer, for example, or shop on a specific day. If all else fails, it might help to build the overall shipping cost into your product price.
Focus on Data Security
Nearly 84% of online shoppers in the U.S. are concerned about data privacy when they interact with brands online, which includes 41% who say they are “very concerned”[6]. Consider being proactive about keeping customer data secure by only using a secure web host and eCommerce platform. Any third-party hosted information should use strong encryption technologies to protect data between the website and payment gateways. Additionally, consider working with a vetted and proven group of IT professionals to keep your online systems safe, and install anti-malware, antivirus and firewalls on all of your online business entities.
Besides ensuring that your backend is as safe as it can be, customers also appreciate systems that allow them to take their security into their own hands when shopping online. Businesses might do that by allowing customers to implement multi-factor authentication and clearing out carts after they remain idle for a certain amount of time.
Evaluate Your Return Policy
As with in-store shopping, customers want to know that they can easily return an item after making the “wrong” purchase. This is particularly true for online shoppers who don’t have the opportunity to engage in person or try products before purchasing. One study found that 64% of online American shoppers say that a free or easy return policy is important when shopping online[7].
Some ways to set a customer-focused return policy for your eCommerce site could include using a clear return timeframe (the longer, the better) and providing the opportunity to return the item either through the mail (with a shipping label already included) or directly to a store.
Highlight Positive Online Reviews
One of the major perks of shopping online is seeing how other shoppers have felt about the same items. That’s why 59% of consumers say that their buying journey begins with web research, while 41% decide to purchase online after reading positive customer reviews[8]. Business owners might boost their bottom lines by highlighting positive reviews and perhaps offering discounts for customers who leave an online review, then making these reviews prominent on your website.
Combine Digital and Online Experiences
Customers may prefer the convenience of researching a product online, but that doesn’t mean that they always want to make their purchases online. One study found that 23.6% of customers deem BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) and curbside pickup very important, with 72% of U.S. consumers saying that they were more likely to buy a product online and then collect it in-store[9].
By providing this experience for your customers, you allow them to research how other people have liked a product online, while allowing them to see it for themselves in person before buying. Showing that you’ve considered both as important for your consumers could facilitate their digital experience.
When considering upgrading your business’ digital shopping, PNC has the resources to help. Contact a PNC small business banker today or visit PNC Insights for more articles and resources.
