Solving the Obstacles Faced by Online Shoppers

The ecommerce market (online shopping) successfully covers all purchases that are made over the web. In between shops moving online, third-party markets, and increasing web access to throughout the world, these online sales have ended up being worth trillions each year. However, online shopping isn’t perfect.

A bad online shopping experience can damage your business and get customers spreading negative reviews/thoughts about your business.

The struggle of ecommerce can be measured in percentage: 75.8% (almost 8 out of 10) of online shopping carts are abandoned without the purchase being completed. Eager checkout processes are often singled out as the main cause, but many other problems faced by ecommerce consumers could be behind it.

At Bookmark, we offer all of the ecommerce solutions you need to run and operate an online store without facing the issues we will talk about in this article. Which brings us to our first point; ever hear the phrase, “never judge a book by its cover”?  If not, you’re in for a rude awakening.

Looks may be deceiving

The most common problem faced by customers in online shopping is that there is no guarantee of a product’s quality. With most ecommerce websites marketing their products, fraudulent sellers are registering and selling low-quality or fake products in the name of original and branded products.

It’s of no concern to your customers if you have the cutest bags in the market. If your product files carry poorly written text, or even, lower-quality images, the consumer could back down and visit the competition.

Solution

Avoid ticking online shoppers off by helping them evaluate your products properly. Provide them with all the info they need to feel comfortable purchasing your products successfully. Use the same structure and specific labels for similar products to help your customers compare and decide.

Never forget: consistency is key.

Details make all the difference, so it’s important to take care of your product files. Here at Bookmark, we offer all of the ecommerce solutions you need to run and operate an online store. Sign up today to build/grow your online presence, and start selling your products online!

Shipping & delivery

I am a witness to poor delivery and a direct lack of trust in online shopping. Long delivery times are a serious problem for B2C trade. Although, in B2B, it can be offset by the price or volume of products.

While certain ecommerce offer same-day delivery, most remain stuck in deliveries in 2-3 days. And let’s be real here, no one likes waiting, especially once they’ve paid for something.

Storytime

About a year ago I was graciously given the privilege to be a part of a wedding as a bridesmaid for a close friend! Excited, we girls all got together and ensured to get our dresses and essentials for the wedding ahead of time! To my surprise the dress I needed was sold out, I waited 3 more weeks while the online store restocked.

Finally, I was able to purchase it! I double, triple checked to make sure I was getting the right style, color, and length. Within 2 more weeks, my dress had arrived! I was elated! The service was fast, the dress from the package looked great, even the reviews online sounded promising.

I finally opened the package only to find they sent me the wrong dress, completely. The only thing they got was the color and as it were, the customer service also was of no help. No one was willing to ship a new one, their policies for the online store kept throwing it back on the shipping company, and vice versa.

I was given 3 options by the shipping company: either buy a whole new dress and wait another month for them to be in stock again, ship it back at my own expense or keep it.

Thankfully the style worked and I was able to keep it, but the time which it took for me to get any response from the online shop and or the shipping company was unbearable.

Moral of the story? Shopping online is never one experience for all. Always prepare for the unexpected. And I am never going back to that shop again.

With many shipping companies, their policies and time frame guarantee them to vary. Having the delivery itself exceed more than the actual product also adds to the stress and distrust of online shopping.

Solution

• Free shipping at a certain price (from 50 dollars or a certain number of items, for example)

• Join shipping costs into the price, in addition to taxes, so that customers do not receive an increase in price at the end of their shopping cart.

I’d be lying if I told you tracking is as quick as clicking that check-out button. Tracking for some online shopping happen months after the order is placed and some never even show. Tracking can be unstable and this frustrates many consumers. What may be harder is reading the tracking updates and then seeing the product physically.

We have to remember, with tracking it’s based on when the product is actually shipped and physically scanned and the various shipping locations. Delivery personnel often turn up at our homes when we’re at work or out somewhere, as there’s no way to fix a particular time slot for the delivery to take place.

So how do you as an online business ensure your products are delivered well? Good question!

• Invest in a support team that’ll dedicate their time to stay on top of all your orders.

• Understand your customers and also what shipping companies work best for that country.

• Avoid adding any particular days or hours for unavailable delivery.

• Always attach delivery information to emails & printing order-related documents.

Bonus answer: not every courier delivers worldwide, so when integrating with these shipping companies do your research and ensure they get to your customers either directly or find more efficient ways.

The last thing you need as a growing business is having either a higher number of refunds due to misdelivers.

Need help in this area? Don’t be afraid to hop over to Bookmark.com where we offer all of the ecommerce solutions you need to run and operate an online store.

Slow loading times

Ever get caught in a revolving door? It’s insanely mentally painful. Unfortunately, it’s about the same mental drain of endless loading times in the ecommerce world. Most consumers search for several minutes in a category before selecting one or more products for purchase.

Users will end up getting tired and leaving the site if this experience is not smooth. This will lead to a higher percentile of abandoned shopping carts in their browser.

Were you aware of the average 68% of ecommerce businesses could be losing 3 billion per year or more due to slow loading mishaps?

Online shopping is so convenient that it has become common for many people to create their own careers out of it. If that’s the case, our websites should be catching the eyes of our targeted audience. Shoppers are an impatient lot.

With how society has taught us, things should be given to us once we ask. As long as we ask, we can receive an answer. And hopefully the right one!

Get their attention with attractive website designs that appeal to your visitors. Next, think of ways they can have an enjoyable experience both on desktops and other handheld devices like mobiles.

A quick solution could be making sure your web pages don’t take too long to load. Give interactive product guides to keep visitors entertained and engaged at the same time.

You’ve made it this far. Might as well hop over to Bookmark.com to see how we can ease your ecommerce solutions needed to run and operate your online store! Find out more by clicking this link.

Security & Privacy returns

Cyber security, or more precisely the lack of it, is a massive problem on the internet today. ecommerce sites record important customer data like name, phone number, address, and bank details.

If your business isn’t ensuring this type of info is secure, you may risk the loss of thousands of customers including potentials as this can destroy their bank accounts if in the wrong hands.

Plenty of heavy-hitter online companies have the best-of-the-best when it comes to cyber security. Why would this concern your online business, though?

Ask yourself, if money was no object, what would you do to guarantee your online business was cyber-safe for your customers? I know, me too… anything. No matter how many customers you currently have, they deserve the best you can offer.

Solution:

• Enable customers to purchase products without registering a credit card first.

• Passwords (if your site needs them) should be encrypted or offer another way to verify that customer.

• Assess the possibility of insider involvement.

A recent study provided that a shocking 79% of online shoppers would gladly provide their personal data with companies if it was well communicated for the right reasons.

Customers shouldn’t feel they’d have to guess if your business will potentially be giving their info to a third or fourth party that may very well hack their bank and other privacy. Lucky for you, Bookmark.com has all of the ecommerce solutions you’ll need to run and operate an online store safely and securely.

Be the safer choice for your customers today.

Misguided website layouts

Once more, online shopping is supposed to be convenient for the modern-day shopper. There’s no reason for them to keep waiting when shopping online just because the website loads slower than others and has a poor searching engine.

Studies have shown that approximately 50% of potential sales are lost because your customers can’t find what they are looking for.

Put yourself in your customer’s chairs and hands. Ask yourself, does this page make sense? What info are they gathering from this tab? In what ways will this page keep them interested to click the checkout box?

It may come to you as a surprise, but the attention span of an online shopper isn’t any shorter than that of any other shopper on the high street. The key difference: Once online shoppers are distracted, or confused on where to go next, they’re gone.

Storytime

I remember I was given an amazing opportunity to help a friend of mine that was creating an online store! I was super excited when they explained their vision and their plan, however after weeks of working with them and seeing their website, I realized they had no idea what they wanted to do.

They took good plans and ideas from other larger companies, however, what they were looking to do didn’t align with how they set it up. They had an explanation for every click that took them hours to prove, they were all over the place and unfortunately, their business idea was failing them.

Of course, we were able to explain more by clearing up his website, but the point of that clean-up isn’t to explain every moment of what the customer should be doing, they should clearly see what needs to happen next.

I myself tried using their site and had given up after 30 minutes on the same page, just because I wasn’t aware I needed to click a smaller feature in the top right to get out of that page.

It’s small details like this that can make or break your customer’s online experience with your website.

This is why every ecommerce business needs a good search engine tool to enhance the overall online experience. Most consumers search for several minutes in a category before selecting one or more products for purchase.

Every good online store needs a reliable searching tool. Luckily, we have all that you’d need over at Bookmark.com. Click here to see how we offer all of the eCommerce solutions you’ll need to run and operate an online store without facing this issue!

Uncertain return issues

No one likes returning and quite frankly, as a business, I’m sure you hate getting that notification from your customer. Of course, online businesses are for the benefit of the customers, and providing an easy way for them to return can be a bonus in your company.

Ever think of it like this?:

‘If you offer an immediate way for your customers to return, the chances of them returning and you losing out on money is a lot lower than your competition.’

How can this be though? Customers like things to be easy for them. The customer shopping online needs to know what to do if a product does not have the quality they expected.

If your online store is not able to adequately answer questions like: ‘How will you recover your money? Who will take care of the recovery of the item?’ etc, the chances of that purchase decision would never even occur.

The result will be an abandoned cart at best and a rebound most of the time.

To solve this, easily offer them free returns for example. Provide a link in the email confirmation of the order if they need to use it. This shows your business is willing to work with them and not against them. Not to mention the stress shipping companies can have on returns as we so diligently mentioned earlier.

Returning things bought online is quite common. For your customer’s future experience, offering a clear way of returning any orders is imperative.

Last story, I promise…

I’ve had my fair share of working for various customer service companies. And if I had a dollar for every time a customer said, “Why didn’t I know about the time frame for returning?” Or even, “But it’s not on their website, why wasn’t I told this?” I’d be sitting on a warm beach for 5 years straight.

What am I getting at? You as their online store need to provide the most convenient info right at their fingertips.

No one likes a liar, so be upfront with them about the return policies from your end and also the shipping services they used. Not many customers take kindly to the phrase, “It’s in the fine print.”

Solution

• Give them options for different return carriers

• Include the return time frames of each carrier on the checkout page

• Provide customer service from your end that can ensure this happens quick and efficiently-the customer is always right

• Provide testimonials of other return matters taken care of with ease to gain the trust of future customers

Every customer wants to know one thing when it comes to returns… that you are not going to rip them off. 

In conclusion…

Shopping online is fun and of course as we’ve mentioned very convenient to the modern-day shopper!

We stand by these quick tips: get out of the lying business, always offer solutions for shipping and delivery options, work on improving your slow loads, invest in the best cyber security for your customers, rid your website of any confusing layouts and ensure a better/clear return policy.

It is imperative these all come into play to enhance your customer’s full experience while getting over to the checkout box. They want the best experience and you want to retain your customers-these and many more will ensure that.

You can avoid all of these and even more problematic troubles with an online store at Bookmark.com. Check us out next week for more info on your business solutions!