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Ultimate Guide For E-Commerce Communication With Customers

Just like in any other business, communication is the foundation of everything. Communication inside a company directly influences how successful this company’s team works and, therefore, impacts the success of the business.

However, it’s also important to remember about external communication, one that happens between the company and its clients. Hence, here’s the ultimate guide for e-commerce communication with customers.

Why Is Good Communication Important?

Before you start improving your communication strategy, it’s worth understanding why communication is so vital in the first place. Here are just some reasons why good communication is important:

• It helps you create and maintain a particular brand image and establish yourself as an authority in your niche.

• It allows you to build a lasting relationship with your customers and convert one-time into returning customers.

• It aids you in growing your customer base as happy clients spread the word about your company and bring more customers.

#1 Evaluate Your Current Communication

First and foremost, you need to evaluate your current communication. If your team is poorly handling customer support at the moment, you will need to work on your strategy before you make any upgrades to your communication. Here are some of the biggest issues your e-commerce communication can have:

• You are only using a single channel for communication and your customers don’t know how to reach out to you (or have issues doing so).

• Your customer response speed is very low, and your clients are often complaining about not having their issues resolved on time.

• You don’t have a loyal customer base and you aren’t a competitive brand in your niche.

• Your customer support agents don’t provide personalized customer experiences to your clients.

• Your team is somewhat chaotic when it comes to handling returns, refunds, exchanges, shipping, and so on.

#2 Use Different Communication Channels

If you identified any of the issues above with your own communication strategy, then you should take the necessary steps to resolve the problem. The first thing to consider is which channels you use for communication. One or two channels are simply not enough, and you need to be able to offer multichannel communication and customer support. Here are the channels to start from:

• Offer 24/7 customer support via phone and email. These are by far two of the best channels for communication that are usually preferred both by companies and by customers.

• Install either live chats or chatbots on your website. Live chats will cost you more, but they are better in every way because they allow you to deliver personalized customer experiences.

• Set up social media profiles and communicate with customers there. Social media platforms are great both for offering customer support and for making important announcements (for announcements, you can also use email).

#3 Increase Customer Response Speed

Another major issue e-commerce businesses usually have is low customer response speed. After a customer leaves a request via your support form on the website or when they send a message to your social media account, they expect to hear back from you as soon as possible. The best way to do this is to have a strict protocol on how to act in such situations.

Set up teams for each of your communication channels or have a single team handle all of them. Create rules for responding to customer requests and have all your customer support agents follow these rules closely. Consider setting up notifications for every channel so that no request goes unanswered.

#4 Take Responsibility for Mistakes

Even after all the precautions and all the rules you set up, there will still be mistakes from your side. To avoid losing face, most businesses will put out very serious and formal statements about the incident at hand. These statements are often worded in a way that removes all responsibility from the business.

However, this is not always the right thing to do, especially when it comes to communication. If your team messed up in some way, sometimes it’s better to actually take responsibility and acknowledge that there was a mistake on your end. A customer support agent can simply announce this to the customer who was wronged and then proceed to take the necessary steps to solve the issue.

#5 Deliver Personalized Customer Experiences

Most customers nowadays expect to receive personalized treatment because that has become somewhat of a default rather than a perk. That’s exactly why you should be delivering personalized customer experiences through every communication channel you use. Here are just some things to keep in mind about delivering such experiences:

• Train your agents to ask relevant questions. This way, they will be able to quickly find out what the customer needs and what their situation is.

• Keep extensive documentation of your existing customers. An agent should be able to check who they are the second they know the customer’s name, email, or other data.

• Send out special bonuses, discounts, gift cards, and offers. This shows how much you care about your customers, even if they have only shopped at your store once before.

#6 Train Agents to Become Better

As mentioned above, training your customer support agents is one of the ways you can improve your team and, therefore, your communication. The better your agents know what they are doing, the more high-quality support they can deliver.

It’s also important to remember that training is not a one-time thing. To truly make your customer support agents the best they can be, you need to train them regularly and help them upgrade their skill-sets. Give them opportunities to grow professionally, and they will gladly take them.

#7 Request Feedback to Improve Further

Last but not least, perhaps the best way to understand the issues with your e-commerce communication is to ask your customers directly about it. Request feedback from your clients to help you improve even further by addressing the issues they have with your communication right now.

Much like with training, requesting feedback is not a one-time thing and needs to be done regularly. You can send out surveys and even set up a feedback form on your website. You can also ask customers to rate the support they received (via phone or live chat, for example) right after their issue has been resolved.

Final Thoughts

To sum up, e-commerce communication is essential, much like anything else you do with your online commerce business. With proper communication, you should be able to have a good relationship with your customers and maintain a positive brand image long-term. Use this guide to help you create your own strategy for e-commerce communication and use it to your own benefit.

Author Bio:

Marcy Hendrix is a freelance writer and author of many articles. She currently works as an editor at a website that reviews writing services for students https://www.writingjudge.com/. Mostly she writes about business, self-growth, etc. In her free time, she plays musical instruments and tennis

15 Trends That Will Mark E-Commerce in 2020

If you are reading us, you may already have a digital business or you are thinking of creating it. For this reason, we want to tell you about some of the trends in e-commerce. Some of these trends are already being fulfilled, others we will have to wait a few months to see them land in e-commerce around the world. Do you have the interest to know what they are? Stay tuned!

1. Online Stores in 3D

The user or potential customer has a unique shopping experience in which they can walk around the store as they would in reality and discuss what they are seeing with their friends. You can also consult the exhibited articles since they will have photos, videos, and files with additional information.

2. Image / Video of products in 360º

A 360-degree image is a photograph (or video) of a product capable of displaying it from all possible angles, different perspectives, unlike conventional cameras (only visible from one angle). This type of 360º images/videos are ideal for the real estate and hotel sector, which needs to show the properties or rooms from all angles. The tourism sector is also using this format to publicize their destinations.

You can hire a professional to take photographs or videos in 360º using a special camera (some smartphone phones already include it) or use a mobile app such as Google Street View, Sphere or HD Panorama.

3. Augmented Reality (AV)

Augmented reality is nothing more than a mixed reality that combines virtual elements with the real world. This technology allows displaying the catalog of products of an online store in augmented reality. Users can view products in detail and interact as they wish. It is possible to create a catalog with any type of product such as clothing, footwear, electronics, furniture, accessories and more.

Ikea Place is perhaps the most recognized e-commerce with augmented reality. It is an application launched in 2017 by IKEA (Interior Design & Furniture Retail Company) that allows you to virtually place your products in any space. With it, you can put Ikea furniture in the space that the user wants, so it allows you to see if it fits and how it would look.

4. Advanced Product Finder

Implementing advanced search filters for the products in your online store will allow users to find exactly what they are looking for quickly, with more search options. It is important that your online store has search filters such as size, color, material, price … Users will reduce search time and make purchases faster and more efficient.

5. Automation

An online store with many users and fewer staff to serve it, it is necessary to streamline and automate all processes. From the first user interaction to the last, automation will enhance the user experience, improve your eCommerce conversion rate, and free you from tedious manual tasks.

6. Chatbots

A chatbot is a program designed to speak and give answers to users. Chatbots are here to stay as they offer good support for common questions in e-commerce (although it is true that users still prefer to be attended by one person). These chatbots are increasingly used to respond and accompany the user in their purchase. They can be customized. The most used is Facebook Messenger, although there are companies dedicated to creating specific chatbots for each business.

7. More delivery options

Users demand faster delivery services. There are online stores that offer same-day delivery or even 2-hour delivery in urban areas. Retailers are investing in improving product delivery services to make life easier for their consumers.

8. Schedule returns

The returns in eCommerce remain one of the most important barriers to online sales since the user does not have the ability to touch and try the product. In line with the above, consumers want to return products in the shortest possible time and with the greatest facilities (if possible, from their own home)

With the scheduling of returns, the customer can buy what he wants and if he does not like the online store, he sends the carrier to collect what he does not want, in the place that he himself indicates and on the day and time that he needs.

9. Connect online with offline

Amazon introduced in 2016 a grocery store with no lines or checkout counters. Amazon Go, a commercial space located in Seattle that allows shoppers to pick up the items they want and leave without paying. The order is then charged to your Amazon account.

10. Simplify Checkouts

Simplifying the process of finalizing the purchase in an online store is essential. Studies show that there is a greater abandonment of cart when buyers find extra costs at the end of the purchase process. If you have not already done so in your online store, do not wait, do it as soon as possible! Give your buyers the easiest possible way to make the purchase.

11. Mobile-First Commerce

Purchases via smartphones are on the rise. Users are buying “on the go”. On the street, in the park, while waiting for the subway or the bus … That is why it is an increasingly widespread trend (and increasingly an obligation) to implement mobile design from the beginning of the development of an online project.

12. Multi-channel allocation

The line that separates online and offline is getting thinner, so multi-channel attribution is more important than ever. You have to analyze and understand which channels and campaigns are contributing more (or less) visitor traffic and ultimately sales, for an effective communication mix.

For an efficient strategy and budget, you should know where your visits come from before the online sale (online and offline sources)

In Google Analytics you can look in “Attribution” with the different attribution models offered by Google to determine the relative value of the different channels until reaching the conversion (the sale)

13. Video Contents

Multimedia content captures more attention than text or images. It is for this reason that e-commerce must include more video in their online marketing strategies for 2020.

14- Voice recognition systems

The intelligent assistants for home and voice recognition systems will emerge as a new battlefield of electronic commerce.

15. User-generated content.

This strategy is increasingly used. For example, The app for the sale of clothing wishes, allows users to upload the images of the products once they receive them and try them personally. In this application, it is easy to see photographs of women’s clothing from the catalog, with the photos uploaded by users trying those same clothes in their own homes. It gives other users an idea of how this product feels in a “real” body and without photographic retouching. It makes trust grow.

Author Bio

Digvijay Rajddan is Marketing Manager at Design By Lavassa and has served as the Head of Conversion Marketing at Planet Web Solution. He’s an expert in inbound marketing and lead generation.

Best Competitive Measurements of SEO For E-Commerce

There. On-page SEO is essential but complicated if you want to bring a lot of organic traffic send increase sales on your eCommerce website. There are a lot of articles on the web, but there are very few articles which comparatively meet eCommerce entrepreneurs needs.

Today here, we have discussed some of the basics of SEO Services in Noida. It will eventually help you to increase your search engine rankings. If you do things correctly, it will give you success.

For all the general entrepreneurs, e-commerce SEO seems like a colossal task, but it is not if you understand the basics. If you have an eCommerce website with a lot of products than the eCommerce SEO might same as a mountain, but have patience, execute strategies, and it will help you in speeding up the processes.

The following, we have mentioned some of the best aggressive measures of SEO for e-commerce:

 Using the Right Keywords:

When it comes to on-page SEO, keywords matter a lot. But you should not flood your product titles and descriptions with the keywords. Instead of that, you need to present them correctly.

You should insert your main keyword in the product title, product description, the meta description, image name, image alt text, image description, etc. It is also essential to insert LSI Keywords; all these things will help you in getting better search engine rankings.

 Conducting Competitor Research:

If you don’t know anything about how to start your on-page optimization for your eCommerce website, then there is one thing which you can do and get to know all the things that you need to do forward. You must know who your competitors are, go and have a brief check upon them. You will have one good idea about what do you need to do forward. And the large competitors in a field would have already optimized their websites so if you go there, then you can find a lot of things which work. Therefore, conducting your competitor’s research is worthy.

Try to find the keywords for which they are ranking India homepage or their top product pages. So, keep researching keywords on your competitor’s website and also on their landing pages to know no for which keywords they are optimizing those pages. You will get a lot of ideas if you perform this research.

 Optimizing Product Pages:

Product pages are an essential part of your e-commerce website. Therefore, you should invest a lot of time optimizing your product pages in all ways possible. Sweeping motion, store owners only write the title, a little amount of text, an image and sometimes video too. This way, your website is never going to get good rankings on Google.

You need to put a right amount of description with all the keywords because Google will only rank your website if it gets to know what is in your website and for that, you need to put all your primary keywords and LSI Keywords in the product page.

Things you must do on your product page:

1. Product Name
2. Image Optimization
3. Insert a Video
4. Customers Reviews
5. FAQ Content

You must perform on these things on your product page. Because on showing these things, a lot of benefits like it will increase the trust of the customer, it was a give you higher rankings; it will make your product page look professional, etc.

 Wrapping It Up:

Perform all these competitive SEO measurements and be patient. Soon you will see that your hard work will start paying you off. SEO is a never stopping competition. So, the harder you work, the better you get the results.

SEO might not be natural for everyone, especially Voice SEO. If you are also having problems in doing SEO for your website, then don’t worry SEO Services in Noida are here to do SEO of your website for you. SEO company in Noida provides the best SEO results within months. Feel free to contact them.

Lastly, if you have any questions regarding Competitive Measurements of SEO for eCommerce, then write them in the comment section. And if you liked our article then. Please share it with your friends and colleagues as it will help them a lot if they’re going through a similar problem.

The Future of e-Commerce may begin with a VR Headset

E-Commerce is not just about shifting products online, the very nature of this business is that of a continuously transforming beast and those looking to get ahead in the market need to accustom themselves with the changes.

It is reported that approx 77.24% of the shoppers leave their carts before making the final purchase. This shows that it takes a lot more convincing from the retailers to impress customers to purchase online as per their choice.

Virtual Reality (VR) is an emerging technology that could do your bidding. Together with its sister technology – Augmented Reality (AR) – it has the potential to transform the retail industry. Even large numbers of customers believe that these technologies heighten their shopping experience.

Before considering manifesting the technology in your business, you need to know that its flexibility element is very crucial. At present, the world’s biggest tech giants, from Sony to Samsung, are in the race to develop the most powerful and technologically advanced mobile VR products.

So how VR and AR could help e-Commerce? For that, we first need to understand what these technologies have to offer for enterprises and clients in terms of both service and product.

1. Virtual Showrooms

To add a new level of curiosity to the online shopping experience, retailers can have virtual showrooms or virtual stores. This will provide customers with a unique virtual experience which will be as close to visiting a physical store that too from the comfort of their own home.

Wide consumer markets and stores in Australia like eBay and Myer Department Store have already introduced VR shops to their roster.

The basic idea is to give consumers a far more immersive online shopping experience than they currently have. Theoretically, the consumers just need to put on a VR headset at their home and they will immediately find themselves in the virtual environment of the store. Here they can walk through the virtual store and browse the virtual products in the same identical fashion as they do when being in a physical store.

2. Virtual Visualization of the Products

Just like trial rooms in a store let consumers “try before you buy”, VR will give the consumers to visualize how a product would appear before they actually buy it. However, to make this possible, the brands need to dive into the realms of AR.

Augmented Reality is different than Virtual Reality as in AR is completely based on real surroundings with only a few virtual elements. For instance, as soon as a consumer puts on a headset they will see the room they are already standing in, wherein AR let products and items to overlay in the same environment. They will suddenly be able to see a dress in their room that was on their wish list or a new study lamp on their desk that they were considering buying.

AR gives consumers a near appropriate experience of seeing how certain items would look and fit into their everyday life in a far better way than visualizing the physical items in physical stores.

Swedish multinational, IKEA has launched an AR catalog app through which consumers can see how certain items and pieces of furniture will look and fit in their homes according to the product’s dimensions and space available in the house. Global retailers like Converse and Lego have also started to let their consumers see how certain products will look.

These forms of virtual visualization provide a new level of ‘try and approve’ theory as instead of just reading the product description, consumers can actually see how the product will physically look.

3. New Reason to Visit your Store

A lot of people all around the world still prefer to shop in-store rather than buying their products online on eBay or Amazon. While there is no slowing down for e-Commerce markets, it is because of the element of convenience instead of the ideal shopping experience a customer expects.

What the e-Commerce businesses need to focus is to give their customers an online shopping experience similar to that of being in a store physically. For this, they can have VR Stores or implement AR in physical stores.

A Virtual version of a store can either be an exact replica of the real store or a fictitious environment over which the traders will have complete control. They can design as they like and keep updating it as per the customer trends and product preferences.

Whereas using AR in physical stores will let companies launch additional content and extra information in their stores without occupying additional space. For example, a customer walks into a store, put on an AR headset and starts wandering around. As they take a look at items, they get a pop-up box describing more about the product they are looking at.

Such features will not only keep the customers engaged, they also get a shopping experience which is unlike any real shopping experience.

Conclusion

Marketers and e-Commerce are always trying the new ways to attract the customer base. Using VR and AR technologies in a physical or online sense shows strong potential to achieve this goal.

These new devices allow shoppers to let them immerse in a whole new and appealing e-Commerce experience, getting the feel of both online and physical store at the same time.

While VR and AR still seem futuristic, the pace of the growing trend will soon reach the wider consumer base as more and more companies are trying to make the best of these technologies.

About the Author:

Ashish Sharma is the Chief Marketing Officer at WeDigTech, a Mobile App Development Company. He is responsible for marketing activities that have to do with creating, communicating and delivering offerings that have value for clients or business partners.