How to improve your customer experience as a retail business

Posted 22 May

How to improve your customer experience as a retail business

With online shopping such a central part of any retail strategy, customers abandoning baskets, or cancelling their purchases is a major headache. But there are plenty of ways to improve your retail customer experience (CX) to mitigate these abandoned carts and the associated loss of sales:

1. Remove the barrier of shoppers needing a mandatory account: Make it easy for shoppers to check out using a ‘guest account’. 34% of respondents say they abandoned a cart because of forced registration. Allow customers to create an account after the payment is complete, transforming a hurdle into post-purchase convenience.

2. Be totally transparent about the final price: Show all shipping costs, taxes and fees up front when the customer first views the cart, rather than at the final payment step. Hidden costs are a major reason for abandonment, so providing a real-time shipping calculator prevents the potential price shock that can prevent conversions.

3. Offer multiple payment options: 69% of shoppers may abandon carts that don’t offer their preferred payment methods. It’s often beneficial to include payment gateways such as PayPal, Apple Pay and Google Pay alongside the more traditional credit/debit card option. This increases the chance of your customer clicking through and paying.

4. Give the customer a good reason to trust you: Place security badges, clear return policy links and live-chat icons directly within the checkout footer. Anxiety about data security or ‘what if it doesn't fit?’ worries peak at the moment of payment; these signals provide the final reassurance needed to click 'Confirm'.

With 14.3% of all Australian retail sales now being made online, removing these e-commerce customer experience barriers is a must for any small retail businesses.

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