Customers’ expectations for their shopping experiences have drastically altered, largely in part due to Amazon. Gone are the days where you have to run to Foot Locker or Toys “R” Us to buy presents for your kids. Place an order online, and in some cases, get it delivered the same day.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies across industries to up their game. If they were not selling online, they are likely to now. If they did not have a mobile app, they probably missed out on opportunities to engage consumers.
Although the COVID-19 vaccines have rolled out and positive cases are dwindling, consumers are not necessarily going back to their old ways of shopping. Those new elevated experiences are too hard to forget and give up.
Perficient’s Justin Racine and Johnson & Johnson’s Jennifer Alexander discussed the new status quo of ecommerce in their webinar, “An Ecommerce Conversation with Johnson & Johnson Consumer Health.”
Here are some key takeaways from the webinar:
- Companies must talk directly to customers, consumers, patients, distributors, and partners to best understand what’s important to them and what they need. If this isn’t possible, watch what they are doing. Listen to what the consumers are saying and not saying. Act on this. All consumer feedback can be used to create a better experience that results in increased loyalty, trust, and orders.
- Ecommerce is as much of an art as it is a science. To best strategize, both quantitative and qualitative data must be analyzed. Data can paint a picture that you would have never imagined was possible.
- The pandemic has caused a change in consumer demographics. A person who may have never frequented an online site before may have started doing so amidst the pandemic. Because of this, it is crucial to constantly review the data and analytics you have so you can adjust how you engage and converse with end users, provide medical information, and sell.
- Ecommerce retailers must strive to perfect their digital shelf. How your brand and how your product shows up online needs to provide as much of that “real life” experience as possible. Brands and their products should focus on giving a real-life experience in lieu of the more traditional ways consumers and patients would interact with you. Can they readily see your product information and how much it will cost? Can they ask you questions online via a chatbot? Can the chatbot escalate people to a live agent if necessary?
- Retailers must manage and exceed expectations as often as possible. For example, make the shipping and tracking confirmation readily available, and implement a process to update consumers if there is a change to the delivery status.
Catch a recording of the webinar below or here to get insight on how to elevate your ecommerce customer experience.
