The news has been talking about how eCommerce is on the rise now and how the big traditional retailers are experiencing a decline.

But no one is talking about how competitive the eCommerce industry is getting and how nowadays with the likes of Shopify, virtually anyone can build a decent eCommerce store in a few hours!

Competition comes from the big eCommerce retailers, marketplaces, and also small ecommerce stores. Everybody is focusing on the same thing. Which is to win more customers and get sales.

Leveraging customers behaviour

The positive aspect of eCommerce growing so far is that the industry has matured enough to understand consumer behaviour.

In the middle of this cutthroat eCommerce competition, we were able to gather and compile consumer behaviour data that your eCommerce store can leverage to gain a competitive advantage.

Great user experience is preferred

eCommerce user experience plays a big part in creating an overall opinion of an eCommerce store. Did you know that 88% of online customers are less likely to return to a site if they had a bad experience?

To add to that, 52% of shoppers abandon sites and do not return because they dislike the overall aesthetics of an eCommerce store.

If you really haven’t been focusing on your eCommerce store design and navigation, this might be the right for you to rebrand your eCommerce store and expect a boost in sales!

These are the 5 principles that should be followed when designing a UX:

Facts around UX:

For every $1 invested in UX, eCommerce stores on average get a return between $2 and $100

Changing CTA Button text from “Register” to “Continue” increased a major eCommerce company sales by $300 million.

Airbnb attributes UX for taking them from being a near-failure to being valued at $10 million.

ESPN’s revenue increased by 35% after a homepage redesign.

Customers do research

It is fair to say that when we shop online, we would want to be sure about the product that we want to purchase by doing a bit of online research

 According to KPMG  88% of eCommerce customers research their purchases online before making a purchase and around 64% of customers check reviews on Google before purchase.

Although reviews online are from strangers, eCommerce customers trust reviews more than what the brand themselves are saying.

This researching behaviour has shown the importance of presence from both the eCommerce store and the customer's side.

eCommerce stores must not only be active in site but also off-site.

A good example is to create content or sponsoring products to influencers in social media platforms such as Instagram, YouTube, or recently Tik Tok so then stores can engage closely with its customer and provide presence!

Another way is to use a customer feedback software company like Review Trackers to provide customers with an in-site review on every product so then they wouldn’t need to exit your store.

Customers love videos

BargainFox revealed that 73% of customers are more likely to purchase a product or service if they can watch an explainer video and 58% of customers think that companies that produce videos are trustworthy.

To tackle this behaviour, your eCommerce store must engage its customers in-site using video contents.

There are 3 types of videos your eCommerce store can have:

Testimonial videos – To provide social proof

Explainer Videos – To explain simply

Video backgrounds – To set a mood

3 most effective of emotions to affect clicks:

Awe

Laughter

Amusement

A good video placed on your landing page can help illustrate the value of the product your ecommerce store can offer.

This is a good strategy If your eCommerce store revolves around ‘boring industries’ and eCommerce stores that offer a solution.

Remember Dollar Shave Club viral sales video?

Shoppers hate to pay for shipping

The number one reason what eCommerce store customers around the world hate when shopping online is paying for shipping. 

This is also the major cause of shopping cart abandonment, which is the cause of around 80% loss in sales in eCommerce stores.

eCommerce stores can introduce a free shipping membership program that customers can enroll to monthly.

Another solution is to increase your product prices to cover shipping fees, so then the product would look like ‘free shipping’ but not actually

These behaviours have been around for the past few years but not all eCommerce stores realize that they can leverage these behaviours and create solutions that can transform into a competitive advantage.

We hope that you will be achieving sales records after reading this blog!

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