In the age of eCommerce, it’s never been easier for consumers to shop around. If they hit the slightest inconvenience, from difficulties finding the product they want to long checkout processes, they will switch to a competitor at the drop of a hat.
So in a highly competitive online retail marketplace, purchase acceleration is a vitally important part of the customer experience. In this blog, we’ll explore how speed-to-purchase works in practice, and the advanced technologies that are essential in making it happen.
Speed-to-purchase is more than just a principle: it’s a measurable customer experience metric. It refers to the amount of time it takes a customer to complete a purchase, from when they start browsing to when they finish the checkout process.
As such, it’s an important indicator of how successful customer experience is, and by extension can drive improved sales. To underline the difference that even small problems can cause to speed-to-purchase and revenue:
All this means that seamless, customer journey mapping without any friction is crucial to giving consumers the fast, easy buying processes they’re looking for.
In an omnichannel retail landscape, every single touchpoint along the customer journey has to be reassessed for speed and customer-friendliness. These can be divided into three interconnected categories:
Integrating all digital channels, including website, mobile app, chatbots, email and social media, so that customer experiences are always consistent. That way, brand messaging, customer data and user interfaces are always aligned and synchronized, so that customers can seamlessly move from one to the other without having to repeat information or processes.
Those digital touchpoints should feed into in-store interactions and customer service desks, where online interactions are acknowledged and staff can pick up conversations from the right point for the consumer. Alongside this, QR codes and augmented reality features can enable these conversations and experiences to continue beyond the point of purchase.
Using new innovations can elevate experiences and make the customer journey even smoother. This includes voice assistants that can maintain conversation history; augmented and virtual reality that can simulate in-store experiences; and IoT devices that can collect customer data and inform further improvements to omnichannel journeys.
Making the required improvements can be difficult in practice. And from our experience in helping retailers embrace omnichannel journeys, there are four typical barriers to progress. However, as this table demonstrates, none of those challenges are insurmountable:
Translating these principles into the right investment and technology for your business can be difficult. From our success with retailers just like you, we recommend these six strategies as the best way forward:
Anticipate customer needs before they arise, thanks to data science teams that can implement machine learning, drive insights from customer behavior patterns, and inform intuitive, personalized touchpoints throughout each journey.
Create integrated data platforms that connect siloed information, supported by robust data ecosystems that enable a single synchronized source of customer data across every channel at all times.
Develop digital experiences that customers can connect with on an emotional level, driven by intelligent UX and UI design that strikes the right balance between delight and functionality.
Identify and resolve customer service issues before customers even notice that there’s a problem. Chatbot and AI functions can proactively engage customers at key points in the journey, backed up by DevOps practices and monitoring tools that maximize system response and reliability.
Quantify the difference that speed-to-purchase is making to the bottom line, through comprehensive measurement frameworks that encompass analytics and business intelligence capabilities. Expert data engineering can help visualize metric performance, identify bottlenecks to progress and pinpoint touchpoints where improvements can be made.
Use agile development methodology and technology consulting to stay on the pace of emerging technology. This can enable swift adaptations to new functions that will improve customer experiences and help a brand stand out from the crowd in a competitive marketplace.
The common thread that unites all of these strategies is the need for retail-specific technology expertise to advise, design and implement these solutions. These skills can be expensive and difficult to procure in house, which is why working with an expert partner like Ciklum can give you the winning combination of innovation, knowledge and cost-effectiveness.
Contact our team today to find out more on accelerating purchases with a frictionless customer journey, unifying touchpoints and driving faster conversions.