best practices to improve customer experience and conversions for magento stores

Meet Magento Poland 2014Meet Magento Poland 2014

Best Practices to Improve

Customer Experience and

Conversions

Meet Magento Poland 2014

Who We Are

• Leading eCommerce industry provider of high-quality,

multi-channel ecommerce solutions and specialized

consultancy services with Magento CE and EE

• Magento Associate and PayPal Partner

• 24+ Partners


How We Serve Merchants

• Top full stack eCommerce provider

• Strategic and tactical digital marketing services

• Website development

• Digital application creation

• CMS solutions provider & implementation

consultants

• Our ultimate goal is to reduce friction involved with

ecommerce processes in order to unlock merchants’

greatest sales potential


What We’ll Speak About Today

• Best practices for:

– Online Promotions

– Customer Loyalty Programs

– Inventory

– Shopping Cart

– Shipping

– Delivery & Tracking

– Returns

– Checkout & Security

– Payment Options


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Coupon codes, free gifts

with purchases, and

remarketing techniques

are all effective tactics

to increase conversions

and revenues for

eCommerce stores.


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Nearly 2/3 of shoppers utilize discount codes for online purchases.

• Coupons allow also merchants to track data for particular campaigns or

segments of buyers.

• To get started, try offering a coupon at user registration to be applied to

the user’s first purchase. This action will decrease the number of users

who are “just browsing” by creating the psychological need to take

advantage of a deal.

• For repeat users, merchants should assess what a customer has

purchased in the past and offer coupons that appeal to that particular

customer’s preferences and budget.


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Free gifts both encourage your customers

to make purchases while also making

them feel special – two important

ingredients in creating a unique and

positive customer experience.

• Customers will often spend more in order

to qualify for a “free gift.” The item offered

should fit in with the customer’s segment

in order to be perceived as valuable.


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Free gifts should be determined by:

– Brand or manufacturer of items already in the

customer’s cart

– Catalogue category of items already in the

customer’s cart

• Merchants could also allow free gifts

according to cart sub-totals and /or any other

rule (or their combinations) offered by

powerful Magento shopping cart price rules


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Remarketing campaigns are emails or

advertisements designed to recapture

users who browsed your website without

making a purchase.

• A recent study from PPC Hero showed

that remarketing efforts made up more

than 16% of their test subjects’ total sales

revenue.


Best Practices:

Online Promotions• Retargeting should occur via email, display advertisements, or

social media ads within 24 hours of unconverted users’

browsing sessions and can include a reminder of the items

waiting to be purchased and/or discount codes.

• Events that spur retargeting campaigns:

– Cart abandonment

– Registration to site with no purchases after a set amount of

days

– Wishlist creation and no purchases after a set amount of

days

– User’s birthday


Trend Alert:

Customer Loyalty Programs• Customer loyalty programs encourage shoppers to develop

relationships with brands that may have few differentiating

factors, resulting in a higher customer lifetime value.

• Loyalty programs also:

– Improve customer retention through rewards and/or

vouchers

– Encourage increased spending to reach point thresholds

along with other valuable actions (newsletter signups,

email subscriptions, product reviews, brand advocacy)

– Improve brand image


Best Practices:

Customer Loyalty Programs• Customer loyalty programs can be often very rewarding for

both merchants and customers. To get started, follow these

steps:

– Determine the earn rate: the ratio between money spent

and points earned

– Determine the spend rate: the ratio between points

acquired and saved money

– Redemption values: how many points, if any, customers

must collect before redeeming

– Excluded products: which products, if any, will be excluded

from the loyalty program

– Validity periods: how long points will be usable


Best Practices:

Customer Loyalty Programs• Before putting your loyalty program in action, you must also

determine which events earn points. These include, but are

not limited to:

– Purchases

– User registration

– Newsletter and email signups

– Birthdays, anniversaries, or other special events

– Social sharing

– Product reviews

– Customer feedback survey completions

– Referrals


Best Practices:

Customer Loyalty Programs• It’s of the utmost importance that

customers understand their participation

and standing in loyalty programs. Be sure

to:

– Create a dedicated loyalty points page with

a full summary of benefits, rules, and

exclusions (if any)

– Common exclusions: Categories, Brands


Best Practices:

Customer Loyalty Programs• Merchants can encourage purchasing behavior

by creating reminders about points throughout

the customer journey.

• Place point values on product details pages to

let customers know how their purchase will

contribute to rewards & savings.


Best Practices:

Customer Loyalty Programs• In addition to placing points on product

details pages, insert reminders on cart

summary pages also to reduce abandoned

carts.


Best Practices:

Inventory• Merchants may run low on (or completely

out of) certain items from time to time. To

set proper expectations for customers, it’s

best to show availability of products that

may be running low.

• If an item is out of stock, merchants should

allow customers the option of being

waitlisted.


Best Practices:

Inventory• Some merchants may want to continue

selling items though they are out of stock.

To do this, merchants can take advantage

of options such as the Magento Backorder

Facility.

• In these cases, merchants should let their

customers know if an item will ship

immediately or at a later date.


Best Practices:

Ajax Shopping Cart• All parts of the user experience must be

simple, intuitive, and aesthetically-pleasing

– even shopping carts.

• Ajax shopping cart provides a beautiful

user experience without losing

functionality.


Shipping

• Shipping expenses

play a major role in

ecommerce

conversions

– Up to 96% of

consumers are more

likely to make a

purchase when free

shipping is offered


Common Shipping Policies

• Free shipping – no

minimum purchase

– Most effective as a

limited time promotion

• Free shipping – with

minimum purchase

– Widely used without

time limits


Best Practices Spotlight:

Free Shipping• Tests have shown up to a 90% lift in

conversions when offering free shipping

• Several best in class ecommerce

merchants highlight additional amount

needed to qualify for free shipping

– Spurs purchasing behavior



Shipping Promotions

• You can attract even most customers

and/or clear old inventory with item-

specific shipping promotions


Delivery Options

• Allow your customers

to self select the

shipping options to

cater to a wider range

of buyers

– 46% of online buyers

have abandoned carts

due to undesirable

delivery options



Delivery Options• Many merchants realize

a high ROI when offering

an array of delivery

options

• Amazon appeals to

consumers across the

board with shipping

ranging from standard,

low-cost delivery to

expedited, premium

delivery


Trend Alert:

Click and Collect

• Paying online and picking purchases up

in-store has become a quickly growing

trend among merchants with both

ecommerce and brick-and-mortar

operations.

• Retailers have seen a significant lift in

conversions and customer satisfaction

using this method.


Why Offer Mixed Commerce?

• By coming into a store to pick up goods,

customers experience personal, human

interactions with store personnel.

• Customers also save on shipping costs by

picking up their own item(s).

• Customers will leave the store with branded

packages that other consumers will see (as

opposed to an unbranded package delivered

directly to customers’ doors).


Alternative: Pick Up Points

• Some customers prefer to choose a parcel pick

up location that may be closer than a branded

store. Merchants can use services like IndaBox

to help customers choose a pick up location that

is near to them and that can be accessed at the

customers’ preferred time.

• Customers can choose the nearest pick up point

or enter an address to find others. IndaBox even

generates a map to make picking up purchases

easy!


Best Practices:

Parcel Tracking• Improve your customer experience

by always:

– Send a tracking number for

each purchase in the context of

the shipping confirmation email

– Provide a dedicated parcel

tracking section in the context

of the user area


Best Practices:

Product Returns• As a rule of thumb, always make return

policies accessible from all pages of your

online store


Above and Beyond: RMAs

• Best in class merchants offer RMA

functionality to streamline returns and

provide greater customer convenience.


Best Practices:

Checkout• One step checkout promotes:

– Low-friction purchases = higher conversion

rates, lower cart abandonment

– Creation of customer accounts (data

collection for better segmentation &

targeting!)


Best Practices:

Checkout• Merchants should be sure to include the

following elements even in one step

checkouts:

– Comments field: to collect data, feedback,

and special instructions from customers

– Discount field: customers tend to purchase

more when using discount codes; allow

them to enter this information easily during

the checkout process


Best Practices:

Checkout• The point of purchase is

one of the best times to

collect customer email

addresses for newsletter

subscriptions – particularly

if the newsletter

subscription comes with the

guarantee of discount

codes, promotions, or new

inventory alerts.


Best Practices:

Security• Merchants who maintain PCI compliance

and SSL certification reassure online

buyers and boost conversion rates.

• In some studies, as many as 61% of

online shoppers have decided not to make

a purchase from a website because it was

missing a trust seal.


Best Practices:

Payments• Consumers prefer to pay in electronic payment methods they know and

trust more:

– If your store sells globally, consider offering country-targeted credit

card gateways

• Best-in-class ecommerce companies allow customers to self-select

from several payment options, including:

– Bank Transfer

– Credit Cards

– PayPal (Pro, WPS, Express Checkout)

– Cash on Delivery

– Electronic Bank Transfer (SOFORT and similar ones)

– Payment at time of delivery/collection

• PayPal Pro provides for a better and more seamless experience


Thank you!

• For more information, please contact

[email protected]

or visit

www.advancedlogic.eu

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