The competition in eCommerce is fierce and only getting more aggressive.  As of 2022, there are more than 9.1 Million Online Retailers around the world, with 2.5 million just in the US.  This crowded landscape is hyper-competitive, and not only on price.  Customers are selective about where they spend and look for eCommerce businesses that support their values and passions. They want to buy from stores that they are emotionally connected to.  This requires retail companies to be nimble, and make sure they are making the right investments to engage and connect with their customers.

1. Create a Good First Impression

There are things that you can do to build credibility.  The first thing to address is the appearance of your store.  The impulse is to want to load your pages with as many products as possible.  But that doesn’t lead to the best customer experience.  This is especially true on mobile, where a cluttered product page leads to customer frustration.  Focus on creating a clean and attractive page that renders quickly with easy-to-absorb content, intuitive navigation, and clear product descriptions.  Your product catalog should include multiple images, giving the customer a clear vision of what they are purchasing.  Adding a product video is a powerful way to demonstrate your product and has shown to greatly influence customers buyer behavior. Along with the product descriptions include any other information that may be relevant to the customer such as product care, product warranty, shipping, and return information. 

2. Establish Trust

Creating trust signals is critical in retail eCommerce.  The customer should feel confident that the product they are buying is of good quality and is providing them with a good return on their investment.  Having high-quality images and well-written product descriptions subconsciously give customers confidence that the product is well-made.  But customers demand validation from someone who actually has used the product.  This is where customer reviews come into play.  Good 3rd party reviews support the buyer's opinion about a product.  If the customer likes the product and sees many supporting 3rd party reviews, they will be more inclined to buy.

3. Forge your Identity

It is important to establish an identity for your store. With millions of other retailers online selling similar products, it is important to create your brand.  What makes you different?  What makes you better?  Even if it is difficult to show that differentiation with your products, message

why they should do business with you.  Talk about your business values, your passions, and your reasons for opening your store.  Create a slogan that encapsulates everything that your business represents.  Provide a Unique Selling Point (USP) that connects emotionally with your customers.

4.  Build Engagement

Personalization is a hot topic in eCommerce marketing.  According to McKinsey & Company 71% of customers expect personalized interactions and 76% get frustrated when they get generic messages. It is essential to connect with customers on a personal or emotional level.  The easiest way to do this is to start by researching what you know about a customer.  This can be as easy as looking at their purchase history.  You can utilize that information to create product recommendations, or to provide personalized promotions or rewards for purchase behavior. This is going to become even more important as leading Browsers move to prevent the use of 3rd party cookies to scrape customer data.  Find new ways to engage through loyalty programs, blogs and newsletters, member communities, branded apps and customer surveys.

5.  Create a Process

It’s easy to think with a few cosmetic changes can change customer behavior.  But trust is earned over the long term.  You have to create a process on how you are going to engage with customers and stick with it.  Start with easy changes like making updates to your store.  If you don’t have the necessary resources in-house look at hiring a digital agency that can support your efforts.  That way, you can ensure that you can build the right messaging in the right time frame to stay top of mind with your customers.