Developing your e-commerce website so that visitors convert to customers requires putting yourself in your prospective customers’ shoes and viewing your store from their perspective. This combined view can help you anticipate pain points that maybe creating friction between your customers and the products they want to buy from your store. Once in those shoes start to think, what would you as a customer find value in if you were shopping in an online store. What kind of things would help you make a decision that you would be happy with and find value in?
In building your e-commerce store, accounting for and tending to these questions will contribute considerably to its success. When we start to think about providing value in an e-commerce store we then start to consider the customer experience dimension. By implementing social elements and value reinforcing content into an e-commerce website, a store can then start to provide value to visitors, which increases their likelihood to convert into customers, and then champions.
There are numerous elements and components that can be added to an e-commerce website to increase the value and the experience that the prospective visitor gets from engaging the website. Components like blog content that talk about various products, aspects and other facets of the brand, or specifications; elements such as social cues and reminders that enrich each product page with the information vital for decision making, etc. Let’s explore some of these below to understand how and why these function to add value to a customer’s experience when transacting online.
Utilizing content to support products & items.
Content is an important part of an e-commerce website that is all too often overlooked. When venturing on building a brand, and not just a simple of-the-cuff ecommerce shop, then a more holistic approach is necessary and content is the supporting infrastructure that forms the ramparts of this approach.
Something as simple as having a blog component to your e-commerce can make the difference between quickly developing a customer base of interested audience and floundering. Additionally, in implementing a blog within an e-commerce website, there are two things that it engenders, one is a more informed customer base, and secondly the opportunity to delve into the different products that is offered within the e-commerce shop.
The more informed a visitor to your store is, then the more inclined they are to make a purchase because they have an idea, or rather a more fully formed idea of the products and or services that they are purchasing. It all goes back to educating your audience during the process of them engaging your brand, which when done correctly, their experience with your brand being enriched, and this enrichment equates to more revenue.
Developing content is a key factor in adding value to an e-commerce website customer’s experience. Because the content itself is a funnel from which, as a prospect consumes, and in consuming, forges value from the interaction taking place.
The value in integrating social media
Social elements in an eCommerce store are one of the most important additions you can integrate into your website. Social elements include commenting systems that allows past customers to voice their opinion on the product. Most of your big stores do this, that is, brands with enough resources to invest in this. However today that feature is part of any basic Shopify e-commerce website or really any basic e-commerce platform. So there’s no reason not to integrate social elements into your e-commerce store.
Something like product comments helps visitors see what past shoppers thought of the product. It provides a subjective context that your visitor can tap into. Additionally, it provides unique and subjective content that helps with search engines at the individual item level.
Value creating social elements for ecommerce stores
- Social media share capability at the item level
- Customer reviews on purchased product at the item level
- Video demonstrations of the product
- Integrate content generation by users
- Create landing pages for ad campaigns
Having these element increases the value of your store because you’re not simply providing a product, chances are you’re not the only one selling the types of product you’re selling, but by providing reviews, ratings, comments, etc, you are providing a much more appealing customer experience.
More shoppers find these social subjective elements a valuable resource when making their decision to make a purchase. It’s the same way that you ask for advice before you make a decision, and it doesn’t matter what the advise is, what matters is that people usually seek it out and make their decision one way or another based on it.
Gratifying visitors of your eCommerce store
In developing e-commerce stores for clients we ask a number of questions to ensure clients understand the value of these supportive aspects of their developing ecommerce store. The more my clients know, then the more they can help me in providing that information to their customers. Ultimately, the goal here is to lubricate the decision making process of the customer towards a transaction.
Gratifying content entails descriptors and content that helps and gratifies the need of the shopper. It helps them to make a decision that is resolute, i.e., less backtracking and if you can help your customer make a decision that they are absolutely happy with, that is valuable. Working with clients, we craft content and descriptions that accomplish that and more. Work with us and lets engage your audience and gratify their decision to visit your ecommerce store.
