Customer experience in eCommerce
It is not uncommon for users to struggle with confusing homepages and seemingly endless loading times in online shops. Added to this are distorted forms of presentation, incorrect or outdated descriptions or unrealistic images.
Even after a purchase, annoyances are not uncommon. Who hasn't been annoyed by excessively long delivery times for a last-minute birthday present for their partner and also had to accept excessively high delivery costs? Perhaps you even cancelled the purchase process early because your credit card was refused?
Or did you decide in favour of Amazon for your last online purchase because your preferred online shop only has a very limited selection of payment methods and PayPal was not on file? How often have you entered your credit card details in your favourite online shop and been asked for the 16-digit credit card number again the next time you made a purchase?
Depending on the source, the average shopping basket abandonment rate is between just under 60% and 80%. The reasons for this are varied and range from excessively long waiting times and additional costs for packaging to mandatory registration with the webshop operator. Online customers want uncomplicated and transparent processes, want their data to be filled in automatically and also have a great need for security.
Germans' need for security in online shops
German consumers in particular still harbour reservations about online retail due to security issues. Online retailers should absolutely ensure PCI compliance in order to avoid exorbitantly high fines and the revocation of all licences and to avoid falling into the disfavour of consumers.
The focus on ensuring security requirements, but also clean processing in the backend of the web shop, means that many companies only optimise the internal processes in one area of their business. In doing so, however, they neglect the requirements and wishes of their customers. This often leads to the problems in the customer journey listed at the beginning.
The payment process in eCommerce as an example
Let's look at the payment process as a very decisive step in the customer journey as an example: many companies take a simplified and one-dimensional view of their online shop in order to derive payment strategies. In doing so, the specific requirements of different customer groups are often not taken into account, or only insufficiently. While traditional bank transfer is often the preferred payment method in B2B online retail, end customers in the B2C segment prefer a one-click checkout. In Germany, PayPal is most frequently used for this. Among our French neighbours, Carte Bancaire is particularly popular, while iDEAL is the favourite wallet of the Dutch.
Conclusion for the customer journey in eCommerce
But it's not just customers who are struggling through the eCommerce jungle. Online retailers also face major challenges. They cite supply bottlenecks as the most common difficulty, closely followed by competitive pressure and the negative effects of the coronavirus pandemic. And ultimately, this in turn affects the customer journey that they can offer their customers.
Let's summarise: In addition to a smooth technical flow of the web shop in front of customers, the customer journey must ensure fast responses to customer enquiries and uncomplicated, smooth shipping. This enables online retailers to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction and long-term customer loyalty.
