What are the best strategies for preventing e-commerce service failures?

La mejora continua del UX es esencial para prevenir fallos en el servicio y garantizar la satisfacción del cliente. Una interfaz intuitiva, procesos de compra simplificados y una navegación clara son fundamentales para evitar el abandono del carrito de compras. La inversión en estudios de usabilidad, pruebas A/B y análisis de la jornada del cliente permite identificar y solucionar obstáculos, optimizando así el recorrido del usuario desde el descubrimiento hasta la post-compra. El dise?o UX debe enfocarse en la accesibilidad, la respuesta emocional del usuario y la facilidad de uso para asegurar conversiones consistentes y reducir las tasas de errores operativos.

In my experience as e-commerce manager for fashion & luxury companies, I learned that service failure can happen in any area of the e-commerce value-chain: low product quality that can affect the customer experience e.g. problems with dies or fitting, slow or unhelpful replies to customer inquiries, for example during peak season, failed parcels delivery by carriers. Sometimes there are User Experience issues on the website related just to specific devices and screen sizes. Therefore you need to consider all aspects of ecommerce to make sure failure doesn't happen where and when you don't expect it.

Another outcome failure common in ecommerce is server or system unavailable error during a user's experience due to over-architecture dependencies and unnecessary systems complexities, resulting in multiple points of failure that compound into a lower than reported overall service-level agreement for a digital experience.

Acredito que é importante sempre trabalhar com servi?os de redundancia, preven??o é uma forma de evitar falhas, ter sempre vários canais de comunica??o para que caso haja falha em um canal tenha outra op??o, é importante também sempre revisar os processos e fornecer treinamentos para evitar erros.

E-commerce service failures can manifest in various forms, stemming from factors like overpaying for custom software and digitalization when off-the-shelf solutions are available. This outcome failure often occurs when businesses invest heavily in custom solutions without exploring cost-effective alternatives. In addition, failing to calculate ROI, profit margins, and advertising costs accurately during the initial stages leads to financial process failures, disrupting business sustainability. Furthermore, an exclusive focus on digital advertising, disregarding the potential of traditional creative campaigns, can result in psychological failures as customers miss out on engaging and effective advertising strategies.

To address systemic dependencies, ecommerce leaders should look to simplifying their systems architecture and reducing technical debt by leveraging a modern composable ecommerce architecture. A composable architecture includes adhering to a MACH architecture, in which the technology stack employed is Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud native, and Headless in nature.

It gives me a sense of satisfaction feeling that I am staying ahead of potential issues and challenges. First, we are transitioning our ecommerce platform to a more flexible environment. Shifting from a monolithic system to a composable one will allow us to scale more effectively, as well as easily integrate best-in-class solutions that may not be compatible with a monolithic setup. Additionally, by closely monitoring our data, including customer journey analysis, rage clicking, exit rates, and traffic sources, we can pinpoint areas of concern and determine where our priorities should lie. By taking a proactive approach, we're able to deliver the best possible experience for our customers and drive success in the ecommerce landscape.

One thing I find helpful to prevent failure in e-commerce is to have a Quality Team that carries out regular testing on your ecommerce platforms. In my experience there are some tests that are essential e.g. functional tests of the website to make sure the main features are working as expected e.g. search, category page and check-out; Regression tests: after you release a new feature on the website you want to re-check that nothing else was broken as side effect of the release; Crowd testing: have people from various parts of the world to test your website in their own language and with their local payment methods. To prevent failures you may want to double down on your safety measures, look up the Swiss cheese model in risk theory.

Three practices which can save you money, time and failure before you start: Leverage Proven Software: When starting, opt for established software solutions to avoid novice mistakes. Off-the-shelf platforms often come with solutions to common startup challenges. Consult Local Experts: Seek insights from experienced local e-commerce businesses on taxes, delivery costs, and legal nuances. Collaborating with market veterans provides a holistic understanding of costs. Calculate ROAS: Monitor Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) for every campaign, including traditional and offline activities. Sometimes offline activities give better ROAS and bond with the customers. Continuously assessing effectiveness ensures a balanced approach and optimal results.

From a technology perspective, a process failure is typically followed by a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) that pinpoints to the specific, factual, and observed incident in the spirit to mitigate any risks of that same technical failure from happening again.

When a failure occurs it's important to act quickly to solve the customer's problem and gain back his/her trust. In my experience I noticed that any customer complaint can be an opportunity to establish build a relationship with the client and turn an angry client into a happy one. You just need to listen and act appropriately. The problem you may have is with silent customers who just abandon your website without complaining. For those, you need to monitor specific KPIs or use navigation recording tools to what how your users browse your website and see if where they get stuck and where they exit. When you need to compensate your customers for problems occurred you may want to implement a standard policy for your customer care office.

Promptly Identify, Analyze, and Mitigate Damage: When an emergency arises, speed is essential, but it should be accompanied by an analysis to pinpoint the primary issue. For example, if your website malfunctions, suspend your ads. In the case of a security breach on your payment provider, deactivate the checkout. Embrace Transparency and Honesty: In most cases, customers will discover the situation. When they receive information directly from you, it enhances their trust in your brand, regardless of the severity of the issue. Creative Compensation: Consider compensating in a funny way. For instance, after fixing a webshop outage, we offered a promotion: '$5 off on the next 200 orders, generously funded by our diligent sysadmin's salary.'

Other techniques to spot and address potential service failures include red-teaming (from a security perspective), user testing (from a user experience perspective), and dashboard monitoring (from a systems integrity perspective).

One thing I've found helpful was sending a survey with 5 questions to my customers. I automatically sent this survey to all customers of the ecommerce after 2 weeks from the date of the order they placed. The questions where closed options and they aimed at evaluating the whole experience they had with their purchase on my ecommerce website.

Interactive strategies in e-commerce thrive on the symbiotic relationship between businesses and customers. Collecting customer behavior data and consistently seeking their feedback is pivotal to success. By closely monitoring how customers interact with your platform, you gain valuable insights into their preferences and habits, enabling you to tailor offerings and experiences to their needs. Furthermore, regular feedback collection, incentivized with offers or surveys, not only provides customers with a voice but also fosters a sense of engagement and loyalty. This two-way interaction not only refines your strategies but also strengthens the bond with your clientele, forging a path to sustainable growth and customer satisfaction.

Ecommerce failures are often caused by unplanned variations in traffic or orders that cause either the organisation behind the ecommerce or the systems to crash. A realistic planning of daily traffic and sales can help reducing the risk of unexpected issues. However, in case of failure of the system, you need to have in place a recovery plan that allows you to restore the ecommerce activity in an acceptable time. For example you may activate a new instance of your ecommerce platform from a back up or you may decide to ship from another stock location if one becomes suddenly unavailable.

I have seen a web store, started from 4 guys, without any experience in web, eCommerce, drop shipping, etc. to reach 2nd biggest market share in their category in their market just for 6 months. The only thing they were better than competitors - customer service. They replaced products, give money back, making negative margin discounts to customers. In the end of the day - this was their marketing costs. But quite effective, based on the results.