Customers are buying the experience, not just the product

Have you ever considered the reasons consumers shop with their preferred e-commerce store? The answers are actually pretty obvious, right? They buy there because the online shop UI is perfect, they sell the best products on the planet, and prices are 20% cheaper than in the store around the corner.

Am I serious?

No, of course not!

So, why do consumers buy at particular online stores? The answer really is simple: Convenience!

Buying the experience: After the sale matters, too

The Amazing Company created a one-stop-shop, and streamlined their supply-chain-processes and portfolio so that the desired goods can be easily found, placed in the cart, and arrive the same or next day.

If this experience is the best-practice standard in an e-commerce customer journey, then what can businesses do to be competitive?

Even if a company builds a perfect mobile web site as its shop window, what happens after that? Does the brand also guarantee flawless fulfillment within 24 hours? Does it offer same-day delivery?

These are a perfect example of the bigger problems that businesses are facing: customers are buying the experience, not just the product.

Customer experience is a game of integration

Customers today expect transactions to run like clockwork – smoothly and seamlessly – whether online or offline. This requires an outstanding end-to-end unified process. This can be achieved, and it all comes down to integration.

These aren’t just vertical issues – for example, making all parts of a sales transaction work smoothly together – they are horizontal, too, linking sales to marketing, service, commerce, and so on.

If your customers ask, get this part right and the real value will be apparent when you tie each of these key pillars to the customer experience. This customer-first mindset also allows you to be able to constantly iterate to tweak and finesse different parts of your offering, reacting to the customer as swiftly as you can.

Best of both worlds – intelligence meets process

What businesses require is the perfect combination of a great process intelligence from end to end, their (customer) data, and the ability to combine all of these components together – all while keeping the customer at the center.

If these areas are addressed, only then will a truly personalized experience be delivered. The CX will serve as the base of consumer trust, and the beginning of a deep and intense customer relationship. This, to me, is the premier model of an amazing company.

Learn how to seamlessly bring together customer and business in our Gold Guide.