How customer experience defines today’s eCommerce

Data-driven segmentation and personas drive digital personalization

The skyrocketing consumer demand continues to cause more aggressive competition in the online retail industry. It is undeniably one of the most thriving industries in the world today, magnified by the Covid-19 pandemic. The common thread amongst the top-performing Shopify stores, at least, is the total adoption of customer segmentation to improve customer experience. Now their sights are set on personas and recurring revenue.

ECommerce has redefined the retail industry, breaking geographical boundaries, opening more opportunities, and substantially expanding the market while merging it all into a single channel powered by the Internet. A bigger market means a bigger variety of consumer types and higher standards for the customers. But among the hundreds of different brands offering the same products and services that you do, how do you set your business apart?

Let customer data and its insights help you navigate the options.

Product differentiators

Product differentiation defines the features and characteristics of your product that stand out to your customer. It tries to answer the question. Why does my customer love my product? What about my product sets me apart from a competitor? Price? Quality? Speed of delivery? Uniqueness? Many store owners have a sense, but who else?

The type of product or service that you offer is the baseline. When a customer searches for a particular product, entries from all over the world will easily be made available for them to choose from. The quality of your product and the current demand for it will set you apart from your competitors.

In the digital world, the customer experience connotes values and feelings through its design. The storefront needs to reflect the brand values, the customer experience is the extension.

Take woxer , who started selling boxer briefs delivering the feeling of freedom, boldness, and quality. From their underwear, packaging, and digital experience towards a niche demographic, these attributes have helped differentiate the brand in the market. The numbers are connected and the metrics drive where to focus next. And how to better serve the customer they got. It is difficult with just behavioral data to get statistically significant differentiators. You really need to be talking to your customers once you get to a certain size.

Pricing

Product pricing is one of the top considerations, among consumers. People tend to think that when you offer the lowest price in the market, you will automatically generate the most sales. Yes, a lower price is definitely enticing, but it shouldn’t compromise the quality of your product. You need to let the data help you define a better target audience.

Great customer experiences can bring in as much as a 16% price premium for your products.

Big brands are confident to set higher prices because they have built their names on providing top-quality products, but they too are defending their decisions with customer experience data.

Your brand’s content must be coursed through the right channels and directed towards the right audience. And with all the latest technologies available today, choosing the right tools and platforms can give your brand the boost it needs to reach your goals and stay ahead of the competition. For most marketers, a customer data platform, or CDP, is still high amongst them.

Meanwhile, customer experience has become one of the top factors among consumers. The customer experience can easily define your business. A PwC study stated that 73% of people consider customer service as an important part of their purchasing process. Among U.S. consumers, only 49% say that companies today offer good customer service.

The world is still shifting to online shopping and the behavior is here to stay

No matter how you cut it, digital interaction is different. The face-to-face interaction would be much easier because you get to recognize and assist customers easily and get them what they need. The pandemic seems here for the long run, so mobile experiences are going to dominate.

Still, an online transaction poses greater communication challenges and a smaller window of time to keep your customers engaged so you can get them to purchase your product and get them to come back to go back to your virtual store.

It takes a second to search for products now, thanks to the power of the Internet. And it only takes another second to look for alternatives should your customers read a negative review or you fail to live up to your advertised product standards. One negative customer experience feedback can create a ripple effect and give your brand a bad reputation, instantly shedding off potential sales. The first-party data you collect, that is, the data you collect directly from the customer is key. This is especially true for tailoring the next great piece of your business, customer retention .

Customer retention can bring your business to new heights. And while having a quality set of products play a big factor in eCommerce, customer experience may soon be the biggest factor of them all, especially with the continuous limited physical interaction caused by the pandemic.

Customer experience continues to drive customer loyalty. And those companies who dare to step up to the challenge not only have to match the in-store experience of buying but to exceed it to thrive in the online retail industry.

Expanding your data along with your business

As you expand your business, you also expand your data sources. This is an inevitable and an expected outcome. Data is gold in businesses. Some argue platinum. Companies that heavily rely on their data and learn to maximize they have no problem staying afloat and relevant.

But consumer data is only valuable when analyzed and grouped into different segments to help build a customer profile. First, data segmentation provides a more detailed differentiation of all your consumer behavior. The goal is to produce personalized experiences that would cater to your whole consumer behavior spectrum. A CDP is necessary to achieve this goal as it helps automate the whole process of gathering all the data needed, in developing a specific customer profile, which can help you create more efficient and targeted marketing campaigns.

Data segmentation and personas offer a more concentrated understanding of your customers. The better customer experience you provide, the more information they would want to share with you. And this data is crucial in improving your brand, retaining customers, and acquiring more.