Ways To Improve The eCommerce Customer Experience
Shopping online is an experience that everyone enjoys as you can access anything at your fingertips and at any time at your convenience without having to plan and get out of your comfy chair. There is no hassle of physically having to visit multiple shops to purchase different brands.
Everyone will have their own set of favorite eCommerce websites or applications where they shop regularly. An application becomes a favorite based on various factors, ranging from user experience, the availability of specific brands, promos/coupons, and sometimes even the bank offers tend to play a major role in attracting customers.
There are many eCommerce applications in the market and many are doing well even without having heavy features on their application, but we would definitely love it if they had these features as it would make our shopping experience a smoother one!
Here's what I think can be improved based on my eCommerce shopping experiences:
1. Save Filters
Filters are the most used functionality in an application where we would refine the results based on our preferences like brands, prices, size, and many more. I would prefer it if I had an option to save these filters as it's a very time-consuming and repetitive task to apply the same filters after a span of time especially on apps that I would frequently use.
It's especially very beneficial for the customers who are very adamant about specific brand choices and those who are unlikely to change the filters. In such cases, saved filters would be their go-to feature in the application.
2. Single Order & Multiple Shipments
During sales, I have seen that there are lots of offers when you can shop in bulk and save more money on your shopping. I always wondered if I can use this opportunity to buy lots of things, not just for myself, but for my family and friends as well who stay in different places. The challenge I face is that I have to place multiple orders and make multiple payments for each order which will ultimately make that order's value low because of which bulk offers would not be applicable to me.
It would be great if I could ship different items to different people so that I can place the order by making a single payment during check out and be able to enjoy the maximum benefit of the saving offers. This helps us to save time, and effort as well as increases my efficiency as a customer.
3. QR Code for Gift Recipients
When I send a gift to a person through an eCommerce application, I always thought that it would be a good idea if the gift recipient could have a way to return or exchange the received gift as it becomes very awkward for the gift recipient to tell the sender to return the gift for them
It would be more thoughtful if the gift recipient is provided with a unique QR code that will take them to a page where they can take the necessary action to return or exchange the gift. If they wish to return something, then a unique gift card/promo code can be generated which can be used for their future purchases.
4. In-app Chat Feature
Shopping online can be lonely sometimes because we feel that someone should have been there with us to give a second opinion that the confidence that the product we are planning to buy is going to complement us in the best possible way. To make the shopping experience fun, we can have a chat feature within the app where customers can share the products and discuss whether to make a purchase or not. We do have lots of messenger apps to share and discuss but an exclusive chat feature to discuss only the shopping would be very exciting
5. Priority Delivery
Imagine you have a quick trip planned which is going to happen just after two to three days and you need to buy some clothes or a festival is coming up and you are short on accessories which makes you wish you could have priority delivery. I always have a wishlist of items, but will always be waiting for the right occasion to buy them, and when it's a fashion emergency, I would not mind paying a higher amount to make a purchase.
So, there must be an option at the checkout to choose the preferred delivery time, if the shoppers need it urgently, then they would also comfortable paying the additional delivery fee and sellers can use that extra money to make different shipping arrangements to accommodate the customer’s requests.
To sum it up...
While eCommerce applications are a boon, especially at a time when everyone prefers to shop virtually for fear of the pandemic, their experiences can be improved based on many factors, the reviews of users being one. These are just some of my suggestions, based on what I have experienced and felt could be improved upon.
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