eCommerce Trends for Improving the Customer Experience in 2023

There’s no denying that today’s shopping landscape looks much different than it did five or six years ago. The world is going entirely online, which is excellent news for all eCommerce entrepreneurs out there. In that regard, PWC research shows that almost one-third of the global population shops for services and products online at least once a week.

So, with more and more customers switching to online shopping and embracing the digital experience, providing top-notch customer service and experience has become a central point for most eCommerce businesses to stay competitive and profitable. Hence, in order to retain your existing clients and win some new ones in 2023, you will need to provide these individuals with an effective, simple, and hassle-free eCommerce customer experience.

To make things easier for you, we’ll review the top three eCommerce trends for improving your business’s customer experience in this article. But first, let’s see what customer experience is and how it plays out in the extensive customer service picture.

What Is Customer Experience?

In a few words, customer experience, or CX, is the totality of affective, sensory, cognitive, and behavioral consumer responses during all phases of the entire consumption process, including the pre-purchase, consumption, and post-purchase stages.

In that context, the eCommerce customer experience begins the exact second when a prospective customer notices your brand online and is the sum total of all the digital touchpoints your eCommerce company has with customers. These touchpoints include your eCommerce brand interaction and customer engagement on various digital channels, whether you are or are not fulfilling your customers’ expectations, the perception of your eCommerce brand, and the customer feedback on your services or products, among other things.

Now that you know that customer experience is actually the cumulative impact of multiple touchpoints over the course of a prospective customer’s interaction with your eCommerce business, let’s go through some of the latest trends that might help you improve your company’s CX metrics.

Three eCommerce Trends To Improve Your CX

1. Bolster Your eCommerce Customer Service

The unfortunate fact of eCommerce retail is that things can’t always work perfectly for each customer. And when something like that occurs and things don’t work out, customer service becomes the most vital tool to protect and salvage the customer experience with your business.

As eCommerce customer service is undergoing a so-called “technical shift,” you need to stay on top of your game by utilizing a professional and highly-efficient ticketing system, providing your clients with self-service methods, and tapping into the field of live chat support.

For example, if your eCommerce website is built on WordPress, having a premium WordPress support ticketing system is an absolute must so that your customers can easily submit support requests and track the progress of their tickets.

Next, as people want to solve their problems as much as possible, building a knowledge base is also a must to bolster your support efforts. Your knowledge base should include articles, FAQs, guides, resources, and anything else valuable to your customers when a problem or issue occurs.

Last but not least, as live chat is now the preferred method of eCommerce customer service among shoppers, implementing 24/7 live chat support is another customer support solution that you should strongly consider adding to your website.

2. Let Your Customers Try On Your Products In A Virtual Manner

For years now, the most significant downside of online shopping was being unable to try out things before purchasing them. However, throughout the past few years, many eCommerce businesses have started implementing VR technology solutions and helping prospective customers see how the product will look on them or in their households.

VR technology suits most eCommerce niches, including apparel, eyewear, jewelry, furniture, beauty products, watches, and more. If you opt to invest in such a solution, you can rest assured that the customer experience will improve and that more and more customers will soon knock on your eCommerce shop’s door.

3. Start Surprising Your Customers With Occasional Gifts

Finally, the last approach that can significantly help you in your efforts to improve the CX of your eCommerce store is to start surprising your customers with small yet thoughtful gifts.

For instance, whenever a shopper purchases in your store, you can include a nice little gift with the product they initially bought. Your gift certainly doesn’t have to be something that exclusive or expensive. When it comes to improving the customer experience, it’s never about the price that matters but your brand’s intention to provide a little something something for free.

This way, you can create a memorable and unique experience for the customer and make them want to return for more. Do you still not know what your gifts should look like? Okay, let’s say that you’re selling branded sunglasses online. If so, with every purchase, you can include a branded sunglasses cleaning cloth so the customer can clean their sunglasses without paying for the cloth. See, it’s easy.

Final Words

Ultimately, this is by no means a comprehensive list of the trends you can utilize to improve your eCommerce business’s customer experience. Nevertheless, with our easy-to-read guide on what CX is and the latest trends to enhance your customer’s journey, you will be able to implement some of the techniques that work for your eCommerce brand and improve the CX for good.