The importance of a great online shopping experience

 

In the increasingly competitive world of e-Commerce, price and quality are the most important factors consumers base their purchase decisions on. Or at least, that’s how it used to be. Nowadays, other factors like providing an overall great shopping experience can’t be ignored any more.

 

Indeed, a recent study examining the state of the German economy found that shoppers place a growing value on their shopping experience. The younger the consumer, the more important this factor is for them. Gen Z shoppers find having fun during shopping three times as important as Baby Boomers and twice as important as the general average of all generations.

 

Find out how to appeal to Gen Z consumers!

 

This shows a clear shift in values for the youngest economically active generation. Instead of owning “things”, Gen Z consumers prefer having experiences, even while shopping online.

 

| Instead of owning “things”, Gen Z consumers prefer having experiences

 

 

What influences a consumer’s shopping experience

Gen Z shoppers are not the first ones to regard shopping as an experience. In fact, browsing stores and picking out products have long been considered a fun pastime activity - in analogue shopping. Gen Z consumers are merely the first ones to look for the same experience in e-Commerce.

 

 

Image of shoppers browsing in an elegant shopping mall

 

 

The general look and feel of the online store is the starting point for a great shopping experience. An overcrowded, disorganised marketplace with a jumble of random product listings can’t create the same sense of excitement as walking into your brand’s carefully designed physical store. This is why a clean marketplace is the best starting point for a great shopping experience.

 

Discover how we can create a clean marketplace for you!

 

With the growing popularity of hybrid commerce, it’s important to establish a seamless connection between your online and offline channels. Consumers visiting you online and in real life can’t feel like they’re in two separate worlds; which is why your processes and brand image must be consistent across all your channels.

 

 

Illustration of a woman surrounded by shopping bags purchasing something online

 

 

Seamless checkout processes are also great contributors to the overall shopping experience. A variety of secure payment options, as well as fast and easy shipping solutions, are often the last hurdle sellers have to overcome before a consumer makes a purchase.

 

| Seamless checkout processes are great contributors to shopping experiences

  

 

The benefits of a streamlined shopping experience

While some say that ensuring a great online shopping experience is a never-ending task (there’s always something that can be improved), the benefits for your brand are quite substantial.

 

A great experience will help you draw in more shoppers, especially from the younger generations. The better their experience, the longer time they’ll spend in your shop, increasing your chances for a purchase. Moreover, an excellent shopping experience will also influence their loyalty towards your brand and contribute to their decision to return to your store in the future.

 

In this respect, a seamless checkout process is invaluable. A recent study found that about 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, representing an incredibly high number of missed sales.

 

| 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned

 

The most common reasons for shopping cart abandonment are too expensive delivery (41%), unexpected costs at checkout and better deals at another store (both 30%), too slow delivery (26%), unavailable preferred payment option (17%), false discount code (17%) and unavailable return options (13%).

 

 

Image of shoppers adding a product to their virtual shopping cart

 

 

Most of the listed reasons have to do with a seamless checkout process. This includes providing various payment options, stating clear delivery and returns policies, and not adding unexpected costs to the purchase price at the very last minute.

 

Discover the role of payment providers in online brand protection!

 

 

What does this imply for your brand

Ensuring a great shopping experience for your customers is a must. But how do you know if what you’re doing works? Well, you have to monitor and test all of your processes both on- and offline.

 

One of the best ways of testing your customers’ experience is actually becoming one. Our test purchase service, while designed for a slightly different purpose, can be flexibly adapted to monitor your customers’ shopping experience.

 

| One of the best ways of testing your customers’ experience is becoming one

 

How does it work? Whether on- or offline (or both), our associates can purchase your products in over 50 countries, carefully recording their shopping experience during every stage of the process. You’ll get professional feedback and actionable advice to finetune your offering and ensure a perfectly seamless shopping experience for your customers.

 

 

Related topics

Gen Z’s behaviour in e-Commerce

 

Improved accessibility requirements for online platforms in the EU

 

Running a test purchase on Temu

 

 

That sounds great, as long as you’re in control of your selling environment. But what about marketplaces where you don’t have a say in how your products appear?

 

Well, you have a bigger say than you think. First of all, you decide where you appear, which means you can exclude untrustworthy marketplaces with a bad reputation. And don’t forget that thanks to our clean marketplaces solution, you can create favourable selling conditions for your products on any marketplace!

 

But what can you do if your products start appearing on marketplaces without your consent?

 

globaleyez can solve that problem as well.

 

 

Online brand protection for a seamless shopping experience

Our marketplace monitoring service picks up any unauthorised listings that appear on a platform without your consent. Thanks to keyword-based searches and versatile filters, we can discard authorised listings and focus our attention on those that infringe on your IP rights.

 

Fraudsters are known to set up entire fake shops, which is why our domain monitoring service is also essential. With keyword-based searches, we’ll find sites that use your brand or product name (complete with misspelt versions of them) in their domain name, meta description or HTML content.

 

The above-mentioned test purchase is an invaluable service for finding out all there is to know about the origins of the product and the sellers behind it. Our careful documentation ensures that you can use our findings as evidence, should you decide to take the fraudsters to court.

 

Except for your own store, you rarely have a lot of control over the appearance of your products on an online marketplace. Our clean marketplace solution aims to ensure that your product listings appear in a favourable online environment on any marketplace, free from counterfeits, lookalikes and other bad quality product listings.

 

Finally, we’re happy to enforce your rights and ensure the removal of the infringing content from the internet.

 

 

Conclusion

Besides “hard” factors like price and quality, “soft” criteria like a seamless shopping experience are increasingly important for e-Commerce shoppers. But ensuring your customers’ perfect experience is harder than you think.

 

Contact us and discover how our services and solutions can assist your brand in protecting your IP rights and contribute to improving your customers’ shopping experience!