Customer Journey Optimisation (1)
Did you, the business owner, bias over a glossy e-commerce website and neglect what the customer needs?
This is created for small-medium business owners that are non-technical and feeling helpless with the e-commerce customer journey mapping and experience optimisation. This is for you if you run an e-commerce business and looking to optimise your site but do not know how.
Through my experience in process optimisation and customer journey map creation for e-commerce business, I noticed many businesses tend to focus on making the website to pop and neglect the usability of the site. A self-serving website does not prioritise the customer’s goals but cramming the customer with excessive brand information and hooks to stay on the site longer.
For example, you were attracted to a beautifully constructed adv. You clicked the adv and were directed to the product page (or landing page). As you wanted to zoom in on the product for a closer look, the newsletter subscription box appears at the centre of the screen. Your train of thought was interrupted with a sign-up prompt, a call to action button and a tempting discount code. The pop-up interrupted the flow. Is this placement of pop-up box good or bad? It may be good, it may be destructive; the data and customer journey map could provide some insights and suggestions. The usability and helpfulness of the website depend on your target customers and their goals; a pretty site doesn’t cut it.
These are some quick wins on the operable components of a generic site.
(1) Loading speed.
It is crucial to ensure your site is loading fast enough for all devices, web and mobile browsers. You could test it on your own device during commuting (feel it yourself) or run your site on PageSpeedInsight to diagnose what is making your site loads slowly.
(2) Mobile web responsive.
Have you tried to scroll and pinch your phone to see a full view of a page? That you left the page and said ‘I’ll look it up on my laptop later’? To a business, this is an opportunity lost. Not to worry about this point if you build your site in recent few years; most of the popular browsers nowadays able to adapt the site to fit the mobile screens. In case your site is not auto-adjusting to the mobile browser, you need to adjust some CSS coding.
(3) Concise information on the landing page.
The customer does not read but scans for the information he/she needs. Put information into segments or cards to assist the customer scan for details they are looking for.
Avoid flooding the landing page with long paragraphs. Try on the home page below, are you reading it or scanning?
(4) Never trap your customer on a page. Provide one or more escape options.
Always allow the customer to go back to the previous page, leave the current page, and/or close a pop-up box. This practice creates trust and encourages the customer to explore freely on your site.
(5) Breadcrumbs.
Letting the user know where they are if the shop structured with categories and subcategories. The breadcrumbs allow the user to traceback.
I am going to share more and extend the ‘Customer Journey Optimisation’ series. Let me know if you like this!
