Worldwide retail ecommerce sales are expected to reach $4.5 trillion this year, according to Statista, but the ecommerce industry is highly competitive. According to eMarketer, more than 400 direct-to-shopper (D2C) companies are in the market today. 

One key differentiator separates successful businesses from unsuccessful ones – customer experience.

Here’s what’s involved in creating a successful customer journey:

Step 1: Understand customer goals and expectations

Marketers should identify the specific goals of every customer and make sure they align with the vision of the business. Then they can create experiences that enable customers to cruise effortlessly through the ecommerce site and engage in a way that’s relevant and tailored to their needs.

Step 2: Identify touchpoints and channels

When your customers visit your website, track which pages they visit and spend the most time on. If you know the channels different personas use and their preferences, you can deliver the best experience for them across all channels.

Step 3: Find the pain points and optimize the journey

At times, customers may experience difficulties while making a purchase on your site. These can be caused by such issues as low-resolution images, complex site structure, slow page-loading speed, lengthy checkout process, lack of customer support or a lack of responsiveness across devices. As you craft solutions to these problems, focus not only on the framework and best practices, but also on the anticipated lift that results from overall improvements to the customer experience.

Step 4: Optimize the journey

Frequently test your process to understand the experience for your customers and understand how it can be improved. Testing should take into consideration real-world scenarios and common points of abandonment.

Common Pain Point #1: Cart Abandonment

Most customers bounce from a purchase if navigating their cart is too cumbersome. According to a report, ecommerce businesses lose $18 Billion every year due to shopping cart abandonment. With all that fallout, it’s no wonder that only 2.86% of ecommerce site visits convert into a purchase.

It’s important for ecommerce sites to interact intelligently with their customers when they add products to their shopping cart so they have all the info they need before entering their payment information. 

1. Purchase summary 

All relevant information about the purchase must be displayed on the cart page: name, image, description, price, quantity and stock status for each product, subtotal of all products in the cart and shipping details.

2. CTAs must stand out

The most important elements of the cart are the calls to action (CTAs). Each time a customer clicks, it brings them closer to making their purchase official. Because there is so much fallout throughout this process, make sure the CTA is clear, comprehensible and visually striking. 

3. Display the total cost 

Always be very clear about the total cost of the products. Customers want to know exactly how much they’re paying; fluctuating or inaccurate prices that don’t factor in taxes and shipping may increase the risk of abandonment.

4. Offer guest checkout

Many customers get irked and abandon their carts when they’re forced to register or sign up right before checkout. To alleviate this frustration, and decrease the likelihood of abandonment, let them complete their checkout process as a guest. Once it’s done, you can ask if they want to create an account to make their next checkout more efficient.

5. Use a single-page checkout experience

Customers don’t like it when their checkout process is lengthy and complex. A single-page checkout experience puts their shipping details and a summary of their products on the same page as the checkout page.

6. Implement exit-intent pop-ups

These appear when customers start to abandon a purchase and leave the site. They can feature discount codes or other offers to lead them back to the checkout.

Common Pain Point #2: Payment and Checkout Issues

If a problem with this part of the purchase persists, many consumers consider it a bad experience and will stop engaging with that brand all together. A smooth, frictionless process is essential to any ecommerce site.

1. Offer a social login option

Most consumers have social media accounts, so this makes it easy for them to register. All their details are automatically populated, and they don’t have to spend time registering or manually entering their information

2. Provide multiple payment options

Many ecommerce businesses haven’t integrated newer preferred payment methods, such as wallets and other mobile payment services. To adapt to increasingly digital and diverse payment preferences, offer options like credit cards, debit cards, cash/cash on delivery (COD), or PayPal.

3. Offer pickup from a brick-and-mortar store

For fast delivery, provide customers with the option of getting the product from a nearby store. This gives them an omnichannel customer experience and gives the brand the opportunity to familiarize the customer with any nearby locations. It also potentially saves the customer money on shipping costs.

4. Send confirmation after purchase

After completing a purchase, customers want to know the status of their order and the projected arrival date. Keep them informed about the status of their order by sending a confirmation or “thank you” email summarizing and confirming their purchase.