Consumer Experience Key In E-Commerce Future

As e-commerce trends continue to grow, so does the need for marketers to appeal to consumers on new levels. Because e-commerce is driving retail, retailers must react to consumer demand and focus on creating experiences, Entrepreneur reports.

The e-commerce competition has created tougher for retailers to attract customers. Some strategies will work, others won’t. Entrepreneur broke down what will work and what won’t work for retailers as they continue further into the e-commerce battle.

Here’s what is said to work:

• Personalization and appealing to the consumer: “As highlighted by research from Nielsen and Forrester, many consumers expect to have the same personal experience shopping online as they do shopping in-store, and they expect the same convenience and speed of shopping in-store as they do shopping online.”
• Product-discovery sites and recommendation engines: “To answer the problems of competition in the now-diluted space, successful retailers have begun to incorporate a “guided discovery” process that targets specific items for a consumer based on user suggestions that help narrow down the purchase decision.”
• Emotion-driven shopping experiences: “Retailers that go beyond selling a product and tell a story to establish a firm brand identity and to build a one-to-one relationship with their customers are more likely to thrive.”

Retailers can best be served by providing experience to their consumers in ways that previously were experiences consumers could only find in stores. Thanks to technology and e-commerce innovation, a similar approach can now be applied online.

Still, there are strategies that just won’t work anymore. Here’s what’s said to not work:

• Relying on social networks: “While the major social players such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are teaming up with retailers in hopes to create a more seamless shopping experience, incorporating existing social networks into a shopping platform does not necessarily make the platform inherently ‘social.'”
• Lack of collaboration: “Shopping as part of a group as opposed to shopping for oneself is even more difficult to determine how to secure the best deal — each person in the group may be looking at the same item but at different price points and quantities from different retailers.”

Gone are the days of posting a deal on Facebook or Twitter. Consumers want real interaction, not simply click bait. Consumers need more interaction and less promotions thrown at them in order to draw interest to a particular retailer. Better social integration and personalizing the e-commerce experience is key for retailers wanting to stand out in the competitive space.