Using Consumer Engagement To Remove Retail Friction

Consumers are flocking to the digital-first economy, but aren’t always so happy when they get there. The problem lies mainly in digital engagement – and retailers, in particular, can address these issues by first understanding the problems specific to the category, and then addressing the friction in the customer journey.

That’s just one of the conclusions in a recent report on digital customer engagement from Decibel, a customer engagement solution provider. The report, derived from 4.1 billion user sessions across 11 industries throughout 2020, found that although the pandemic has caused an upswing in the volume of digital experiences between customers and brands, overall user engagement is low across all industries.

According to the survey results, the main issue across all industries can be seen on a page-to-page basis. With just 5 percent of page views containing instances of user frustration, retail fares better than the 6.9 percent frustration level of other industries. Indeed, the category indexes well against overall confusion, unresponsive links and content visibility. But it does have a high instance of page scrolling, which can be a signal of user frustration that could lead to a lack of engagement.

“There are some things that resonate the most in terms of companies that are providing the best experiences to their visitors,” said Decibel CMO Shane Phair. “The first would definitely be forms that work, are intuitive and are minimal. I think that is a sign of a very good experience, and we can see that in the data. The second, without question, would be customer journeys. It’s not enough these days to just optimize a page, because most website visits don’t consist of just one page. There’s an entire journey that a customer goes through. And so we see the businesses that are providing the best experiences to their customers from a digital standpoint are very adept at optimizing the entire experience. They show the customer what they want them to do when they visit their website.”

Decibel research found that 70 percent of customers abandon purchases because of a bad user experience (UX). To resolve that, Phair recommends three focus areas. The first is delivering an unobstructed shopping experience on product and checkout pages that can make or break conversions. To combat frustration, he recommends using behavior detection and journey tools to pinpoint any issues and bottlenecks.

The second is mobile. “Online retailers simply can’t afford to neglect fine-tuning mobile experiences, or they’ll frustrate users into abandonment in no time at all,” Phair noted. “The key to mobile experiences lies in simplicity and accessibility. That means direct optimization efforts toward aspects like effortless navigation, clear on-page elements and mobile-specific web page designs.”

The third is slow-loading pages. To allow for quick purchasing journeys, Phair suggests developing websites that are highly responsive with minimal wait times between pages and clicks. He says the purchasing journey must be crafted to avoid a “creepy” experience.

“The experience depends on the behavior of the user,” he noted. “There’s a way to detect that and to optimize those experiences. We’re working on enhancements in our technology that allow for what we call real-time triggering based on behavior, so the retailer can customize a journey specifically for that. And that can trigger any number of third-party applications. I think the retail industry is getting far more sophisticated in the different options available, and the different journeys the customer can take to ultimately convert.”