Excellent customer experiences bring in revenues, retention for retailers
When operating brick-and-mortar locations and ecommerce websites, retailers know that providing shoppers with only the products they are looking for is not enough to sustain valuable relationships with consumers and keep them coming back. Merchants must also offer excellent experiences in their stores and on their sites or risk losing out on opportunities to build loyalty among patrons. Fortunately, there are many strategies that businesses can use to ensure customers are having satisfactory interactions and are able to find the items they want quickly and efficiently. But companies need to focus on implementing these methods and work diligently to improve upon their practices to consistently meet consumers’ expectations and fit their needs.
Consequences of poor retail customer experiences
Recent research has revealed that while companies know the importance of offering great customer experiences and how it can benefit their operations, a significant number fail to incorporate strategies that can ensure positive and satisfactory interactions. According to the “Global Insights on Succeeding in the Customer Experience Era” by Oracle, 97 percent of businesses surveyed stated they believe that providing excellent experiences is vital to their success. Respondents estimate that companies can lose up to 20 percent of their annual revenue by not meeting shoppers’ needs when they are in stores and on websites.
The majority of retailers (93 percent) said they will be working on improving their customer experience strategies in the coming months, but a significant number (37 percent) are just beginning to develop experience methods to fit their patrons’ expectations. In addition, only 20 percent of respondents believe their experience strategies are advanced.
“This report demonstrates that organizations around the globe and across many industries are beginning to understand the real business impact of not offering great customer experiences, but are facing execution challenges,” stated Oracle group vice president David Vap. “We recommend that organizations map their customers’ journeys to identify specific improvement areas that will help them cross the execution chasm.”
Successful experience initiatives
To begin offering exceptional shopping experiences or improve upon existing methods, Inside Retailing recommends that merchants learn as much as they can about their customers, which can be accomplished through gathering data from individuals in stores and online through surveys and other forms of feedback.
In addition, the source suggests using information to make experiences more personalized will help shoppers feel valued and appreciated by brands, further increasing the chances they will keep coming back for future business.
