The Importance of Metrics: How to Track Customers and Their User Experience

We probably don't need to tell you that visitors to your online store need to be nurtured in order to take them from a prospect right through to a repeat customer. But the problem is, the customer journey is not a 'one size fits all' kinda deal...

Each person that visits your online store or comes across your brand is completely different from the next. And you need to effectively track and measure their journey to make sure you are doing everything you can to keep them happy.

So how do you do that? You're about to find out...

1. Optimize your marketing channels

In the world of Ecommerce, your marketing channels are a pretty big deal. You'll have social platforms, email marketing, ads, organic traffic, content marketing to name just a few. And it's important to look at each of your channels differently to ensure that you are doing everything you can to nurture your prospects.

A person who visits your store to check out your blog post, is completely different from the person who clicked through from an email promotion. They want different things – some are ready to buy and some are simply curious - so it's important that you manage them differently to help move them further along their journey with you.

How do you do this?

Let's say you sell furniture, and you get a bunch of traffic from your blog post that's all about chairs, then it's clear that those people are specifically interested in buying a chair. What you need to do is provide an appropriate call-to-action that leads those people on to the next stage: data capture.

To obtain their data, you could create another piece of content such as an ebook, that offers so much value to the visitor, that they are willing to exchange their email address to download it. So once you have their information, you can then send them email promotions with offers that will entice them to buy your product.

It's that kind of nurturing that will help you build more customers, rather than assuming that every visitor is ready to buy your product. It's important to look at every marketing channel as a step further along the buyers journey, and within each step there should be a different focus and goal.

2. Measure customer satisfaction

Keeping your customers happy is an extremely important aspect in improving conversions. Did you know that a 5% increase in customer retention can increase your profitability by an incredible 75%? Not only is customer service good practice, but it can actually have a significant impact on your sales – so it's certainly not something to overlook!

How do you measure satisfaction?

Communicate with your customers and ask them for their feedback. Think about sites such as eBay that will ask for the buyer to leave feedback on what they have just purchased. The vendor is not only rated on their product, but also on the transaction as a whole. This really helps to gain feedback and if needed, provide a better service to future customers.

There are plenty of tools to help you do this including Survey Monkey, Floq, or Google Forms. Remember to consider the questions you want to ask your customers. Think about the appropriate page to implement the survey – and even encourage customers to fill it out by offering discount off future sales.

3. Assess where you are going wrong

Unfortunately not everyone is going to stick around long enough to purchase your products, and many will up and leave if they can't find what they want. It's important that you completely refine your shopping experience so that you've made buying your products as easy as can be.

Did you know that $4 trillion worth of merchandise will be abandoned in online shopping carts this year? Not only that, but 63% of that could potentially be recovered by online retailers. So why are so many people leaving? What can you do to improve your shopping cart experience?

First you need to look at your product pages. Are they simplified enough? The two biggest elements that should stand is your product, and the CTA. If you are struggling to get people to add items to their cart then another great idea is to integrate with live chat software. That way you can ask them questions, and provide different options if they need it.

Once you've made it really easy for your visitor to add the product to their cart – you can then start to work on refining the steps to checkout...

Do you really need them to sign up for an account? Do you need to ask them for so many details? Limiting the amount of effort people have to take in order to get to the checkout will really help here. Another common problem is additional charges such as VAT or shipping costs are included right at the very end. People don't like surprises, so make sure you are upfront right from the start.

4. Analyze EVERYTHING

Whether it's email campaigns, ads or your website, it's important to analyze every aspect of your online store so that you can provide the best experience possible. The good news is that there are tools available to help you do this!

When it comes to your marketing and ad campaigns you can use platforms such as Google Analytics to get key insights and track your traffic. That way you can learn how successful a campaign has been and where you can improve in future.

When tracking your website as a whole, A/B testing and heatmap tools can really help out here. A/B testing essentially offers two different versions of the same page, so that you can find out which version your customers respond better to. Heatmap tools are similar, but they show you where your customers are clicking in order to track how your visitors interact with your site. This will help streamline your processes and provide better navigation across your online store.

Closing thoughts

Whether a person is right at the very start of their buyers journey or they have made it to the sale, it's important to analyze, measure, learn and continue to wow your customers so that they keep coming back for more! We hope you enjoy the ecommerce tips in our blog and we'd like to know your thoughts in the comments below.

Looking for a better Ecommerce solution with integrated apps and pro-grade tools? Then give AmeriCommerce a call today!