5 Customer Habits to Keep in Mind When Creating Your Online Shop

Customer habits, and more specifically, online consumer habits, evolve and change every year. Expectations become different and higher, and they rely on alternative methods to make decisions and gain confidence in their purchases, and they buy products in new trending ways.

It is the responsibility of the business owner to stay on top of how consumer habits are changing. In order to sustain and grow your business and sales, you must know what opportunities to build on and which practices should be adjusted, or retired altogether.

Here are 5 customer habits that are trending in 2018 and what you can do about it:

1. Need for Speed

Customers expect a professional, reliable and trustworthy site to load and function at high speeds. Fact is, the average user doesn’t want to wait any longer than 2 seconds!

We are in the age of “instant gratification” where instant results are an expectation and anything less is highly frustrating. 79% of online shoppers say they won’t revisit an online shop if they weren’t satisfied with its speed.

Ensure your online shop is up to speed by using our checklist, and following these best practices:

• Avoid landing page redirects
• Enable compression
• Improve server response time
• Leverage browser caching
• Minify resources
• Optimize images
• Optimize CSS Delivery
• Prioritize visible content
• Remove render-blocking JavaScript

2. Need for Accessibility

Real-time communication and uninterrupted data transmission have become an expectation — anything less will call your business practices into question.

Toll-free numbers and live chat features allow easier and multiple routes of access for customers who are ready to purchase, but have a quick question or need a little extra nudge to complete the checkout process.

Customers want to be able to perform a search on their mobile, get answers via text message, make the purchase through an app and impress their friends through social channels. Keeping up to date with their wants and needs will help grow your business.

3. Need for Deals

Stay ahead of your competitor by offering valuable promotions and discounts. Since 64% consumers want personalized offers from retail brands, ensure you are collecting consumer information at every step of their journey in order to reach the correct customer at the correct time with the correct deal.

If the purpose of your online shop is to achieve purchases, promotions are a must! 50% of consumers make a purchase only when an offer or promotion is involved.

Offering a discount for an opt-in which allows you to collect customer data is another win-win!

4. Need for Reviews & Videos

The majority of online shoppers will take the time to read and engage with reviews and testimonials before making a purchase, while 93% of consumers report reviews impact their online purchase decisions. If this doesn’t tell you how important customer feedback is, nothing will!

With the expectation of reviews comes the responsibility of great customer service, quick response times and transparency in business practices. Engaging with past customers in order to build on their momentum will expand your customer base, and create more loyal customers.

There is a huge opportunity for industry leadership since 42% of online shoppers want more testimonials from e-commerce sites.

In addition to reviews, people want to actually see the product they’re interested in. With the speed and convenience of online shopping combined with the dying habit of needing to touch and feel a product, video is helping to replace the novelty of brick-and-mortar stores. More and more consumers are turning to video to see products before a purchase and 73% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase if they can watch a video explaining it beforehand. In fact, four in 10 YouTube users surveyed said they went to the platform to learn more about an item before they purchased it.

BONUS: If you’d like to stay ahead of the curve, “millenials are bonded to the idea of wanting an experience” and virtual in-store shopping is the next trend about to hit e-commerce sites.

5. Need for Socializing

Consumers are 71% more likely to make a purchase based on social media referrals. So be social! Allowing your consumers to share and review your products and their purchase is the new word-of-mouth marketing.

The majority of online shoppers use at least one social media channel. So having social sharing opportunities is a win-win for everyone; making it convenient for the shopper to share either the products/services they’re contemplating on purchasing or their actual purchase while creating free advertising for your shop!

Placing the Share button correctly ensures there is no distraction from the purchase yet convenience for the user to show off their purchase.

If you want to learn more about how to create an online shop that will drive more conversions, call TechWyse Internet marketing at 866.208.3095 or contact us here.