The shopping experience

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The shopping 

experience

Zoxidov Shokirjon 

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Retail is a $5 trillion industry in North America alone and a force that has only 

continued to show exceptional growth over the years with the advent of  online 

shopping. As a consumer, step into a store and you’re transported into a world full 

of  branded displays, service, and face-to-face interaction with products of  interest. 

Go to a store’s website and (for those brands with a developed understanding of  the 

former) consumers can come to expect much of  that same experience translated into 

a digital format.

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The experience that an in-store experience provides is only matched by the 

convenience of  an online experience. The brands that are most successful at building 

a quality retail strategy are the ones that have a consistent brand across both digital 

and brick-

and mortar. Whether you’re a physical retailer looking to virtualize your 

shopping experience or an ecommerce brand hoping to open your flagship store, 

consider how the two avenues work in tandem together rather than at odds. 

Consider these 7 tips to improving the online shopping experience.

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1.Invest in Website Appearance and 

Functionality

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First impressions matter. No one wants to arrive at a terrible looking website. And more importantly, with the plethora of  

competitors across industries at a consumer’s disposal, no one has time to browse a terrible looking website.

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As an online brand, your website is your first impression. While the shopper may find you through a variety of  different 

channels, once they arrive, it’s about convincing them to linger through the “racks,” rather than to pass by the window. An 

underdeveloped mash of  pages with unappealing color combinations, poor navigation, and abundance of  Comic Sans font 

is probably not going to encourage potential customers to browse.

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In order to avoid a bad first impression, start by investing in the look and feel of  your brand as a whole

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the logo, color 

scheme, taglines, and voice. Emphasize the appeal of  the homepage with a proper balance of  visuals and educational 

context for whatever your target audience may be. The person browsing may not be in the purchase stage of  the customer 

journey

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but rather still in the awareness and consideration stage. Use your website to provide context around your 

products that these browsers need in order to buy. Depending on your industry, consider including real customer photos, 

tutorials, recipes, and more.

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2.Focus on Mobile Responsiveness 

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With a smartphone in hand, the days of  shopping via desktop are being quickly replaced by 

mobile scrolling. Mobile sales alone for Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016 topped $1 billion! 

This trend proves that mobile is here to stay. It’s time that all retailers build our their shopping 

experience on mobile. Greater access to Internet connections and data packages makes this 

possible but

—as we’ve already learned—

not all websites are created equal.

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Browsing a website with poor mobile responsiveness can prove incredibly frustrating for 

consumers and easily lead to cart abandonment. Make sure your business’ website is functional 

across as many devices as possible, and consider how layouts of  all content types will transfer 

onto smaller screens. For example, a photo of  quality size and resolution on desktop may prove 

less effective when opened in mobile browsing. Be conscious of  the devices that customers are 

operating on so that the experience remains streamlined across the board.

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3.Be Mindful of  Website Speed

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A beautiful website that takes ten or more seconds to load is most likely a beautiful website 

few customers will actually stick around to appreciate. Time is money, possibly more so 

online, than it is in person. As a general rule of  thumb, aim to keep website load time at 

three seconds or less, to ensure visitors won’t grow impatient and close that window. 

According to the founder of  Just Add Content, Gabriel A. Mays, the “biggest threat [to a 

business’ website] isn’t a competitor, it’s the back button.”

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When incorporating third party applications or displays onto your site, make sure that they 

do not slow your site down. Their added benefit may not outweigh their added cost if  your 

load time increases.

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4.Embrace Customer Photos

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Giving customer an idea of  what a product looks and feels like without being able 

to actually see and hold it can prove quite challenging online. However, there is one 

easy solution to replicating this in-store experience online. Customers can get a 

more authentic idea of  what a product is really like by seeing how other real 

customers are using it. That’s why displaying real customer photos on your 

ecommerce site is proven to increase sales 2X. This is why strategies built out 

around social influencers have become so commonplace. Social media influencers 

are a great way to encourage customers to get posting about your brand on social 

media. Let your customers open the door for new ones, and utilize their own photos 

to help build out content across your business’ website.

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5.Consider Live Chat

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The need for service is just as alive online as it is in-store and one of  the best 

things you can provide to customers purchasing online is real-time support. 

Live chat functionality assures that customers receive answers to any 

questions or concerns they might have. Give them outlets to ask questions 

and find answers when they want

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just make sure the ends of  those outlets 

are always stocked with an actual individual, or the most accurate 

information for that given time. Good online support can help to smooth 

over a customer’s bad ecommerce experience.

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6.Befriend FREE Shipping

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A deciding factor exclusive to online shopping is the cost to deliver. As a 

business, you have to be conscious of  price points that generate profit, but 

free and discounted shopping options can certainly increase the bottom line. 

A promo like Amazon’s, for example, which offers free shipping on 

purchases that total $25 or more, sets the bar for what a customer must 

spend in order to “save”. Think of  it from a customer’s perspective: would 

you rather get free shipping buy more and receive more items, or would you 

rather pay for shipping decide against that extra sweater and receive less 

items? For consumers, the choice is more often than not crystal clear.

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7.Turn Social Proof  Into Trust

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Allow online shoppers to engage with your ecommerce site and visualize 

how to incorporate your products into their everyday lives with the power of  

social proof. What is social proof? These are the visual and text reviews that 

customers leave endorsing your products. Platforms like Instagram, 

YouTube, and Facebook have given brands the ability to collet real visual 

stories from customers about their products and visual marketing software 

such as Pixlee allows marketers to display this user generated content on 

their brand sites.

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Thank you for your attention 

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