Investing in Digital Experience for 2022

As 2021 comes to a close, many eCommerce businesses will be looking forward to the New Year and where and if they should be investing their cash. Being nearly 2 years into a global pandemic will also be taking its toll. Shopping habits have changed and there’s now more competition than ever online. In order to strengthen their market position, merchants will need to find new ways to enhance their digital presence and differentiate themselves.

With the pandemic not over just yet, it’s imperative brands understand where to create a balance in cutting costs and investing in growth. We know brands can’t fail if they focus their time and money in improving shopping experiences for their customers.

Taking a Holistic Approach to eCommerce

Take a step back and look at what you currently have. Before you think about making changes to your website, you need to assess your current site issues and analyse the behaviour of your customers. Where are you losing them in their journey? Is your messaging clear? Are you engaging with your customers enough? By taking a holistic approach, you can help your customers to better understand your products and services. To do this, you need to think more about the customer journey, rather than focusing solely on the final transaction.

This is where digital experience comes into play. We’re advocating compelling, engaging experiences. These include multiple sensory outputs to positively impact how the brand is perceived as a whole.

However, before you can even think about offering this to consumers, you need to find out if the platform you’re on offers the flexibility you need. You might also find that your current tech stack doesn’t have the capabilities or enough of the components you want on your website going forward. This is why we always emphasise the importance of the discovery phase. This helps to focus the needs and goals of your business.

We always thoroughly recommend our partner, BigCommerce – an SaaS ecommerce platform that has the extensibility and flexibility to empower businesses to scale.

How to Enhance the Digital Experience of Your Customers

Investing in digital experience is a good shout for 2022, so we’ve provided a few key areas below to get you started.

Mobile Readiness – Online purchases via a mobile device continue to soar. Make sure you are offering the same experience as if your customers are shopping on desktop.

Fast Checkout – Fast is the world’s fastest checkout. One click and a transaction is complete. There’s no greater shopping experience than that.

Personalised Recommendations – One of the best ways to get a step up over your competitors is to show your customers that you understand them and their needs. Personalise your product pages by showing additional recommendations based on products viewed or purchased previously.

Faceted Search – BigCommerce’s faceted search makes it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for. This improves usability and their overall shopping experience, making sure they come back time and time again.

Content – A variety of valuable content is key to enhancing the digital experience of your customers. It’s important to communicate your brand story and highlight your products in a variety of ways. It’s also worth considering headless commerce here for more flexibility. By decoupling the front and back-end of your website, marketers can make changes in real-time, allowing them to drive new promotions without the strain on developer resources. BigCommerce’s flexible API allows for this delivery of an interwoven content and commerce output. It might be worth considering if you’re looking to make big changes to your digital experience in the New Year.

To conclude, if you’re thinking about making some changes next year, investing in creating compelling experiences for your customers is the way to go. There are more ways to do this than we have listed above, so if you want to discuss your vision for 2022, we’d love to hear from you. Give us a call on 0121 369 5874 or email success@5874commerce.com.