Tech Guest Viewpoint: Providing a seamless customer experience

It is no secret that the retail landscape has – and is – rapidly evolving, in large part due to the explosive growth of mobile. While it is certainly common now for retailers to have an online presence, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re all catering to the complex needs of today’s shoppers.



Assumptions and misconceptions are preventing many retailers from truly understanding their audience, and as a result, they are missing out on significant opportunities. So how well do you know your shoppers? Recent research from Akamai shows that today’s e-commerce consumers are:



Expecting speedy performance: People no longer “go” online; they are always online, and this hyperconnected world has resulted in shoppers expecting seamless, fast web experiences. Almost half of online shoppers expect a page to load in two seconds or less, while nearly one in five expect pages to load instantly. And, as shoppers continue to demand faster and faster loading times, they become increasingly impatient with slow sites.



Mobile: One common assumption is that desktop use still dominates the e-commerce industry, but this is no longer the case. Mobile and tablet users have proven to be more active than their desktop counterparts in pretty much all stages of the shopping process.



For example, 56% of mobile users search for products on a weekly basis, compared to only 37% of consumers using desktop. With that in mind, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise to learn that the number of consumers making purchases on mobile has increased 2.5 times over the past five years and that they spend more money than desktop-only shoppers.



Specifically, multi-screen shoppers shell out approximately $2,400 per year, while desktop-only shoppers spend about $1,500. This highlights the consumer shift to researching products and services on their mobile devices as an integral part of the shopping journey.



Unfortunately, frustrated: And while mobile shoppers are spending more, they are unfortunately facing the greatest frustrations. Mobile is considered the least satisfying e-commerce experience, but what exactly is a “dissatisfying experience?” The top complaints from mobile shoppers are that a retailer’s website is slow, it doesn’t respond or it is difficult to use. Whether this is caused by slow page performance and forcing mobile users to pinch and zoom on the desktop site, it all results in unhappy customers who abandon a website and take their business elsewhere.



Whether the experience is online or in-store, customers have high expectations. So what key things can retailers focus on to help meet those expectations?



Optimizing for multi-screen: Understand that even if your customer converts in-store or on a desktop device, they are researching products first on their mobile or tablet devices. If your site is difficult to use or unavailable, those customers are only one back button click away from your competitors.



Utilizing responsive web design (RWD) can be a great way to reduce friction for your customers. For example, RWD ensures that when a mobile shopper visits a website, the layout and images are fluid, scaling appropriately to fit the device. This way users aren’t trying to navigate the desktop version of a website by pinching and zooming. It’s also a way to “future-proof” your site to some degree, since as new device formats are released, your website will adapt.



Making it fast: It’s clear that customers are going to access your site throughout the day on many different devices and under varying network conditions, while all expecting fast responses. This makes it essential for retailers to optimize their site delivery so that it is consistently fast under varying conditions, utilizing technologies like adaptive image compression, front-end optimization and device-specific caching to name a few.



Bricks & Mortar: As more shoppers are participating in omnichannel -- either researching products in-store and buying online or visiting a retailer’s website before purchasing in-store -- it is critical to provide a great experience on both channels. Ensure that you carry through your brand’s unique experience, product availability, pricing and customer accounts access. And as stores adopt more IoT and personalization, infrastructure and bandwidth in-store has to be able to keep up with demand.



While understanding and catering to your customers’ expectations may not be simple, there are undoubtedly many ways retailers can provide a seamless customer experience and increase the bottom-line. And as retailers begin thinking about the number of upcoming commerce campaigns, like back-to-school and holiday shopping, now is the time to begin employing these tactics so that once the real rush hits, they can make the most of it.



Jason Miller is chief strategist of commerce for Akamai.