eCommerce has always had a big problem – engagement.
The introduction of online shopping removed the one-on-one experience customers received in-store and with no one there to provide a personalized experience, make intuitive recommendations, and answer burning questions, you’re losing engagement and conversions without even realizing it.
It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve poured into making a beautiful site, or how detailed your FAQ’s are, if the customer isn’t seeing what they expect to see or getting the right answers they need to move forward in the buying process, there’s a very good chance you’ll lose them.
So, what do you do to fix this?
How do you grow your on-site engagement and conversions?
Fortunately, there are more and more eCommerce tools being developed each day to fix just this problem. These tools work mostly in the backend of your site to track customer behavior, identify problems they have, anticipate their next moves, capture their attention, and provide them with just the right messaging to get them over the conversion hurdle.
1. OptiMonk
The beauty of talking to someone one-on-one is the ability to assess their behavior and responses, and use it to help them figure out what to buy, or whether to buy at all. Unfortunately, websites have never offered such an option to analyze a customer in real time. That is, not until OptiMonk came along.
OptiMonk’s on-site messaging toolkit allows you to display the right message at the right time based on browsing behavior tracked in real time as visitors browse your site.
OptiMonk Dashboard (Image Source: OptiMonk)
Being able to capture attention with a relevant message at the perfect moment often means the difference between someone closing the window and you losing them forever, or someone clicking through and you gaining a sale.
That’s exactly the result OptiMonk’s users have seen. This detailed case study shows how a massive direct-selling company, Avon, gained over 5,000 subscribers, decreased cart abandonment by 16.5%, and increased orders by 150% in a year through its use of OptiMonk’s highly customizable features.
2. Hotjar
It’s one thing to know what pages users are looking at when they visit your site. It’s a whole other thing to be able to see it. Hotjar’s heatmaps give you a fast, visual way to understand what your users want, care about and do on your website.
Heatmaps are graphical representations of data that show the most used and unused (hot and cold) areas of a site. You can see an example of what this looks like below.
HotJar Heatmap (Image Source: HotJar)
By analyzing user clicks, taps and scrolls on your site, you can gain a strong perception of what their goals are on your site and make changes to help them get there faster and easier. A collective look at user behavior also helps to inform overall business and website strategy by identifying trends and giving you the ability to optimize for maximum engagement and conversions.
3. Oberlo
If you run a dropshipping store, you know how much having the right products at the right time can mean for your sales. Hunting around to find the right products, getting the information you need and adding it to your store can take a lot of time and effort, and cost you a few lost orders.
Oberlo makes that process a whole lot simpler. It allows Shopify store owners to find products from a variety of suppliers across the world and add them to your store in just a few clicks.
Oberlo Dashboard (Image Source: Oberlo)
This frees up your time to find and offer better products in your store, and easily see what converts so you can adjust rapidly. Additionally, Oberlo handles the process of getting the order to the supplier, so you can lower your shipping time and become a more attractive option for buyers overall.
Oberlo’s success stories are filled with users who are able to thrive on dropshipping because they worry less about handling the day-to-day running of their store, and more time marketing their overall business.
4. Optimove
While other tools on this list are great for assessing customers collectively and optimizing their experiences according to broad user categories, Optimove’s Relationship Marketing Hub digs a lot deeper.
Optimove first provides insight into customer behavior by analyzing transactional, behavioral and demographic data from your site. They then use this data to assess customers, group them into dynamic micro-segments and predict their value and what they’re likely to do next.
Individual customer view on Optimove (Image Source: Optimove)
This enables them to provide hyper-targeted messages, offers, and promotions to visitors, based on past behavior and real-time actions on your site, which are automated and customizable.
Major online companies like travel company, lastminute.com, and lingerie retailer, Adore Me, have seen a significant increase in orders, email open rates and overall growth in customers, while running over 85% fully-automated campaigns.
Not a one-time fix
It’s easy to tell you that this is the solution. Implement these eCommerce tools and you’ll be set. But that wouldn’t be true.
The online behaviors and buying preferences of consumers are constantly changing. They’ve gone from desktops to laptops to mobile to voice-activated devices. At any given time of day, they’re switching between social media, messaging platforms, apps, and various websites. Simply because one method works at optimizing engagement and conversions now, doesn’t mean it will a year from now.
The only permanent solution is the one where you maximize the effectiveness by continuously testing the user experience, and updating these tools regularly, to ensure they are still serving your needs efficiently.
Guest author: Zac Johnson is a world-renowned blogger and entrepreneur with nearly 20 years of experience in the online marketing space and has helped his readers generate millions of dollars online. He shares his story and guidance at ZacJohnson.com