Brilliant basics: Why doing the ‘boring’ amazingly well is the future of e-commerce

E-commerce continues to explode, with an estimated 12–24 million e-commerce sites operating globally. With technology as the driving force behind this growth, brands are increasingly looking to invest into futuristic capabilities to keep pace with customers’ increasing expectations. 

However, with increasing regulations around data privacy, brands are looking to find alternative ways to offer such futuristic capabilities to personalise the customer experience and engage with and delight audiences. Ensuring brands are agile and able to respond to new technologies and changing regulations is key. However, creating a strong e-commerce foundation, such as getting the product descriptions right the first time, implementing clothing-specific size guides and using reliable product imagery, is equally important. 

When someone asks you to sell “boring”, you may jump to an obvious conclusion of “no one buys boring”, but, turning the boring into interesting opens up a world of possibilities that scream success. Hence why, doing the “boring” amazingly well is the future of e-commerce.

So, how can your business implement the typical boring practices amazingly well to thrive in the next era of e-commerce?

Make a list and check it twice

After the pandemic it is clear that companies have become accustomed to selling products quicker than the demand. We are now left with mismanaged sites that have no real creative structure. Not to mention, errors upon errors. With 80% of customers conducting their research online before making a purchase decision, you would expect businesses are double-checking if not triple-checking their webpages before they go live. In fact, WebAIM found that nearly 97% of all home pages tested, from the top 1 million visited webpages, had at least one error. What does this say about our standards? 

So let’s get bored.

Businesses should continually conduct holistic audits of their website. This will provide quality insights into your customer-behaviour patterns and website upgrades, all while delivering solutions to the many basic problems at hand. Conducting consistent audits will also ensure your customers’ data and information is secure from threats. With each new technology and innovation, there are new ways for hackers to take advantage of the loopholes in the digital space, therefore, prioritising these monthly, weekly and or daily audits will create a safe and secure platform for your customers. 

One size does not fit all

In the very near future, customer data, behaviour and derived intent will no longer be warehoused and forgotten. Since we have not yet arrived at the future of shopping, e-retailers must ensure products are retail-ready now. A Power Retail survey found that 34% of consumers pay for postage when they return an item bought online; and that 62% of products returned are because the item didn’t fit or looked different online. 

Building strong virtual relationships with customers through product satisfaction should be a top priority when operating. E-retail sites may implement clothing-specific style guides and VR product try-on’s to help your company stand out from the competition while, most importantly, increasing customer retention.

Step into your customers’ shoes

While personalised customer engagement is considered the Holy Grail for businesses, the word “personalisation” has become ubiquitous in the industry for almost anything. The path beyond personalisation is built on great retail insights, therefore, it is important to step into the shoes of your customers. Businesses, particularly retailers, have these tools at hand to visualise consumer spending patterns in near real time, powering decisions and empowering them to deploy the right approach, at the right time, to the right audience. 

Many retailers recognise the importance of data but struggle with how best to access it, bring it together, and then act on it in real time. With 72% of consumers using their phones to shop and 79% saying their experience in interacting with a brand is just as important as the products the brand offers, how might your business keep up with the ever-changing needs of your e-consumer? 

According to Accenture, 33% of customers who abandoned a business relationship did so because personalisation was lacking, therefore businesses must create a personalised platform where their customers feel as though they are number one. This may be through timely customer service, accepting customer feedback, and creating an effective marketing strategy that keeps your target market top of mind from the get-go. 

Well, can you keep up?

Our philosophy continues to adopt a customer-centric approach. Reaching your consumers at key moments during their online shopping journey, providing them with a frictionless e-commerce journey from interest to purchase. Our e-commerce framework TransAct plays an integral role in how we operate on a day-to-day basis. From experience ideation to creation, we ensure each step is integrated seamlessly.

So, as we move towards a new era of e-commerce, you must learn to accept the “boringness”. Once brands embrace the boring and action these basic tasks brilliantly with ease, then greater business success, growth and longevity will fall into place.