Following the Coronavirus outbreak, the changes in customer expectations will continue to grow as we head into the new normal. Consumers are now focused on brands that provide convenience and purpose. According to Forbes, they are no longer going out of their way to seek out their favorite brands. Therefore, as the leading CX executive search firm, we have found that it is more crucial now to focus on customer experience through eCommerce marketing if you plan to optimize your ROI.
In today’s market, smart companies are improving customer experience by investing in better e-commerce tools and technologies. By understanding their newly developed customers, businesses can optimize their buyer’s journey. The reality is, it is difficult to implement the same experience you once did and expect to reach today’s customer with the best experience if your competition is evolving. As a result, marketing leaders are paying close attention to specific metrics and making informed decisions to further deliver value to consumers. Here are the top key metrics companies are using to track their success:
CX Executive Search Firm Showcases Top E-commerce Experience Metrics In Today’s Market:
Cart Abandonment Rate
As more consumers continue to shop online, eCommerce marketing has become one of the main focuses for top companies. Marketers now have the opportunity to reach a larger pool of audiences and connect with customers through different types of channels. However, one of the biggest obstacles e-commerce executives face is cart abandonment. Barilliance stated that online stores lose approximately 75% of sales due to consumers leaving their cart. Therefore, you need to understand where in the buyer’s journey your customers are cutting loose. Are they leaving because your website isn’t appealing? Did they not have enough information on the product? Is shipping rates too high? Are there difficulties navigating the app or website? Tracking the users’ experience from beginning to end gives you more insight into what you need to improve on as a brand.
Customer Engagement
During this moment in time, companies are reallocating their marketing budgets to ensure they get the best return on their investment. If you want to reach your goals, you must keep an eye on how much you are spending to win over a consumer. Essentially, you want to spend less than what your consumers are willing to spend on your products or services.
Therefore, social media channels are a cost-effective way to communicate with your audience and spark interest in your brand. How are audiences responding to your message? Are they interacting with your social media accounts? Have you seen an increase in website traffic? Understanding the different types of content your consumers want to hear or know more about will give you better insight into building a more effective customer experience map.
Unfortunately, with the increase in online competition, it is harder to gain and retain your target audience’s attention without the right expertise. More often than not, the decrease in engagement is because you don’t have the right e-commerce leader guiding your team. As the leading CX executive search firm, MarketPro is seeing more companies seek a director or senior vice president role for customer experience. However, with many recruiters and HR departments lacking eCommerce marketing expertise, searches are being prolonged or companies are seeing a higher turnover rate. Therefore, you need e-commerce-savvy recruiters to understand what experience the candidate needs to perform the job effectively and how their past experiences can enhance their abilities.
Customer Reviews
Receiving direct feedback on your products and services gives you a unique advantage. It reveals your strengths and weaknesses. By understanding the likes and dislikes of your target audience, you can mitigate the risks of cart abandonments or negative feedback. With years of experience, MarketPro has seen 5-star reviews directly impact sales growth by encouraging trust and loyalty to your brand. Excellent reviews also is a strong algorithm factor for successful e-commerce SEO. All of which will ensure your brand reaches your ROI goals.
Customer Support
Customer service and support metrics are some of the top key indicators that help you understand your team’s performance. Consumers are looking for clear communication and exceptional service. This is especially crucial as consumers continue to reduce the amount of face to face interactions. Therefore, marketing leaders need to be able to track specific metrics to improve the overall customer experience. How many support tickets do your team members get weekly? Are there more unresolved tickets than resolved? How quickly were they able to help consumers? Making sure your team is well and adequately staffed with the right experts to handle customer concerns is extremely important to the success of your brand.
Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty impacts almost every other metric marketing professionals are tracking. Essentially, to thrive, you need happy clients. Understanding what customers are expecting and what they consider essential to their daily life is crucial to your success. However, this does not only apply to acquire new customers. In fact, according to McKinsey, they found that “repeat e-commerce customers spend more than double what new customers spend.” Therefore, if your company can align your message and exceed customer expectations, you will start to see more and more repeat customers over the next few decades.
Conclusion
As the leading e-commerce executive search firm, we have seen inconsistencies with what clients are looking for and the challenges they face in recruiting top talent to represent their brands. The truth is, finding the ideal e-commerce executive who possesses the right mix of hard and soft skills is difficult. They must be able to display executive presence when guiding the marketing team to ensure productivity and efficiency. However, it becomes a true challenge if your recruitment team has little to no experience in e-commerce and customer experience. Therefore, having a specialized eCommerce executive search firm working hand-in-hand with you not only mitigates the risk of a wrong hire but speeds up the recruitment process of an A player. Now is the best time to reconsider your strategy and make sure you have the right talent on your side.
