It is no secret that poor customer engagement can be a red flag for any eCommerce platform. With a plethora of options available in the market, customers today expect their eCommerce stores to offer a personalized experience from start to finish.
eCommerce is a fiercely competitive space. If you want your customers to keep coming back, then you have to make it both attractive and interactive. And the best way to do it is by engaging your users and delivering an outstanding experience from every touchpoint across all your channels.
This blog will discuss what customer engagement means and how eCommerce businesses can look to supercharge their customer engagement.
What is Customer Engagement?
Customer engagement is an umbrella term for all interactions between users and the product or service offered to them. It is an all-inclusive term for all user interactions with your brand, product, website, content, or app.
Customer engagement is how customers interact with a brand and depends upon its overall quality. The rate of customer engagement determines if customers are likely to view products and make a purchase on an eCommerce platform and eventually turn into brand evangelists.
How Can eCommerce Platforms Measure Customer Engagement?
eCommerce platforms can monitor customer engagement metrics and use them to devise personalized marketing strategies. Here are some of the commonly used metrics that track customer engagement for eCommerce platforms.
1. Conversion Rate
It is the percentage of people who took a desired action on a website compared to the total number of website visits. The desired action may be purchasing products or clicking a button.
A conversion rate of 37% means that only 37 people purchased items from a website out of 100 people. This low conversion rate may mean your store needs to be more engaging and convincing to convert visitors into buyers.
Your brand will need to implement some changes to the platform features (such as loading speed, price, or discounts) and develop a marketing strategy.
2. Average Page Views per Visit
Page views mean the number of times visitors viewed a webpage. It gives you an idea of which pages attract more customers. The average page views are measured by dividing the total page views by the cumulative page visits.
You can study the page having higher page views and look to implement a similar strategy to other pages.
3. Cart Abandonment Rate
The cart abandonment rate shows the number of people who didn’t purchase a product after adding it to their cart. If the cart abandonment rate is high (for example, 75%), it implies that there is a friction point while making a purchase.
The eCommerce business must retarget these people through emails, ads, and polls and work on identifying and removing the friction point.
4. Average Order Value
It is the monetary value of orders of an average customer on your eCommerce platform. It is calculated as the revenue generated divided by the number of orders made.
5. Customer Lifetime Value
This metric measures the total amount a customer spent on your products throughout your business’s lifetime or the duration that the person remains your customer. CLTV, as it is often called, is an essential measure of customer engagement because it ascertains the number of returning loyal customers and the value they add to your eCommerce brand.
6. Revenue On Advertising Spent (ROAS)
ROAS measures the effectiveness of your marketing and advertising strategies. It is the revenue that is earned from every buck spent on advertising on a specific marketing channel. A good eCommerce platform built to have an excellent user experience will resonate well with the target audience, leading to high ROAS.
5 Effective Strategies To Boost Customer Engagement for eCommerce Platforms
Rapid digitalization has made eCommerce a highly profitable venture. It is estimated that nearly all purchases will be made online via eCommerce in 2040. This will only mean more competition in the already cluttered space. eCommerce platforms must step up their game regarding customer engagement, personalization, and customer support services.
Here are some proven strategies that eCommerce businesses can look to employ to boost their customer engagement rates.
1. Revisit your Social Media Strategy
One of the surest ways to see a spike in customer engagement rates is to put your brand on relevant social media channels. You can use targeted ads and marketing to get your target audience to interact with your brand. They will also come to know about your brand voice and offerings.
Social media is the best way to position your eCommerce business in front of billions of social media users who search for products similar to yours. Strategies such as influencer marketing and paid advertising make your products and reviews known to potential customers. Video marketing and blogging can convey the product’s unique value and give direction on how to use it.
All this traffic can be redirected to your app or website using deep links, thereby increasing the traffic and engagement rates. Engaging content and content marketing strategies can excite customers about your offers and discounts, pushing them to use your eCommerce platform.
All product offerings on your eCommerce website, be it furniture or sunscreens, can be promoted using social media by posting user testimonials, guides, discounts, and newly launched products so that customers can build a strong relationship with their brand. All this interest translates to engagement on the platform.
2. Employ Discount Plans and Rewards System for Returning Customers
Everyone loves getting a ‘Buy One, Get One Free’ offer. Rewards are a great way to heighten your customers’ interest in a particular product and increase the average order value of customers. This ancient methodology has proven to stand the test of time and is still used widely by eCommerce and quick Commerce platforms to push users to buy more.
With this strategy, struggling eCommerce businesses can get customer attention quickly. Statistics have shown that good customer satisfaction after product usage combined with loyalty programs retains 44% of customers and turns them into brand evangelists.
Send emails to thank customers for their purchases and inform them of redeemable rewards. eCommerce platforms can use Gamification and loyalty reward systems where customers are rewarded with points after each purchase. Referral programs are another way to reward customers with gift items, free shipping, or freebies.
The customers keep returning to the eCommerce brand because everyone loves freebies, offers, and discounts which translates to high customer engagement rates on the eCommerce platform.
3. Create a Beautiful and Easy-to-Navigate User Interface
Nothing beats the appeal of a simple, immersive, and easy-to-navigate interface that puts the customer’s priorities first.
Your customers must be at the heart of the website and app design. When it comes to imagery, pictures, and user experience, your website must stand out. An interactive and intuitive website helps customers when looking for a product.
Low-quality images and little or no product descriptions can turn customers off from making a purchase. eCommerce business owners must ensure that their website is mobile-friendly as many first-time users visit the platform on their mobile devices. Websites must load fast, provide accurate product descriptions and integrate multiple payment features so that customers don’t face friction points while placing their orders.
4. Provide Efficient Customer Support Services
It is normal for customers to have complaints or inquiries about a particular product. In this case, eCommerce business owners need to set up effective customer support services which will swiftly attend to all queries and questions. They will offer solutions that will build a good relationship between the business and customers and give room for positive reviews.
Customer support services are important to keep customers happy and satisfied. A quick query resolution makes customers feel seen and valued, and they return to make more purchases. eCommerce platforms can also automate their customer support services by adding intelligent chatbots to answer common queries and requests.
5. Prioritize Customer Reviews, Polls, and Surveys
Nothing convinces customers to check out a product and buy it better than seeing other customers use it successfully and see results. The stamp of approval from other customers is precious for eCommerce platforms as it helps new customers build trust in the platform and the product.
eCommerce brands can adopt platforms such as Upshot.ai to automate their customer surveys, push notifications, in-app messages, opinion polls, and games. Use the results from these polls to create a personalized marketing strategy for improving existing products and features of the eCommerce platform.
Conclusion
The easiest way for eCommerce platforms to see an increase in their revenue is by working on their customer engagement. Sustaining the customer’s interest over time is a challenging task and happens as a result of strong customer engagement, personalization, and effective marketing strategies.
A rise in customer engagement on your eCommerce platform will increase your sales, conversion rates, average order value, and customer retention. So eCommerce brands must continuously work on their customer engagement plans to stay relevant and profitable.
The Upshot.ai Advantage
Upshot.ai is an omnichannel, user engagement, and gamification platform that helps digital product owners and marketers improve product adoption and conversions.
With Upshot.ai, banks, Insurance, and FinTech firms can enhance their digital experiences with pre-built gamification features. It can provide personalized insights, actionable recommendations, and contextual nudges designed to deepen its relationship with its users.
Book a demo of the most comprehensive user engagement and gamification platform to achieve your digital product goals. Join our communities for more insights, guides, and best practices that keep you updated with proven strategies and tips to supercharge your campaigns.
About the Author
Emmanuella Otutu
Emmanuella Otutu is a content writer and Digital Marketing Manager. She spins boring and complex content into easy-to-understand pieces and has experience working in the Health, Technology, Beauty, eCommerce, and Fashion industries. She excels in employing effective content strategies to express the distinct value of products across relevant channels.
Follow @upshot_ai