The only thing better than driving all the way to the shopping mall and buying that new collection of shoes that you have been eyeing for so long is buying the same thing from the comfort of your home through online shopping stores.
Ask anyone and they would tell you that they prefer getting cozy on their couch on a rainy day and shop products online from their favorite online shopping stores rather than taking the effort to go out and do the same thing. The rush that you get in just one click while purchasing a new dress with great offers is too good to resist.
As you can see, the best online shopping stores are transforming the way that consumers shop online in a variety of ways. In this article, we are going to go a lot more in-depth and understand how exactly this online shopping all product transformation is taking place.
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How are the best online shopping stores transforming customer experience?
Augmented reality giving online shopping products an edge
One of the biggest advantages that brick-and-mortar stores have over good online shopping stores is that the customers can touch, feel, and in most cases experience the product before they make a purchase. For eg, trying on a new pair of jeans to see if it fits them properly. But this gap is closing in quickly with the advancement in augmented reality (AR).
Some of the best stores to shop online such as Lenskart are now offering a unique feature called ‘3D Try On’ which lets the user see how a frame of glasses looks on their face by using photo perception. Another such top online shopping product website called Sephora allows its customers to shop products online by trying on their beauty products such as make-up and even clothes to see how they look in it before they make a purchase. This form of augmented reality is proving to be an absolute game-changer for eCommerce.
Voice search making online shopping a lot more easier
A forecast by Loop Ventures says that by the year 2025, more than 75% of households in the US will own a smart speaker such as Alexa, Siri, Bixby, and many others. In fact, almost 99% of smartphone owners already have a voice assistant in their phones right now. People already use voice assistants for a number of tasks such as checking the weather, setting an alarm, and even buying online shopping products. There is an incredible amount of potential for voice search in the future. As more and more people get comfortable using voice search, as they did with using Google – you can expect to see a lot more sales coming on the best stores to shop online. Ecommerce websites have now started to optimize their website for VSO (Voice Search Optimisation) along with SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to help their customers find the products they want effortlessly.
AI, Machine Learning & Data Analytics improving customer experience
Artificial intelligence is taking over the e-commerce space with a bang. All the good online shopping stores have a tremendous amount of data on their customers. This data is segregated and analyzed by artificial intelligence – which in turn is used to improve the customer experience. With the help of AI, Machine Learning, and Data Analytics, online stores are able to personalize and recommend top online shopping products to the customers who are most likely to purchase them. When customers shop online for kitchen products, this AI-based algorithm suggests to them other home essentials to buy and this leads to more purchases than otherwise.
AI has taken over the role of a salesperson working in a brick & mortar store and it is doing a much better job at it too. With the tremendous amount of data that eCommerce websites collect, AI is able to pinpoint exactly what their customers would want to purchase next. It is therefore playing a key role in improving the customer experience online.
Mobile shopping on the move
Statista has estimated that by the end of 2021, more than 73% of online shopping all products will be done using mobile phones by the end of 2021. This is quite obvious since the biggest advantage that e-commerce has over traditional retail stores is that it can be done literally anywhere (as long as you have an internet connection). Keeping this in mind, if you have an eCommerce store or are planning to get into eCommerce anytime soon – then it should go without saying that you must keep the mobile experience of your customers at the forefront of all your efforts. Your customers should have the power to shop on their phones as much as (or if not more than) they do use a desktop.
Say goodbye to salespeople and say hello to chatbots
An overwhelming number of customers (more than 60%) actually prefer to talk with chatbots or other forms of similar digital self-service tools that can answer all their queries 24/7. It’s no wonder because chatbots are a lot more convenient and faster as opposed to calling up the customer care number or writing an email to the eCommerce company. With the help of a chatbot, you are able to resolve the customer’s queries right on the product page itself and that too just in a matter of a few seconds. This can play a major factor in ensuring that you do not miss out on sales. Therefore it’s not surprising that a lot of experts predict that 80% of stores to shop online will be using chatbots in 2020.
Final words
All of the above factors (including a lot more) culminate in the transformation of how customers use stores to shop online. That being said, online shopping of all products has definitely gone mainstream as of 2020 and it is not going to stop anytime soon. If you are an offline retailer, then it would make a lot of sense to rethink your position and jump into the bandwagon of online shopping before it is too late. In fact, there hasn’t been a better time to get into eCommerce than now.
