Gemma Baker — May 19, 2017 
The shoppers experience starts the moment they enter your online store. From that instant their expectations have been set, and it is your website that is going to help them decide to take action, contacting your representatives, making a purchase, or leaving altogether.
In 2015 the average bounce rate across the ecommerce industry was 33.9%[1]
Over a third of visitors are bouncing on average, there are some reasons you won’t be able to resolve:
- They press back in their browser
- They close the browsing session
- They accidently come to your website then leave quickly
There are other reasons for abandoning the site that your organisation can work to improve.
They Leave the Site via an External Link
Most visitors will enter the site via a landing page or your homepage. To ensure they do not constitute as a bounce by changing pages, only have internal links on these pages to continue their journey, therefore your organisation is not driving the visitor away and increasing the bounce rate.
They Type another URL in the Browser
There is nothing to stop a visitor from typing in another URL into the browser bar and leaving your site. However, many websites try and delay their departure by offering to send valuable insights or free delivery / discount codes when the visitor’s mouse moves towards the bar.
Completion of the form can count as a goal in Google Analytics and therefore not a bounce. Gathering contact details allows the company to encourage visitors to return to the website.
Confusing Navigation
If your navigation is too complicated and the visitor doesn’t understand it they are more likely to leave the site.
Keep it simple!
What pages do you want your visitors to view the most? Think of the path you want them to follow, pair this with the most popular pages that Google Analytics shows through the Users Flow. These pages need to be your top navigation that displays throughout the site, the simplest way to present the rest of your links are within a hamburger menu and in the footer.
The Site is Slow
Text based sites load quicker than media rich ones, however they can be unattractive to visitors. Restrict your image and video sizes and monitor your website speed using Google Search Console (previously Web Master Tools.)
There’s no Call to Action
Make it easy for your visitors to take action, whether that’s contacting your company, by having your phone number and email address available on every page and live chat prominently in view as the visitor browses, or making your checkout process as easy as possible, with obvious ‘add to basket’ buttons and guest checkout options.
Continuing the Journey
Now that your visitor is staying on your website, their experience of your site is just getting started.
They could be at a research stage, browsing your products, or ready to buy. Whatever their intentions if the visitor has questions ensure your representatives are available to help, the quickest method is via live chat.
85% of customers with unanswered questions will try another site for more information; ensure a live chat button is available on every page of your website[2]
So now customer service is being introduced into the customer experience, it can be your representatives’ approach that determines whether the customer purchases from the company. They will need to answer the visitors’ questions quickly and accurately by:
- Building a relationship
- Focusing on the visitor requirements
- Selling the benefits
- Thinking ahead
- Up or cross selling when appropriate
- Compromising
Once the visitor has completed their purchase, customer support is now added to the mix. Checking up on the customer after they made a purchase to ensure they are happy makes them feel valued, and more likely to return.
87% of customers surveyed said they wanted to be contacted proactively by a company[3]
If a customer has an issue with a product before or after you follow up, ensure they can contact your support team for a resolution, live chat can be the quickest way to identify and rectify the issue.
The customer experience is the most important aspect of gaining conversions and attracting returning business, if visitors are disappointed by your website or service they will try another site.
Is your customer journey getting your business the results it wants? Or do you need to focus on the customer experience to get it where it needs to be? Leave your opinions in the comments.
Read the White Paper – Handing Sales Enquiries for expansion.
References:
[1] Conversion Voodoo, 2015, WHAT ARE THE BOUNCE RATES FOR ECOMMERCE SITES INDUSTRY STATS 2015
[2] Click4Assistance, 2017, Live Chat for Website Software Cheat Sheet
[3] MyCustomer, 2016, How to improve your service by making it proactive
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