4 rules for crafting an exceptional online experience

Retail Online Training


Four rules for exceptional online experiences from the ICX/BCX summit in Charlotte, North Carolina, hosted by Networld Media Group.

The online shopping experience has transformed retail forever, and it’s only growing. But with so many operators vying to innovate in this crowded space, how can your brand stand out from the crowd? And how can you balance technology with the human touch in such a tech-informed experience?

This was the topic of a panel called “Delivering an exceptional online experience,” which convened during the Interactive Customer Experience Summit, hosted by Networld Media Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. Moderator Cherryh Cansler, VP of Events at Networld Media Group, discussed real world examples with the panelists.

Their robust and wide-ranging discussion included four simple-yet-powerful rules for success that can be used by operators in any category and of any size who are seeking to refine the online shopping experience for their customers.

  • Rule 1: Keep it simple!
  • Rule 2: Adapt to change.
  • Rule 3: Customer first, always!
  • Rule 4: Use good data and automation.

Rule 1: Keep it simple!

Part of success in online experiences is being honest about what works, but it also means digging into what doesn’t work and learning from those mistakes.

“The whole point of our business is that influencer and affiliate marketing, traditionally, has a really, really terrible online experience,” said Gary Garofalo, CEO at LoudCrowd, a SaaS company that sells brands and specializes in providing a brand’s influencers and affiliates with their own storefronts on a brand’s domain.

Old-fashioned influencer and affiliate marketing involves generic content creation on social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok with the goal of increasing traffic for a brand, but the user experience tends to be poor in these contexts, according to Garofalo.

“The problem is that this is like the worst context switch of all time,” Garofalo explained. “You’ve got somebody on Instagram or TikTok… interested in social content, and now I’ve got an influencer taking you back to this e-commerce site, and [you’re] supposed to figure out how to navigate this site based on product categories. That’s not what I was interested in.”

With growing user frustration with this legacy influencer marketing model translating into worsening ROI for brands and marketing agencies, a new generation of marketing experts is finding success by challenging that older model.

“What our company does is, we take the context of social from social media and we put that on the brand’s native site,” Garofalo said. “When they get somebody [to navigate] back to their site, we’re maintaining the context. And we built a really, really slick, really, really simple user experience designed to sell social media people really, really well on an e-commerce site.”

One core lesson for operators of all sizes is that the online experience absolutely must be seamless and simple for the average user, and the transition from social media to an e-commerce site must be as frictionless as possible — don’t create a confusing or jarring transition for your social media followers.

Rule 2: Adapt to change

The evolution of affiliate and influencer marketing plays into a larger message that has affected Walmart’s recent online experience journey, according to Huma Zaidi, group director at Walmart, who heads up a group that specializes in searching, browsing, and user-generated content.

“It’s no longer about the Walmart app; it’s about the way you want to consume the Walmart app, the most personalized experiences which we can build, the content which we can create, all throughout the experiences — and message it to deliver the value which resonates very well with you,” Zaidi said.

“It goes back to the Walmart principles: that we want to help users save money so that they have better lives,” she continued, explaining that the customer base is refining its expectations and desires for each shopping experience, with higher value placed on things like quality, speed of fulfillment, and overall satisfaction with the buying experience as a whole.

“The ‘better lives’ is really what is underscored right now… We are doing a balance of price, speed, quality, and experience. It’s no longer about the cheapest dress which you can buy — it’s about the most desirable dress, which really resonates with your body type, and experiences delivered in a way which really works for your fulfillment center, and having quality which really resonates.”

Rule 3: Customer first, always!

The Walmart lesson of adapting to change based on customer desire and feedback is central to success in the changing world of e-Commerce and retail, and it centers on a core principle of success in emerging retail trends, which may sound familiar and even “old-timey” to industry experts: put your customer first, and remember that you are here to serve them, not vice-versa.

“At Carve Designs, we really try to think about what your goal is,” said Thayer Sylvester, CEO and co-founder at Carve Designs, a women’s beach-inspired lifestyle and swimwear company operating via e-commerce and wholesale channels, including more than 1,300 storefronts such as REI.

Carve Designs has discovered that there is a difference between customer cohorts. Some know exactly what they want, and they have a type of “speed-shopping” approach in their desired shopping experience — they have an idea of what they want to buy, and they want to find and purchase it as fast as possible. This group needs a user experience that prioritizes speed.

Another customer group requires a more nuanced approach, however; this cohort doesn’t quite know what they want to purchase, and they often have a lot of anxiety around the whole experience.

“I don’t know how many of you have shopped for bathing suits recently, but as women, it can be one of the most intimidating things to do — trying to do that, but in front of a screen without [individualized, personal] feedback can be really difficult.”

The solution for these customers involves more of a white-glove approach to the online shopping experience, one designed to give confidence to shoppers and to help them find products that truly meet their needs, even if it takes a little longer to find that specific item.

“Creating a personalized experience for you, where you’re talking to us about what you like, what you don’t like, body features that you feel good about, body features that you might want to conceal, having that wrap into real-time product recommendations that feel customized to what you’re looking for — so that then you can go ahead and make a purchase right away,” Sylvester said.

“That’s the type of stuff that we’re working on. Trying to just make it easier, to take away the intimidation from a really, really difficult experience.

Another core insight for creating an online experience that wows your customers: meet them where they are, and provide customized, tailored experiences that make them feel individually cared for in the shopping experience. This includes speed-shoppers, who simply want the fastest purchase experience possible, along with shoppers who need more handholding and guidance to feel that they are making the best possible selection.

Rule 4: Use good data and automation.

Of course, the human side of any user experience is fueled by data — robust data, and lots of it! While personalization and customization of the sort discussed by Carve sounds deeply human (and it is), you have to have world-class data principles to pull off that kind of human experience.

It’s a lesson seen again and again by Capco, a global management consultancy focused on financial services and clients, while working with its clients — which include large global banks, insurers, and other large firms.

“You know, we always think about UI/UX as it relates to customer experience, but so much of that experience hinges around data,” said Glenn Kurban, lead partner for U.S. data and analytics at Capco, a global management consultancy focused on financial services clients. “My function is to help clients actually utilize the data that they have, and create better data quality, which in turn will create a better experience for their customer.”

One common example includes the traditional mortgage application process, with many consumers reporting frustration with a clunky or confusing process with too many baffling steps.

“One of the things we’re doing with a few of our banking clients is actually creating automation and a utilization of data that they already have on these potential borrowers and streamlining that process,” Kurban said.

The beauty of this process is that automation can often leverage the data that your brand already has about its customers to create a better user experience, without asking for additional data from them. The end result, if executed properly, is to create a frictionless, streamlined, and efficient process for users in the application process — and it’s a lesson that extends beyond banking and finance to virtually any transaction that operators use which may be causing headaches and friction for its customers.

“Data is the lifeblood for me and our firm in terms of working with clients, and that just happens to be one example that I think resonates with a lot of people,” Kurban concluded.

The core lesson for operators, from banking and finance to retail and beyond, is that there is no avoiding the power of data to supercharge your customer experience and to remove friction from your online marketing and sales systems. Having a good intention to put your customers first is the starting point, but you have to be ready to create and leverage strong data and analytics to execute that vision.

Retail Online Training