You can have the best CX and UX team, but you won't get anywhere if your customers aren’t happy.
Keeping an eye on the customer journey can help brands better understand how their customers travel through the entire sales journey and how they feel during the experience. This can help the brand optimise the buying experience across all shopping channels for new and potential customers.
Research by Boston Retail Partners found that retailers have embraced unified commerce as the best way to overcome and break down the traditional silos around individual channels and bridge the physical and digital worlds. Unified commerce creates a single source of transactional truth for the customer.
Product lists fit into a brand’s unified commerce technology stack to create a unified customer experience across a brand’s physical stores and online. Whether it’s a wish list or a list of previously purchased items—product lists can help brands gather valuable zero-party behavioural data.
Not only does it allow a customer to pick up where they left off between online and offline experiences, but this data can also help create rich, insight-filled customer profiles that empower brands to provide highly personalised and engaging shopping experiences for their customers—across all channels. Let’s take a look at how.
Incorporating product lists into your retail ecosystem enables you to create better customer experiences in a variety of ways:
Traditionally brands have always relied on post-purchase transactional data to build customer profiles. Product lists are packed with behavioural data and better inform brands about their customer’s transactional intentions. They allow brands to get to know their customers more intimately and use this data to create more personalised retail experiences before they purchase.
Additionally, these profiles often live in silos, with no connection between a customer’s in-store and eCommerce shopping profile. In a unified commerce environment, customer profiles are also unified and give brands access to valuable zero-party data that creates a holistic view of their customers.
Retail brands that offer product list functionality can allow customers to easily save their products for later via a Wish List. In the absence of wish lists, customers often add items to their carts for future decision-making. Customers can also curate a catalogue of products on their saved product list and share it with friends and family to receive as gifts.
67% of customers have said they like to “start the sale anywhere, finish the sale anywhere.” Easy saving makes it easier for customers to return and continue their shopping experience on any channel without having to begin a fresh search for the products each time.
Regardless of what channel a customer makes their purchase, they will be sent receipts electronically, and all information regarding past transactions is stored in a ‘purchased products’ list.
This makes the return process easier as there are no more customers wanting to return goods without proof of purchase due to loss, fading etc. Hassle-free returns also create a good impression of your brand and increase brand loyalty, as customers are less likely to buy from brands that make shopping inconvenient.
An eReceipt that lives in their account on the website or in their email inbox makes it easy for your customers to find and repurchase products directly through the receipt links.
Personalisation has become ubiquitous in our lives. Customers expect it, and brands must provide it. 80% of consumers are more likely to push through with a purchase when they are getting personalised content and promotions.
Bring the in-store and online experiences together by storing a customer’s purchase history as well as products that have been ‘listed’ in one unified platform. This data can be useful to optimise opportunities for cross-selling by providing a product recommendations list that complements a customer’s recent purchase.
During the shopping experience, product lists can also be used to provide other types of recommendations. For example, you can use the data to suggest frequently purchased together items. You can also use your product list data to showcase trending products that may be of interest to the customer.
Product lists can also be helpful for sending out customer communications and further increasing opportunities for sales. If a customer has expressed interest in a previously out-of-stock product, this information can be stored on a product list. Once the item is back in-store, you can simply alert them via an email or in-app notification and invite them to complete the purchase.
Similarly, informing your customers that an item on their wish list is selling fast or has gone on sale is a tried-and-true tactic that often entices them to come back and complete their purchase—online or in-store. Combining this scarcity signal with reserve in-store lists can really lock in commitment to purchase and activate a customer’s FOMO.
The best way to improve the customer experience is to receive feedback directly from your customers on what they liked (or disliked!) about their purchase experience.
Invite feedback directly after purchase and easily link it to the channel or store they purchased from. You can even connect it to service staff for in-store purchases. All the data can be easily stored against the customer’s profile. In case of a bad experience, the customer service team can quickly jump on board to try and rectify the situation.
This information is useful for brands for accurate reporting of their service metrics but also lets your customers know you care about their feedback and are a brand that is invested in providing quality customer service.
Omneo’s product lists not only bring utility to the customer but to your brand as well. They engage your customers at various points during their journey to purchase. These lists become an important touchpoint for gathering valuable zero-party data, which leads to creating better, more personalised shopping experiences for your customers. Better experiences lead naturally to more sales and increased customer loyalty.
We previously discussed why product lists are important for eCommerce brands. In our final article in the product list series, we will share real-life examples of brands using product lists, as well as best practices to create a good wish list experience.
Contact us to learn more about how adding Omneo’s Curate Element, including a product list to your retail technology stack, can enhance your unified commerce efforts and, ultimately, the customer experience.
