The State of CX in E-Commerce for 2022

The market for ecommerce and online shopping is growing at an incredible rate. By 2025, experts predict the global market will exceed $7.3 trillion in value, driven by the whirlwind of consumer behaviours over the last couple of years.

Though ecommerce opportunities have been growing steadily for some time now, the pandemic ignited the need for every generation to explore the benefits of shopping online. During 2021, ecommerce accounted for approximately 18.1% of all sales, and the numbers keep growing.

Of course, to continue increasing their online purchasing activities, customers need an online experience as convenient, efficient, and personalised as the interactions they expect in-person. For companies in the ecommerce space, it’s never been more important to invest in CX.

The Potential for CX in eCommerce

In the last couple of years, we’ve seen endless evidence that a shift to more digital and hybrid shopping landscapes is underway. Online shopping in 2020 registered an increase of 21.6% compared to previous years. Even when restrictions to prevent in-person shopping were lifted in 2021, over $8.9 billion in sales occurred online.

Going forward, ecommerce brands are in an excellent position to leverage the momentum created by the pandemic for a more digital shopping environment. By delivering more immersive and impressive customer experiences, ecommerce companies can ensure consumers continue to do more of their shopping online. However, to achieve the right results, organisations will need to focus on a number of important concepts, such as:

• Customer journey mapping: To drive better experiences for customers in today’s ecommerce landscape, companies need to generate a strong understanding of the buyer journey. This journey takes place across a multitude of different environments, from social media and email to the website chat widget. Making sure you can track analytics and insights from every touchpoint will allow you to deliver better service.
• Omnichannel customer service: Customers are increasingly expecting a consistent experience from customer service providers across every channel. Just because you’re running an ecommerce store with no physical location doesn’t mean you shouldn’t still have access to phone and video calling alongside your website chat and email support.
• Artificial Intelligence and agent augmentation: Access to AI is making the management of CX strategies much simpler for businesses in the ecommerce landscape. AI bots can help with not only solving problems for online shoppers, but also with providing agents with crucial data they can use to personalize the customer experience.
• Security and compliance: In an environment where consumers are becoming increasingly concerned about online scams and criminals, it’s important to ensure excellent levels of security throughout your ecommerce environment. Implementing the highest standards for securing and managing consumer data will be essential to stay ahead of the competition.

The Trends Influencing CX in eCommerce

Rapid shifts in buyer behaviour and changes to the supply chain in the last couple of years have undoubtedly created a number of challenges for business leaders. Fortunately, the agile evolution of the ecommerce environment is also paving the way for a new era of innovation in CX.

Rapidly, companies are embracing AI technology and digital-first solutions in an effort to provide their customers with the ideal experience in an online shopping environment. As we move ahead into 2022 and beyond, there are several trends that may begin to make an impact on the space.

• Self-service and customer portals: While it’s important to have the right employees on-hand to assist your customers when they need support, it’s also crucial to embrace the latest trends in self-service. Today’s customers are expecting to be able to solve more of their issues online, particularly when shopping with ecommerce brands. Environments where your customers can check their orders, without speaking to an agent or solve a problem with self-service chatbots and assistants, are crucial.
• Metaverse and AR environments: The rise of the Metaverse is likely to be a significant factor for the ecommerce landscape. This space will provide an opportunity for ecommerce companies to build deeper relationships with their customers, through stronger customer service experiences built-in extended reality, and other modern environments.
• Automation: With skills shortages affecting virtually every industry and the number of shoppers emerging online increasing all the time, companies can’t afford for their workers to be wasting any time. Access to automation tools that help to minimize repetitive tasks for the workforce will be a critical part of making sure you can stay ahead of the competition. Automation could even help with collecting information and insights about the customer journey, so agents can deliver more personalized experiences.
• Shopping experience innovation: Increasingly, customers are looking for online shopping experiences which are as agile and painless as possible. This means ecommerce businesses will need to work harder at optimising the shopping environment. Everything from the creation of AR apps for try-before-you-buy experiences, to the development of predictive tools which can automatically remind customers when to re-purchase an item could be crucial going forward.

The Challenges to Overcome in CX for Ecommerce

Today’s consumers are becoming increasingly more reliant on ecommerce solutions as a way to access all of the essential tools and services they need. However, they’re also judging the experiences offered by all ecommerce providers, by the highest standards.

Companies like Amazon with same-day delivery and ultra-fast order management have pushed customers to expect the same from every brand. This means business leaders are under increasing pressure to keep up with huge expectations, whether they’re selling B2B or B2C.

85% of customers say they expect their customer service interactions to be faster today and an increasing number of customers are looking for more efficiency from their online shopping experiences. Companies are going to need to invest in innovative ideas to stay ahead of the curve.

Everything from AI bots capable of understanding customer sentiment during the service journey, to self-service portals which give clients more control over their online purchases, will play a part in transforming the ecommerce environments of tomorrow.

All the while, as companies continue to implement new features into their ecommerce stores, websites, and apps, they will still need to ensure they’re keeping track of other fundamentals. For instance, enhancing your website with a chatbot can’t come at the expense of fast-loading product pages.

Investing in CX for ecommerce

Now more than ever, ecommerce companies are in an excellent position to start paving the way for phenomenal growth. Customers from all landscapes are open to the idea of shopping online more frequently than they used to. However, they don’t want to compromise on an excellent customer experience. Investing in the right tools to ensure excellent CX will be crucial to ongoing success.