Retailers Need to Know When a Sale Goes Wrong So They Can Fix It

As customer expectations evolve, connecting with the consumer and understanding their wants and needs is crucial for retail success. Yet frequently this leads brands and retailers to simply pore over data sets, which don’t capture the customer’s individual experience. Pinpointing the exact moments when customers leave a webpage or abandon their carts can shed valuable light on where a business should focus its energy.

“Brands need to be able to demonstrate not only what version of a page is most successful in converting customers, but also why,” said Francesca Pezzoli, director of marketing at Glassbox Digital, an online customer experience solution.

The growth of mobile sales has created more opportunities for companies to connect with customers — as well as more opportunities to lose them. The high stakes have led many retailers to employ technologies like Glassbox, Salesforce and Oracle to identify pain points, by tracking the customer’s journey through their various sites.

“In a digital era where mobile apps are taking over from traditional websites, retailers still tend to keep data from these two channels separate,” said Pezzoli. “To get a full picture of their revenue stream, brands need to unify data and insights from every channel their customers use to make purchases.”

Cart abandonment — and therefore lost revenue — is a big concern for retailers, but can be caused by many different factors. A recent UPS survey found that 41% of abandoned carts were a result of unexpectedly high shipping costs, while other reasons included insufficient inventory (28%), too long delivery estimates (26%) and payment transaction errors (20%).

Knowing which part of the checkout process caused the stumble is the first step in resolving the problem. By creating customer journey mapping, retailers can see how a customer moved through their e-commerce channel and which stages prompted which actions. As more customers are mapped and more data is collected, it is possible to identify patterns and spot where the opportunities and issues are.

In addition to automating journey mapping, tools like Glassbox provide other forms of customer relationship management. With customizable reports, Glassbox users can view data for specific segments, while crash analysis allows companies to detect how often mobile apps are crashing for customers and what impact this is having on sales conversion.

Data can also help retailers resolve issues in the moment. The Cashbox feature uses AI and machine-learning to power alerts that identify, in real-time, when there is an abnormal amount of traffic or when a large transaction has failed to be completed. This enables the retailer to take immediate action as needed to optimize the consumer experience and potentially save the sale.

“In today’s digital world, if retailers fail to listen to their customers and offer them highly personalized offerings, outstanding levels of customer experience and full consumer protection, they risk losing them and causing irreparable damage to their brand equity,” said Pezzoli.

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