How to Reduce eCommerce Friction to Build Lasting Customer Relationships

Need to Know 

• eCommerce friction can be defined as anything that makes it harder for shoppers to complete a purchase, including complicated checkouts, unexpected fees, or limited payment and shipping options.
• Every year, about 70% of eCommerce shopping carts are abandoned annually due to eCommerce friction, resulting in roughly $18 billion in lost annual revenue.
• Streamlining customer experiences by offering self-service tools, simplifying checkouts, and centralizing customer data can reduce friction, decreasing cart abandonment, and increasing long-term customer loyalty.
   

About 70% of all eCommerce shopping carts are abandoned every year,¹ amounting to roughly $18 billion in lost annual revenue.²

As technology has made online shopping faster, easier, and more convenient than ever before, consumer expectations have risen to an all-time high.

Anything that disrupts or slows down shoppers browsing your eCommerce storefront, like a long checkout process, an inaccurate representation of your inventory, or lengthy order fulfillment, can all create eCommerce friction, leading to lost sales.

By removing these obstacles, you can streamline your customer experience, significantly increasing your annual sales and gaining valuable customer loyalty in the long-term.

Keep reading to find out our experts’ tips for reducing friction in your eCommerce experience.

How can I determine if my eCommerce customer experience contains friction?

If you’ve noticed that shoppers are leaving your site before completing their purchases, your first step should be reviewing your site and application data to look for patterns in their behaviour.

Is there a specific page that customers tend to exit from? This can be a good indicator of an obstacle that is causing friction and deterring potential customers.

For example, 80% of shoppers will immediately leave a site that returns inaccurate search results.³ If customers are exiting after initiating a search, compare their query against the results they received to check for accuracy. You can learn more about how to improve your site’s search here.

Another example of customer experience friction you may see in your data is cart abandonment during checkout.

If this is the case, see if there are ways that you can simplify your checkout process to help your customers complete their purchases faster and more efficiently. Does your brand charge for additional fees or shipping at checkout? This could be another obstacle, as 47% of all abandoned carts can be attributed to shipping costs and additional fees at checkout.⁴These are just a couple of examples, but you may find customer experience challenges at any point in your customer journey. 

What strategies should eCommerce retailers invest in to remove friction from their customer experience?

Reducing eCommerce friction requires streamlining your customer journey — in other words, reducing the number of steps shoppers need to take in order to make a purchase from your store.

It’s an investment that’s worth making, as 43% percent of shoppers say they will pay a premium for a more convenient retail experience, and almost the same amount will pay more for friendly, welcoming service.⁵

Here are some of our experts’ recommendations for reducing friction in your eCommerce experience:

• Make it simple for shoppers to learn more about your products. If a potential customer has a question about how a garment might fit or the ingredients in one of your products, one way to efficiently remove this obstacle is with self-service options.

  Automated chat templates, AI conversational agents, and dedicated sections for Frequently Asked Questions are all great ways to allow shoppers to get their questions answered quickly, without a delay that could decrease their motivation to purchase.

  For customers who have more complex questions, live chat options are another fast and simple way to keep them moving toward a purchase.

  This also benefits your customer service team by reducing the frequency of commonly asked questions, giving them more time to provide service to the people they do assist.

• Simplify checkouts with thoughtful and convenient shipping and payment options. As we mentioned earlier, charging an additional fee for shipping at checkout can be enough to deter someone who had previously intended to make a purchase. Offering free shipping after a certain purchase amount, or otherwise incorporating them into the cost of your products can help remove this point of friction.

  Giving shoppers multiple options to receive their items can also provide greater flexibility for people who live outside your delivery area or who would prefer to pick up their items themselves. This includes options like Buy Online Pickup In-Store (BOPIS) and Buy Online Ship to Store (BOSS). Similarly, giving multiple payment options also reduces cart abandonment, such as Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), gift cards, and digital wallet payments.

• Centralize your customer and product data. There are many platforms available to help you grow your customer relationships and trust.

  For example, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software logs every customer interaction, so sales representatives can see a customer’s past purchases, returns, and customer service inquiries. This allows them to provide a higher level of service that drives customer loyalty.

  A Customer Data Platform (CDP) functions similarly, but also incorporates data from additional sources to help brands make decisions about segmentation and personalization.

  An often-overlooked aspect of trust for eCommerce customers is accurate inventory management. An Order Management System (OMS) can help ensure that the inventory displayed on your site reflects what you have available in your warehouse, decreasing instances of customer disappointment which could deter them from trying to make a purchase at a later date. 

• Streamline returns. Though it may seem counterintuitive, a positive return experience is a surprising way to drive customer loyalty. Building fast and simple returns processes will instill shopper trust and confidence in making a re-purchase.

Creating a frictionless eCommerce customer experience requires time and investment, but the revenue increases and long-term customer loyalty that come with it are invaluable.

By collaborating with industry experts who understand the retail landscape and your customers’ expectations, you can fast-track their journey to loyalty. Connect with our eCommerce team today to get started.

Want to learn more about our approach to optimizing your eCommerce site for increased sales and customer loyalty? Download our eBook of our experts’ eCommerce best practices to discover the proven strategies we've employed for our clients.

¹https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/ecommerce-statistics/
² https://www.bigcommerce.com/articles/ecommerce/abandoned-carts/
³ https://pages.nosto.com/rs/339-ZHG-780/images/The%20Future%20of%20Ecommerce%20Search.pdf
⁴ https://baymard.com/lists/cart-abandonment-rate
⁵ https://www.pwc.com/us/en/services/consulting/library/consumer-intelligence-series/future-of-customer-experience.html