2020's Biggest Online Shopping Problems And How to Fix Them for Your Website

What We Can Learn Consumer Behavior in the 2020 Holiday Season and What It Means for Your Website

2021 is officially in full swing, which means many are planning (or at least attempting to plan) what this year will look like. While you’re considering the first quarter and how to optimize the next, let’s take a look back at the busiest season of 2020. 

Why look back on the holiday season? The holiday season, especially this year, provided an unmatched look at how people use the internet. Not only does this apply to eCommerce websites, but also service websites because in reality, people use them similarly.

In order to be helpful, we’ll share the biggest issues we’ve seen and/or heard from the 2020 season and address how you can fix them. Some are bigger than others, but none are more important than any other because the collective user experience truly matters. 

For non-eCommerce Websites 

Not Having a Responsive Website

With more people at home, many thought that we’d start seeing mobile usage drop, but in fact it rose around the holiday season, with mobile usage topping out at 55% in December. Even though people have easier access to desktops, they’re still starting on and/or using their phones. That means if you don’t have a mobile site… you’re falling behind. 

Our Solution: 

Get a responsive website! It’s time. Truly. The benefits to your business outweigh the inevitable cost, so you might as well get a head start and the website can begin paying for itself. 

Slow Response / Not Tracking Leads 

Another non-eCommerce issue we saw this year was a slow response to forms and difficulty tracking leads. While working from home or virtually, it can be a bit harder to keep track of who’s talking to what client and how you’re marketing towards them. It’s important that you track your sales follow-ups and conversations to show off professionalism to your customers and clients. 

Our Solution: 

Input a CRM system for your forms and content tracking. If you implement a solution like Hubspot, you can automatically track all form submissions to your site based on where they filled them out, as well as track when they’ve visited your site previously or if any other contact has been made. 

A CRM system like Hubspot does so much heavy lifting that your team will have more time for sales, marketing, and making your customers happy.

Holiday Takeaways For eCommerce Websites

High Bounce Rate 

With more time to shop online and increased rates of people shopping online, we’ve seen higher bounce rates with users more willing to search multiple sites until they find one they like. It’s important to consider what page they’re landing on and look objectively at what they’re first seeing. 

Our Solution:

Install an AI-app like Justuno that responds based on your user's actions. You can send a pop-up for a discount, add gamification to engage, or even send a discount pop-up when the user shows exit intent. 

Also, take time to evaluate your content. What information are they receiving as soon as they land on your homepage? Is your masthead engaging and informative? Does it sell your product well? Take a step back and look at your site. 

Abandoned Checkouts 

Are your clients getting all the way to checkout and abandoning it there? We’ve seen this number stay consistent, as users shop around a site and then find the checkout process to be too cumbersome and abandon their purchase. 

This can be due to a number of different reasons including shipping prices, as well as just the idea of filling out payment, billing, and contact information. Customers will do as much work as they feel like, and sometimes that doesn’t include filling out contact info. 

Our Solution: 

Look into a one-click checkout option like Fast. Giving your customers the ability to quickly order a product makes it easier for them to convert right away. A hassle-free checkout like Fasts allows them to skip creating accounts, remembering passwords, or filling out a long entry form (while still giving you their information!) 

You can also look into some streamlined solutions like ApplePay and AmazonPay to include in your checkout process so there are multiple options!

Another thing to consider is to remember that your clients may be shocked when they see shipping prices. Being transparent with those costs and keeping them down is a great way to keep them moving through checkout. 

Missing Out on Recurring Revenue 

Throughout the holiday season, customers are highly engaged, but oftentimes brands find it difficult to maintain that level of engagement and loyalty. Subscriptions unlock the power to drive repeat purchases, grow your brand community, and ultimately scale your business at a faster rate. 

Our Solution:

One simple yet effective way to do this - implementing a subscription program with ReCharge. The 2020 holiday shopping season was a record-breaking year, ReCharge saw a 116% increase in new subscribers across their merchant base.

Although scaling subscriptions are unique to the specific brand and vertical, most programs fall into one of these three categories:

• Curation - A box curated by the retailer sent to the subscriber at a fixed time 
• Replenishment - Sending consistent replacements of the same types of products 
• Access - Members can pay a fee to have exclusive access to discounts and perks 

Leveraging one of these models for your business this year is a profitable and scalable way to grow lifetime value, reduce churn, and most importantly, grow recurring revenue.

Missing Out On Reviews 

During the holiday season, most eCommerce businesses get a huge influx of customers and product purchases. While this in and of itself is great, there is often a huge missed opportunity to turn customer content into sales by leveraging reviews. Leveraging reviews can increase conversions and overall help with customer satisfaction of your product. 

Our Solution: 

You shouldn’t miss out on reviews. We’ve emphasized the importance of reviews before, but it’s such an important marketing tool. Having a platform that makes it straightforward and automated is a great way to make sure you capture reviews and help increase your revenue. Our favorite is Yotpo - they have an automated platform that automatically sends out review requests, integrates with your product pages, and more. Their AI-powered solution can pull in relevant reviews, allow for sorting through filters, showing your potential customers the most relevant information to them. 

Not Having a Marketing Plan for Current Clients In New Ways

When it comes to marketing to your current customers, there’s a huge hurdle you’ve already crossed and that’s awareness of your product. So if you’re not taking advantage of new ways to market to your current customers, you could be missing out on a streamlined pipeline. 

One of the biggest challenges we saw this year was email fatigue. With a lot of businesses trying to connect with their customers, inboxes were flooded and emails were deleted. 

Our Solution:

Reaching your customers in new ways that work for them. Think about where your audience is during this time and what they’re looking for. Maybe it’s a behind-the-scenes look over Instagram to keep them engaged or a Facebook Live. 

Another big way we saw connections grow this year is through SMS messaging. The great thing about SMS is it can be customized, automated, and is a proven way to engage customers (think about how often you open a text vs an email!). 

Systems like Yotpo’s SMSBump have a huge automation library and flow builders that make it easy to set up and keep engaging your customers based on previous purchases, different segmentations, discounts, and more. 

The thing about the trends we are seeing is that they aren't just seasonal this time - the changes we are seeing in consumer behavior are going to stick around. People will be using the web more for a lot of things, so nailing down your digital presence is crucial as the popularity in online use continues to grow. 

Interested in Optimizing Your Website or Growing Your Business With One of These Apps? 

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