3 ways your business can take advantage of e-Commerce growth this year

Analyse your online shopping experience

First things first, take an honest look at your ecommerce experience. Try out your search functions, take a look at your merchandising, and analyse your product descriptions and images. What can be improved and make the shopping experience smoother and more enjoyable?

According to retail website Divide Buy, more than a third of the British population buy something online at least weekly, and yet almost three-quarters of customers tend to abandon their baskets before checking out. This can be due to a number of reasons such as unexpected shipping costs, discount codes not working, and not enough flexibility at checkout in terms of payment. Slow loading images and sluggish navigation can also turn customers away, so take a look at your image sizes and make sure the resolution isn’t too high and all photographs are optimised for the web. Details like this can make all the difference in securing sales.

Top tip: Don’t forget to also include your mobile shopping experience in testing too. Research from The Drum shows that 63% of traffic to retailers and 53% of sales happens on mobile so this is an important area to get right.

Offer flexibility at checkout

Now more than ever, customers want flexibility when it comes to paying for their goods. Many consumers now look specifically for retailers that have Buy Now Pay Later options such as Clearpay at checkout which allow them to pay for their items in instalments over time. Customers can use Clearpay’s brand directory to find retailers signed up to BNPL which makes it even easier for them to shop in a way that is convenient for them.

For other payment options such as Visa and Mastercard, consider adding autofill options to make checkout as quick and easy as possible. Clunky and slow payment processes, as well as being forced to set up an account, are common reasons for customers abandoning baskets, so make it as efficient as possible. Divide Buy recommends giving customers the option to choose a password at the end of their purchase so they can register their account for future purchases.

Keep your customers interested with meaningful content

Aside from great prices and a slick online shopping experience, customers are looking for more from the brands they shop with. Clearpay research shows that customers, especially those from the Gen Z generation, are looking to engage with brands that make them feel something and align with their personal values especially around the environment and social causes. According to Inside Retail, they want to know that their spending is ethical, with 63% more likely to buy from a company that contributes to a social cause.

So where to start? First of all, align your editorial content and make sure you’re posting a good mix of commercial and non-commercial content. For example, start a conversation about an important topic such as looking after your wellbeing during lockdown and introduce your team and reveal behind the scenes footage of how you’re keeping your staff safe during the pandemic. You can then integrate this with more marketing sale-led content such as your top SS21 trends and product suggestions.

You should also use this content to show customers what you care about. Clearpay retailer Urban Outfitters is a great example of a brand doing this well. Its UO Culture section includes posts about its support of a charity that is working to end homelessness alongside gift lists and book club articles. Content like this encourages customers to return and shop with a brand they feel aligns with their own values.