Top 10 Retail Experiences That Keep Customers Coming Back

There’s so much in store for the eCommerce industry as it gears for the best retail experiences in 2023.

To date, we’ve seen more prominence in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, voice search, secured online transactions, and emerging payment currencies and options.

All these advancements make the succeeding year more exciting for consumers. As for brands and businesses, this means you face tougher competition. Fortunately, you can make the best retail experiences in 2023 happen for your customers, starting with these 10 tips.

The best retail experiences in 2023 include supplementing physical stores with a unique and functional website. This hybrid model allows you to offer a broader range of customer experiences.

Establishing an online presence through your website can help customers find you more quickly, given that 45% of shoppers research Google before making a purchase in-store.

Moreover, your website can serve as an avenue for in-store and online shoppers to ask customer service-related questions, thus helping you with customer retention goals.

Did you know there are 5 billion mobile internet users worldwide? This number highlights the importance of a mobile-friendly website for online users to navigate the eCommerce space easily.

On top of this, retail mobile commerce sales may reach $728.28 billion by 2025. These potential markets can significantly influence your business’ success.

Studies on cart abandonment show that difficulty in keying personal details is enough for 39% of people to abort the transaction. This is a result of bad mobile site design. The good news is you can continuously improve your brand’s website with the right team of technical and marketing experts.

As with past years, providing outstanding customer support remains one of the best retail experiences in 2023. After all, 90% of Americans consider customer service quality a decisive factor when interacting with brands.

It would help if you utilized multiple channels to deliver customer support from all points possible—also known as omnichannel customer service. This approach allows your customers to reach you through phone, email, and social media.

Ensure the support and solutions you provide align with the customer’s concerns. Here, you could use customer relationship management (CRM) tools to track your company’s customer support and overall customer experience. The goal is to have an overview of common issues that prompt customers to ask for help and commit to patching these issues as soon as possible.

eCommerce continues to rise in popularity due to its convenience among customers. Although, walk-in stores also have advantages. Allowing customers to feel, experience, and try your product in person is vital in securing their purchase. Besides empowering customers, in-store experiences can help buyers assess if the product is right for them.

Another way to combine the convenience of online shopping and hands-on product experiences is via augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). These technologies allow customers to achieve a similar experience to a hands-on product inspection in their own environment and pace without interacting with a salesperson.

Most customers expect a company to respond to their queries quickly. Otherwise, there might be a decrease in the company’s net promoter score (NPS)—not to mention a high possibility of the transaction not pushing through.

With AI-powered chatbots, you can be more responsive to customers. This software gives customers answers to frequently asked questions. Better yet, chatbots reduce the number of tickets your human agents have to process, resulting in timelier customer service.

Maximizing your in-store and online business presence is only half of the work regarding the best retail experiences in 2023. The other part entails personalizing each platform based on how customers utilize them and which ones they access on their buying journey.

Omnichannel retailing integrates all your platforms, allowing you to access data as customers move from channel to channel. This strategy works well in personalizing your marketing efforts and meeting customers where they are at any given time.

Let’s cite an interesting example here. In 2019, Kim Kardashian virtually launched her new perfume to a Chinese audience of 13 million via live stream. In just a matter of minutes, she sold 150,000 bottles!

This bit shows how social media has reinvented live selling since it first appeared on television. Today, social media live streaming is a real-time, engaging, and interactive way of introducing products and services. By removing filtered ads in the shopping experience, live streaming presents a raw account of the product, which lends a more personal touch to marketing the product.

Ensuring your in-store and online inventories match at all times and update in real-time contributes to creating the best retail experience. Customers want to be able to purchase your products at any shopping platform, from your closest outlet within their vicinity to the fastest online method.

Besides significantly improving your sales potential, syncing your product inventory across channels is critical to an excellent return policy. It allows customers to return or exchange items at any nearby store while ensuring their return to the stockpile for the next customer.

The checkout process is among the last steps to securing a sale. Unfortunately, 17% of U.S. consumers do not push through with their purchases because of lengthy or complicated steps.

Make your checkout process customer-friendly by optimizing it based on consumers’ shopping behaviors and preferences.

Blockchain is a revolutionary technology that can be an alternative payment option for digital-savvy customers. A report shows that 40% of 18–35-year-olds plan to pay using crypto. This payment source can help you serve the needs of an otherwise uncatered market.

Moreover, blockchain enables safe and automated payment, speeding up the entire checkout process and allowing your customers to track their orders until arrival.

Now is the time to reevaluate your 2023 strategies and incorporate these tips to elevate your eCommerce retail game. Amid the expected industry growth, you can gain a competitive edge by pairing these best practices with custom software optimized for your brand’s needs and customer preferences.

With more than 20 years of experience and expertise in the IT industry, Yondu’s professional perspective and established custom software and tech solutions can lead to the future’s best retail experiences that will have customers coming back.
Talk to Yondu’s experts today!