Walking through a store will never be the same as purchasing online. However, with a rising digital presence, the brick & mortar now invest millions into eCommerce, hiring experts to ensure great results.

In this new world, what is required to gain the customer’s preference? Here we detail seven ways to do so.

Personalized Experiences

When providing a customized and simple selling process, it is important to match the prospect’s walk with the right buyer’s journey. The smartest personalizer earns the prize thus equals loyalty.

Personalization Methods – Visuals

Retargeting Ads

Tailored Content

Detailed Abandonment Cart Sequences

Unique Limited-Time Discounts

Looking for a perfect example to emulate? Pay attention to Spotify’s algorithms for the end of each queue. Similar tracks will play next according to your previous listening history.

Just as Spotify, paying attention to data will mark up as the leading factor in attracting more buyers online with better shopping experiences.

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality

How to successfully switch from a physical to an online presence without losing the human connection? You can provide augmented and virtual reality.

Ikea, a large 40-billion Swedish furniture company, incorporates augmented reality to help customers visualize their dream furniture.

To increase sales and reduce refunds, focus on providing transparency with your visuals before every purchase. In the end, people need certainty and clarity to confidently buy merchandise.

Subscription-Based Services

Today, subscription-based services no longer need inventory.

However, how do you develop one without spamming people? Can you reach the right market while matching the right offer by providing the best buying experience? Let’s discuss this.

Vast platforms like Amazon now make it easier for you to list an item as a subscription-based. With that said, it has never been a more exciting time than now to earn recurring revenue. If your industry allows it, go for it!

AI Machine Learning

AI Machine Learning helps to study customer behavior on your site to improve the overall experience.

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, uses sizeable data, machine learning, and AI to blend online and traditional shopping experiences a great one.

While deep learning dramatically helps startups and big retailers increase revenue, it requires a substantial investment. The set-up process might be daunting, but the outcome is far from regrettable.

Understand Your Customer: FREE Shopify App For Your Online Store

This free Shopify App will tell you EVERYTHING about your buyers. From what time they have shopped, their purchase location, spending capacity … and more!

Tools such as Google Analytics are known to aid in data extraction, but implementing the Know Your Customer App will provide the insight you need! Here, you will understand the strongest groups of customers through demographics, time, and location statistics in a single tab.

Chatbots for Real-Time Communication

The Facts:

• $8 billion will be saved by 2022 from businesses using chatbots (According to IBM)
• 85% of all customer interactions will occur through chatbots by 2020 (According to Gartner)
• 53% of customers would happily message than call via customer support

Chatbots are powerful tools best used for online brands. Here are a few multi-purpose benefits:

• Real-time customer service
• Streamlining sales processes
• Able to view products or catalogs
• Latest news and blog posts
• Customer interests, segmentations, and emails

The proof is seen in this successful leading case:

L’OREAL: The biggest beauty company in the world launched an innovative messaging chatbot to make personalized product recommendations from 11 different L’Oreal brands, integrated with L’Oréal’s e-commerce system for checkout.

The Result? 27X higher engagement than email, 31% rich profiling, and 82% loved this experience.

Here are seven different platforms you can use to get started:

1. Chatfue – Facebook Messenger
2. MobileMonkey – SMS
3. TARS – Website qualification
4. Flow XO – Complete solution
5. Sequel – Creating templates
6. Pandorabots – Coding
7. ManyChat – Facebook & SMS

PPC (Pay Per Content) Advertising: Pay for What CONVERTS!

Everything revolves around improving the customer experience by creating targeted content. Unfortunately, for most businesses, creating content is time and resource-consuming, especially when poorly executed.

The solution is paying your agency ONLY a percentage of your ad spend. This will ensure that the agency provides top-notch content to earn more as you increase your investment.

When searching for content marketing agencies, be sure to request a portfolio of creatives to choose from (one hopefully in your niche) and case studies with a successful track record.

Bonus Tip: Brand Ambassador Marketing

In today’s ever-challenging social media platforms, the brand-ambassador relationship works only when the strategy and messaging correlate. This strategy widens the marketing scope, reaching millions of eyes through an authoritative, well-trusted individual.

Benefits of brand ambassadors include:

• Brand awareness
• Organic growth
• Sales

Sizable brands spend millions on this strategy. But you can NOW gain the benefits without breaking the bank. Here are some examples of one of the best influencer marketing campaigns on social media today.

In the End

All in all, the 7 trends in this article revolve around improving customer experience by creating targeted content and personalized buying journeys. The consumer now demands more creativity and quality in exchange for loyalty. With that said, do you have the capacity to meet the new standards?