How the 2023 Retail Customer Is Driven by Convenience
We all love convenience. We love convenience so much; our entire society has become almost defined by it.
We decided going to a store and renting movies was too inconvenient and therefore Netflix and the dozens of other streaming services beamed them straight into our homes. Going to the high street became too inconvenient, so ecommerce arrived to allow us to have products shipped directly to us. Contacting the local pizza place was too inconvenient – and caused too many arguments as to who was going to make the dreaded phone call – so food ordering platforms such as Uber Eats and Grubhub made it so we could order food with a few taps.
Convenience is driving the modern retail space and those ecommerce brands which fail to ask themselves, "how convenient is our service?” are going to find it hard to compete in this landscape.
Convenient Commerce
Attentive Mobile surveyed 5,000 customers and asked them for their expectations regarding commerce experiences and the majority by far rated convenience as their top priority when choosing which brands to engage with.
"Consumers have higher expectations now when it comes to convenience. Being able to buy something in a single click is now table stakes, not the exception,” reports Attentive Mobile. "Today, convenience means removing friction from the entire customer journey. The results of our survey [also] emphasize two clear winners when it comes to what consumers find convenient: fast shipping and easy payment processes. At the end of the day, shoppers don’t just want to get things done quickly. They want it to feel effortless.”
Customers today have become spoiled by the convenience offered by some of the world’s biggest brands. While many customers – especially those belonging to younger generations – say they do not agree with many of the ethical practices of giant corporations such as Amazon (see our previous article in this series for more on this) the reason many keep coming back is because Amazon makes the business of discovering and buying products so effortless – even if they feel guilty for doing so.
So, convenience doesn’t just benefit the buyer, it benefits the seller as well as it reduces the number of barriers between a customer having the inspiration to shop and completing a purchase. To delve into the realms of anecdotal evidence for a moment, we’re willing to bet you can remember a time when you felt like ordering some takeout, only to be put off by a cumbersome ordering process and ended up making something at home?
Compare that experience to the handful of clicks which stand between that moment of laziness and completing an order on Uber Eats and you begin to see the way convenience drives sales in the contemporary ecommerce environment.
According to Pollfish, 97% of customers have abandoned a purchase because the service wasn’t convenient enough.
Prioritizing Convenience
The best way to make sure your ecommerce brand is offering the kind of convenient experience modern customers expect is with a full and frank website audit. You need to identify where any barriers or speed bumps lie in your shopping process and smooth them out as much as possible.
Ask yourself how many clicks does it take to go from seeing an advert online to completing the checkout process? If you need the fingers on a second hand to count the number, there’s probably too many. One click ordering is the goal you should be shooting for and, while this won’t always be possible – especially if it’s the first time a customer is ordering from you – it should be your objective.
When it comes to a new customer, allow them to check out as a guest – do not force them to create an account for a single purchase. Once the initial purchase is complete, you can use the order confirmation email to encourage them to open an account and offer benefits for doing so – such as loyalty points. So many baskets get abandoned because a customer doesn’t have the time or desire to enter a bunch of information during the process and it takes just long enough for whatever impulse led them to click on your ad in the first place to dissipate.
"What can you do to make those "well, that was simple” moments happen? Think about when you’re looking to gain some efficiency in this world,” continued Attentive Mobile. "Brands need to consider how they can deliver hyper-relevant experiences to all of their customers in a way that feels authentic.”
Final Thoughts
Creating convenience is all about reducing barriers and streamlining – that’s how ecommerce rose to prominence in the first place. Consider where the speed bumps in your shopping process lie and always ask yourself whether you would be likely to complete a purchase with your own brand.
The role of convenience in the modern shopping experience is sure to be a hot topic at eTail Boston 2023, being held in August at the Sheraton Boston Hotel.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.