Getting to Know Your Online Store’s Customers

Let’s face it, a lot of work is required to launch and build an ecommerce business. It all starts with a decision about what you are going to sell, followed by the selection of an ecommerce platform with the necessary tools to set the store up so that everything is ready for visitors to come and order the products.

But then there are ‘trivial’ questions, too: what is the key to your business’ success, and who are your visitors and potential customers? Aside from the obvious answer – anyone with money in their pockets – your products are still tailored for a certain audience. Every time you set up paid advertising with Google or Facebook (or any other social media platform), this is the question that requires input from you.

When you first thought about the store, the anonymous, robotic image of the customer was likely in your mind. That’s amazing – and a requirement for a good business plan – but how about getting to know your customers better and understanding their behavior to ultimately increase sales by offering the right products?

In fact, doing this will actually take the business to the next level, so here are a few tips on how to get to know your existing and potential customers better.

There are many studies explaining customers based on online behavior. They are very helpful in understanding your customers and guiding you towards the pain points where you are losing conversions. For example, a rushed shopper won’t finalize a purchase if firstly the page takes a lifetime to load and then, secondly, they can’t check out in less than 30 seconds as a guest user.

The hurried shopper is just one of the types that Content Square has identified. Among them the thrifty shopper is in the dominant position at 69%, suggesting that the majority of shoppers value good deals and pay attention to prices. But then there are customers who compare prices (49%), lazy shoppers (45%), opportunists, connoisseurs, and loyal shoppers.

Now you know the types of shoppers based on their behaviors, but how can you get to know them better? Fortunately, there are great tools for that, but they require a willingness to establish a communication channel with your customers.

It is common practice among businesses owning a Facebook page to attach a private group to their social media site so that they can post news, updates, and whatever else in order to keep their customers informed about what is happening around the company. It is also a great way to get feedback from your customers, communicate with them, and understand the joy, problems, and frustrations related to your products.

Integrate customer feedback software

With LemonStand for example, this is included by default. On other platforms, it can be installed as an app or widget. With these on board you’ll be able to go through the reviews and analyze both positive and negative feedback. The latter plays an important role because this is an opportunity to get in touch with your customers and ask them about their problems to ultimately solve it and turn it to your advantage. It will help you identify the pain points of your business model, so listen to your customers and act fast to improve the conversion rate.

This could be a local event attended by your prospects or an event organized by yourself, but the main idea is to find a method of getting in touch with your customers. Inviting them one by one for a coffee will not be as effective as your presence at an event that is important to them. Listen to these people and find out their interests.

Critics might say that you’ll get to know visitors better than their mother, but we say that customer actions offer valuable insight into their behavior, something that can be monetized if the collected information is crunched and a proper strategy set. For that, it is possible to choose from tools such as Google Analytics, Inspectlet, and the like.

BigCommerce includes such tools for reporting visitor metrics, identifying order trends, shaping product strategies, and helping maximize the efficacy of the merchant’s marketing campaigns. But it’s easy to add Google Analytics or Inspectlet, all you need to do is insert a Javascript code into your website. All these apps will give you valuable insights into such issues as bounce rate, problems navigating the sales page, or reveal customer attention retention.

As you can see, it’s now easier than ever to get to know your online customers better, thanks to technology. These tools will help you develop customer engagement strategies, and results are guaranteed because the data is in your hands.