Improving online retail experience with management systems

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Consumers in South Africa continue to be frustrated with their online shopping experiences, because websites don't offer what they propose, are inferior, don't support customer intimacy, are out-dated in their approach to the user experience or are simply broken.

If you have tried to purchase a product online recently you are one of a divisive crowd where your experience was either terrible or wonderful. However, who is getting it right, who is ensuring they have not lost the customer intimacy because of the service moving online and where are the gaps?

"As we are all members of the 21st century, you wouldn't be hard pressed to expect that online retail should be booming. The reality is that in some countries it is, but locally, the customer experience after engaging with a South African brand online is often one that leaves much to be desired," says Corey Springett, business development manager at Quintica.

"When searching for a desired items you will be delighted to find a series of merchants that promise to have exactly what you are looking for. However, drilling down from a search string, you will see a series of broken links, sites with severe performance issues and limited search capabilities. The real headache however is often when you come to pay at the site you are on and the link to the payment gateway or banking facility is often broken. It is no wonder that so many customers are running screaming back to bricks and mortar retail outlets."

The truth is that online retail in South Africa still does not hold the allure it does in many countries, where it is often the first and preferred purchasing port of call for consumers. Online retail is still seen as a "nice to have" or a "must have" locally, which often leads to it being done badly.

SA designs good sites

What we do well in South Africa however is design sites, put SEO engines behind them for improved search rankings and make them exceptionally visually appealing. The experience to back this all up is where we fall apart. What South Africa does not do well is manage the customer engagement experience and their interaction with the site, mapping this from the minute they enter a site to when they either click "checkout" or simply disappear with a basket still full of goods but no transaction made.

"If you look at global counterparts who are getting online retail right, you will see that they have made a significant investment into engines that provide them a (online) view of their customers and the way in which these customers are engaging with their brand online. They use these tools to proactively identify, in real-time, performance issues on their site and act immediately, either by fixing the issue or providing the client who experienced the problem a proactive incentive / discount to firstly apologise and secondly to encourage their return."

These real end user experience management solutions are not as difficult to implement, as one would be lead to think by many online design houses.

With a good one, within days users can immediately take advantage of a solution that is able to track performance issues, identify dead links, highlight unvisited pages and provide a snapshot of the behaviour patterns of customers online. All of this is done without the need for costly backend integration, complicated agent requirements and adds no additional load to an existing website ensuring there is no hindrance to performance.

"The fix is so simple, it is hard to believe that all companies with an online presence aren't deploying real end user experience management systems. The savings they will present to a business as well as the returning clientele who are now benefiting from a tailored and pleasant experience with the site, far outweigh the initial cost of investment," he concludes.