When customers experience ‘friction’ on your eCommerce store, you might lose them forever. A first impression can last a lifetime. And with eCommerce becoming more crucial than ever as shoppers flock online, solving any store pain points should be at the top of your list. Here are six eCommerce pain points customers hate, and how you can solve them to deliver a better customer experience and improve your bottom line:

1) It Takes too Long to Make a Purchase

According to research, 75% of customers abandon their cart instead of purchasing. Why? More often than not, complicated checkout processes.

The payment process is one of the most critical parts of the customer journey. Ultimately, it is the difference between customers clicking away or making a purchase. Therefore, it needs to be as easy as possible. Too many checkout options and lengthy forms work against you.

Instead, you should offer a simplified, minimalistic checkout process to boost conversion rates. Streamline multiple checkout options into one system, and be able to accommodate every single customer with a variety of payment options. The key is in delivering this in one seamless customer experience.

Remember, customer time is precious, and they can give up on a purchase within seconds. That means you should also be able to offer a guest checkout to speed up the process. Not everyone will want to create an account. You will still get basic information from a guest checkout.  Lego offers guest check out for their customers.    

Key takeaway: Simplify the payment process and offer a guest checkout.

2) There’s Not Enough Information

There is nothing worse than seeing something you want to buy and then not being able to find the relevant information you need to actually make a purchasing decision. A lack of relevant content does precisely this, and online shoppers find it incredibly frustrating. Customers need and want, information – what this product is, who is it for, why it will benefit them.

At a minimum, your shoppers want to see short but informative product descriptions, high-resolution images of each product or service and testimonials if relevant. You can take it to the next level (and your customers will love you for it) with informative videos and social proof. Make sure the information is easy to find, it’s clear, and it speaks to your target audience.

Key takeaway: Add useful information to build trust, credibility and the chances of conversion.

3) It’s a Bad Shopping Experience

Customers today want a seamless, personalized shopping experience. The best eCommerce businesses anticipate their customer’s needs and meet them head-on. Data is your friend here. Use analytics and your CRM system to capture customer behavior and previous engagements. That will give you everything you need to know about delivering more personal online experiences.

Amazon, for example, offers product recommendations to their customers by using the data that they have collected.   

Additionally, those experiences need to be delivered at speed. If you offer the best content and experiences but have incredibly slow loading speeds, your business will be crippled. Slow speeds cause friction, and friction kills conversions. Make sure your website is fast and mobile-optimized – this will improve your user experience, Google ranking and conversion rates.

Key takeaway: Use data to deliver personalized experiences, and do it at speed.

4) There’s No Access to a POS Reader

One of the benefits of online shopping is customers don’t have to wait for ages in physical stores. However, that needn’t be an issue. Thanks to technology, such as Shopify’s POS card reader, customer waiting times can be eliminated, both in-store and online. A POS card reader enables you to sell anywhere and grow your business. That means the ability to connect your online store to sales on the move, marketplace stalls, pop-up shops and so on.

Bridging the gap between online and offline sales, all managed through a mobile device, means you can quickly take payments without additional systems. One efficient card reader to maximize efficiency and reduce admin time. Take Visa, MasterCard, Android and Apple Pay payments, securely and quickly, with contactless capabilities.

Key takeaway: Seamlessly integrate a POS card reader with your online store to update orders, stock and customers in real time.

5) Incorrect Information

A quick-fire way to lose your customer’s trust is to have incorrect information on your store, such as hidden fees or inaccurate shipping costs. If you are promoting a product that doesn’t have accurate information on its product page, a potential customer may simply click to a competitor.

If you are promoting a product and then hitting potential customers with big shipping fees added when going to checkout, a potential customer will not be happy. All customers want to see transparency throughout an online store. Shipping fees are one of those extra add-ons that customers hate. Any added fees should be made very transparent before your customer reaches the final checkout page.

Key takeaway: Don’t sting your customers with hidden costs and wrong information.

6) Proper Inventory Management

Customers expect inventory to be up-to-date, support to be readily available, processes to be joined up and no hidden costs.

Inventory management and warehouse technology can order stock replacement when it gets low automatically, and you can get instant notifications about stock levels, price changes, discounts and so on. There really is no excuse, especially as eCommerce platforms offer a lot of this visibility and integrates with inventory technology.     

Key takeaway: Inventory management isn’t easy but implementing a cloud inventory management strategy along with the right software will take the away the risk of inevitable human error. BrightPearl is a well-known cloud inventory management software that may be perfect for your company.

Conclusion

If any of these pain points resonate and continually plague your business, it’s time to up your game and improve your online store experience to meet customer expectations.

Each of these issues has the potential to turn your customers away, and those who are leading the way in eCommerce retailing ensure their store is customer-centric, pain-free, fast and easy to use.