6 key focus areas of the retail customer journey.

Under pressure from inflation, stretched resources, and other economic factors, retailers are turning to digital to maximize brand success. But, as consumers switch between online, offline, mobile, and desktop, many retail teams aren’t equipped with the right data and insights to respond fast enough to today’s selective shoppers.

So, how do you bridge the different retail channels and build a strong digital presence that can meet customer needs and withstand economic uncertainty?

6 key focus areas for digital optimization.

Knowing where to optimize is the hardest part of getting started for many retailers. But, after working with top brands, we’ve identified 6 key focus areas to streamline digital optimization: product discovery, merchandising, checkout, fulfillment, loyalty, and help, care, & fraud.

1. Product discovery.

Before you can hook and keep shoppers, they need to be able to find your digital storefront. Break down barriers preventing search and discovery to ensure your retail products are easy to find and your website easy to navigate.

A couple of key questions to ask about your product discovery experience:

• Between the homepage and product pages, where are we seeing customer frustration?
• How are customers engaging with featured tools like size guides?

2. Merchandising.

After the shopper finds your store, you don’t want them to leave empty-handed. Next, you’ll want to display the most relevant products in the best order and showcase their value with product reviews and engaging content.

A couple of key questions to ask about your merchandising experience:

• How can I quantify customer frustration from out-of-stock products?
• How is my editorial content performing? Are new videos resonating with customers?

3. Checkout.

Even once the customer adds an item to their cart, it’s not a done deal just yet—promo code issues, payment flow problems, and other friction points along the funnel can frustrate customers and cause them to abandon their carts altogether. That’s why designing a distraction-free checkout process is critical.

A couple of key questions to ask about your checkout experience:

• Do customers experience friction when reviewing their cart items?
• How are my promo codes performing?

4. Fulfillment.

Post-purchase engagement hugely impacts customer satisfaction and determines whether they’ll shop with you again in the future. Look at all the activities involved, from shipping options to order tracking, to understand where the fulfillment process can be maximized.

A couple of key questions to ask about your fulfillment experience:

• How frequently are customers choosing same-day delivery? Are we able to meet their demands?
• Are customers struggling to use self-service tools for order tracking?

5. Loyalty.

Brand loyalty doesn’t happen automatically after checkout. As with your fulfillment experience, keeping customers hooked and buying the same products over and over requires a strong loyalty and customer retention strategy.

A couple of key questions to ask about your loyalty experience:

• Are customers struggling during the membership or subscription sign-up process?
• How many customers have successfully started a return?

6. Help & care.

Not every customer has the same needs. That’s why it’s important to consider the different shopping habits and unique factors influencing buying decisions when building a customer experience strategy that includes the right support.

A couple of key questions to ask about your help & care experiences as well as fraud monitoring:

• What’s happening with customer churn and retention? If anything, what’s driving the change?
• Has the team flagged any suspicious behavior, like repeated cut and paste of credit card info?

Ask the right questions about your data with key insights from leading retail brands.

These are just a few examples of things to watch for while optimizing the key areas of your digital retail experience. Want to see what else to keep an eye on, as well as other ways to improve the retail customer journey?

In Retailer’s 6-pillar guide to digital optimization, we share insights to remove distractions, improve efficiency & conversions, and increase overall customer lifetime value. Get the guide to dive into:

• Top retail digital distractions and what causes them
• The 6 defined pillars of the retail customer journey
• The right questions to ask your data around unique micro-experiences
• And insights from top brands, including UNTUCKit, BassPro Shops, Lululemon, and more

Download the full guide here.