In today’s business world, a website is no longer just an option; it is a necessity. Business owners from around the world have learned that without a website, your company barely exists.
With the surge in the number of business websites in operation, the level of competition in the online marketplace has rapidly increased. This means that business owners across a range of different industries are having to look to updating their websites to stay ahead of the competition. Adding additional features that optimize the user experience and offer more value to your customers is one of the most effective ways of updating your site to regain a competitive edge.
A live chat feature
The internet and increased access to technology have had a big impact on almost every aspect of life. In fact, technological innovations are even changing the way that people’s brains work. Scientists have discovered that the average human attention span has decreased from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds, which is lower than the average goldfish. The reason for this decreasing attention span is said to be due to technology. Business websites need to be optimized for this culture of short attention span and instant gratification to ensure that they keep a customer on-site for long enough to convert.
A live chat feature on your business website is a great way to improve your customer service offering. The average internet shopper reports expecting an instant reply from a customer service representative. Those that do not receive a reply within ten minutes will likely give up on waiting and take their business elsewhere.
Since a live chat feature runs a chatbot, customers can receive an automated response to their query instantly. Not only will the customer receive the information they need quickly, but your customer service teams will also have more time to spend on more demanding and important tasks.
An intuitive size solution
Offering an interactive fit finder on your website is a great way to increase the user experience, motivate users to convert, and uncover valuable customer insights. A fit finder is an intuitive size advisor that will help shoppers not only find the right size but also the perfect fit. The interactive system will ask shoppers to enter some details about their weight and height. It will also ask a shopper to input some of their style preferences, such as if they typically go for a looser or tighter fit. The size solution will then show the recommended size based on the percentage of people who bought and returned sizes with similar fit preferences.
Adding both clothes and shoes size finder will offer a number of benefits. It will improve the user experience on-site, as the interactive system is more sophisticated than traditional sizing charts, it also boosts your site’s credibility. The system also motivates shoppers to convert, as they can be comfortable in the sizing option they choose. The feature will also help to decrease the number of people purchasing an item in a range of sizes and returning those that don’t fit, a practice that can be a big drain on resources. Lastly, this type of system can offer you valuable customer insights that can hugely improve your product development in the future.
A product reviews section
Featuring a product reviews section on every product page on your website is a vital feature to have. There are many reasons why a review section is a must-have feature for every business website. Firstly, a review section increases customer trust and perceptions of credibility in your brand. This is because customers are just as likely to trust a customer review as they would a word-of-mouth recommendation. Secondly, customer reviews have been found to motivate purchases. The show of trust in your brand makes it much more likely that a customer, especially a first-time customer, will make a purchase. Thirdly, customer reviews have been found to improve your search engine ranking. You can motivate customers to leave a review by sending them a follow-up email once they have received their orders. To make this email as effective as possible, try to personalize it.
Some businesses are wary of encouraging customers to leave reviews as they are concerned about the effects of a negative review. Of course, too many negative reviews can harm your business, but a few negative reviews can actually be extremely helpful. You can use negative reviews to gain insight that motivates you to review and improve operations. If you receive a negative review, it is important to acknowledge it and be as transparent as possible by explaining what you are doing to fix the issue.