A hard time for the high street store.

Businesses are still looking for ways to become more agile with the current lockdown. A frustrating time for those business owners who can see the possible damage to their businesses being closed. Currently our present lockdown is set to last until the 2nd of December but still for many this is a very difficult time. Improving your e-commerce during lockdown could be the key to success.

Our last blog looked at our process of how we seek to improve e-commerce for business. Here we look at the reasons why and review the changes in consumer behavior.

Coronavirus has changed online consumer behavior in the UK.

Lockdown measures displayed a rapid growth in online sales with a reported 77% of consumers across the UK purchasing more via online retailers.

This has also seen a new level of respect and patience from UK shoppers, now being more understanding of delays in supply chains:

  • We are happy to wait longer: On average, UK consumers are now willing to wait as long as 6.7 days for standard delivery (compared to 4 days before the crisis). This is higher than the European average of 6.4 days.
  • Local business support:  Consumers have reported a major shift towards the use of local retailers since the initial lockdown. This displays a drop in international purchases from 45% prior to the lockdown to just 32%. A significant drop
  • Delays are now expected: Over 60% of UK consumers surveyed reported delays in supply since the first lockdown. Consumers however feel more at ease about this, respecting the current situation. The current average for an online delivery stands at 1.9 days. Compared to Europe at 2 days respectively.

Fine-tune your customers checkout experience.

Improving your e-commerce during lockdown needs to include a review on your checkout. Do you review how many people leave shopping carts? the trick here is to establish why.

So why do people abandon online shopping carts?

  • Hidden costs : Consumers are turned away by the lack of price information leading to an average of 61% of shoppers abandoning online shopping carts
  • Delivery timeframe: 41% of consumers opt out of a purchase should a delivery be too long for their preference.

Can you offer free delivery?

Cost of deliveries that are incorporated into the price of the item increase the likelihood of purchase. A customer then has a clear understanding of what they are paying for.

Creating an amount to achieve a free delivery also adds as an incentive to consumers to boost sales. Set an amount for example orders over £50.00 qualifies for free delivery.

Not everyone can offer free shipping. So what can you do?

Ensure all options are clear and easy to understand to avoid any confusion at the checkout phase.

Returns? no problem!

Checkout trolley
Returning goods?

UK consumers are building more of an understanding when shopping online. With a clear returns policy consumers will feel confident shopping with your website if they feel returning goods is simple.

Returning items does not lead to lost consumers. Certain shopping requires customers to return due to sizing or style preferences (Clothing retail for example). Should this process be simple, a consumer will feel more confident ordering again in the future.

Ensure that…

  • Your returns policy is visible and clear to the consumer.
  • Expect on average 54% of all online shoppers will return items at some stage of their online experience.
  • 54% of consumers believe It is the retailers responsibility to arrange this return. Make this process simple for your business.

What does this mean for businesses?

Improving e-commerce for your business now could be game changing for your business. Make it as straight forward as you can placing the customer at the heart of the process.

We at Holdcroft Digital Marketing can help you with this. Should you want any further information or just a chat about your options, please reach out to us on our social channels.