3 reasons why your customers are shopping with your competitors

There are a lot of reasons why your customers jump ship and shop elsewhere. The obvious one is that they’re driven by price, especially in today’s economic climate, but most of the time that’s not the case. Ultimately, the competitor brands your customers are now shopping with are offering your customers something you’re not. Want to know what it is? Let’s dive in.

Your CX sucks.

How many times have you shopped online and become utterly frustrated with the shopping experience? Be it finding the product you’re looking for, seeking support from the customer support team, checking out or receiving the parcel you’ve purchased. If it’s not smooth sailing, you’re not going to be happy and you’ll probably tell your friends about it. Your competitors are winning your customers, because they're nailing their end-to-end customer shopping journey and to be frank, you’re not. 

Here are some three top tips to improve your shopping experience:

• Create high-quality content through in-depth product descriptions, imagery and video.

• Add a chat widget so customers can troubleshoot any queries they have in real time.

• Share product recommendations that are tailored to your shoppers’ browsing and purchase history. Personalisation is key.

You don’t know your customers.

How well do you know your target customer? Have you created an ideal ‘persona’ based on someone you’d like to shop with, or have you dug into your data to understand who they really are? 

When you don’t know who your customers are, what they like, how they like to shop when they shop and how they like to hear from you, how are you ever going to be able to offer them the best experience? It’s impossible! 

My top tip is to gather as much insight as you can. Do this through surveys or feedback forms so you can get a better understanding of your customers' pain points. Pull together all your analytics data (e.g. Google Analytics, Hotjar etc) to get a comprehensive picture of your customer profile and journey.

They don’t feel valued.

It’s great when you feel valued by anyone, a friend, family member or colleague. It makes it all the more special when you feel valued by a brand you shop with. You feel special, seen and heard. 

When you don’t feel valued, the opposite happens. Take your VIPs for example. These are your most active, loyal customers who shop with you often and spend proportionately more than the rest of your database. What are you doing to make them feel special? Do they even know they’re a VIP? 

Your VIPs drive your existing revenue figures and ad-hoc marketing activations won’t suffice. Here are some of my top tips to keep them shopping with you:

• Create a comprehensive VIP plan within your customer retention strategy.

• Tell them that you value them. Do this via personalised content such as email marketing or a letter.

• Reward them for shopping with you.

In Summary.

While price may occasionally sway a customer's decision there are other factors at play which mean that your customers are shopping with your competitors. It’s important to deeply understand your customers and their preferences; deliver a seamless experience and make them feel truly valued and appreciated. Walk in your customer's shoes. Would you shop with your brand? If the answer is no, or even maybe, then it's time for some optimisation.

Not sure where to start? Well, the first port of call is chatting to me about laying the foundations for customer retention success. Let me support you and your team to create a strategy that works and delivers you results. For more information about my services click here.