Enhancing the Customer Experience

Prior to a new brick and mortar store opening its doors to the public for business, the customer experience for potential customers has already been discussed and planned. By carefully considering customers’ experiences ahead of time, a new brick and mortar store can brainstorm various techniques and methods to encourage customers to not only visit the store but also make in-store purchases and become repeat shoppers. Why is this important? Shelley Kohan, vice president of retail consulting at in-store analytics company RetailNext, provided some insight into the customer experience in a Chain Store Age column. She shared that “providing the ‘In-Store Experience’ is vital for physical stores to win over foot traffic and brand loyalty. Shoppers want to explore, learn and have fun. Above all else, they want that instant gratification from products that are in stock and easy to find.”¹

Lighting

When shoppers visit a brick and mortar store, they expect good lighting to clearly see the products and their details. For an online store, it is impossible to duplicate the same physical lighting structures, but there are a few things that can be done to help shoppers. For instance, making sure that product or service images use light-colored solid backgrounds that make it easy for shoppers to see the details will help them during their shopping experience. Also, using good lighting when taking pictures can also help produce good product and service images.

Music

Providing music during a brick and mortar shopping experience has many benefits. Most brick and mortar stores play some type of background music to help enhance shoppers’ experiences. According to The State of Brick & Mortar 2017 research, 84 percent of U.S. shoppers said music makes the shopping experience more enjoyable.² Some stores select their music selections to help influence shoppers’ moods and match the store’s brand or image. These stores have paid for some type of music subscription that will allow them to use the music.

For online stores, using music is more complicated because it involves the issue of copyright. Using someone else’s music without permission or consent that is not royalty free violates copyright laws. Also, some shoppers find music playing on websites distracting and annoying. It is a best practice to not include music on a website. If it is included, it should have a specific purpose and have a royalty-free license. What does royalty-free music mean? Premiumbeat.com defines royalty-free music as “a type of music licensing that allows the purchaser to pay for the music license only once and to use the music for as long as desired.”³ There is still a cost involved in purchasing the music, but it can be used numerous times and on numerous places. Lastly, shoppers should have the ability to turn the music on or off as needed.

Product Displays

Brick and mortar product displays can entice reluctant shoppers to buy. Creative product displays can also help persuade shoppers to make a purchase. Think about some of the Super Bowl product displays at stores such as Walmart and Target. Did they not influence shoppers to buy them? Duplicating this type of product display in an online store will take some creative thinking but it can be done (Figure 5-1).

Signs

When shopping in-store, shoppers have been conditioned to look for various signs to help locate products along with potential sale items. Whether the signs are located at the end or above aisles or on product displays, shoppers depend on these during their shopping excursion. For example, Walmart uses the Rollback signs to indicate that a product’s price has been lowered.

Online stores can implement similar signs to help shoppers during their shopping quickly locate what they need. One way to accomplish this is by using descriptive categories for products (or services). Providing shoppers with the ability to search for products (or services) is another way to help shoppers quickly locate what they need without relying on signs.

Décor

Trying to duplicate brick and mortar décor is impossible for online stores. It is also one of the reasons that many store owners decide to open an online store. Choosing an e-commerce theme that has an attractive and simple-to-use design can help provide shoppers with a similar online décor.

Color Selection

After choosing an e-commerce theme, it is a good practice to select a color palette that closely matches a store’s brand and image. Selecting complementary colors will not only help make online stores more appealing to shoppers but can also help influence shoppers’ moods in a similar manner as music in brick and mortar stores.

Product Selection

Determining what products to sell is another challenge not only with brick and mortar stores but also e-commerce stores. Choosing the right mix of products and displaying them in a logical order will help shoppers make their selections.

Storefront Entrance

In the same manner that brick and mortar storefront entrances are attractive and appealing, an online storefront entrance should be the same. The e-commerce theme’s storefront layout should be clean and invite shoppers to click through the store (Figure 5-2).

Customer Service

Oftentimes, shoppers might have questions about products (or services) or need to return or exchange an item. These tasks are typically handled by customer service. In an online store, shoppers should be able to easily locate customer service contacts or possibly begin an online chat with an online representative.

Complimentary Gifts

Most shoppers enjoy free gifts. Many brick and mortar stores conduct occasional sampling events within the store where shoppers can either sample free food or receive free gifts from watching a demonstration. Offering a complimentary gift with or without purchase can encourage shoppers to visit an online store.

Typically, these components are handled by a team of people with various titles and roles. Regardless of their titles and roles, they are all working together to achieve the same goal: a positive and repeatable customer experience that results in sales. How does this relate to online stores?

Even though ordering online is convenient and sometimes cheaper than brick and mortar stores, online retailers must try harder to re-create certain aspects of the in-store customer experience online. For online stores, the customer experience begins the moment potential customers type in a company’s URL into their web browser and land on a company’s homepage. A company’s homepage is the equivalent of a brick and mortar’s storefront entrance. It is the first (and possibly last) point of contact where the customer experience begins. If it does not look clean, professional, appealing, or inviting, first-time visitors will initially visit but quickly leave and possibly never return. How can this be prevented? Themes can help start the online customer experience on the right foot.

WooCommerce Theme Overview

WooCommerce themes can be found on the WooCommerce website, www.woocommerce.com . These themes are compatible with WooCommerce, which will reduce potential technical issues but does not guarantee that they are compatible with plugins and add-ons that are used. WooCommerce’s popular theme to use with WooCommerce is the free WordPress theme called Storefront. According to the WooCommerce website, Storefront is “built and maintained by WooCommerce core developers,” which means it was designed to work seamlessly with WooCommerce and WooCommerce extensions. It is a popular theme and at the time of this writing has been downloaded over two million times. E-commerce websites that are built using the Storefront theme include:

• Fashion Candi ( www.fashioncandi.com , see Figure 5-3)

• Inspiring Journals ( www.inspiringjournals.com , see Figure 5-4)

• Flipbookit ( www.flipbookits.com )

• Gimme Shoes ( www.gimmeshoes.com )

As we discussed in the beginning of the chapter, every online store will need a makeover at some point to give it a new look and feel. WooCommerce makes it easy to do this with its Storefront Child Themes (Figure 5-5). These themes are available on the WooCommerce website under the Theme Store navigation and cost about $40. WooCommerce organizes the themes by industries to make themes easy to find.

Besides WooCommerce.com, WooCommerce compatible themes can also be purchased from Themeforest ( https://themeforest.net ) website (Figure 5-6), Templatemonster.com (Figure 5-7), and other online marketplaces. It is a good practice to make sure that the theme is compatible not only with WooCommerce but the particular version of WooCommerce an online store is using (Figure 5-8). It is also good to choose a theme that is well maintained and with good, positive reviews.

Choosing a Theme

An e-commerce theme represents an online store’s visible storefront. It is a company’s face or brand displayed globally via the Internet. The popularity of the Internet, mobile devices, social media, and e-commerce have tremendously influenced consumers and the way they shop. When consumers visit e-commerce websites, they expect to find attractive storefronts or layouts like those at brick and mortar stores. Based on their past experiences with other online stores, consumers expect to find almost the same set of features at other online stores. For instance, shoppers look for product slider panels that allow them to cycle through featured products or new product offerings. Likewise, having a search feature is a necessity for any online store to help shoppers quickly locate what they are looking for rather than navigating through numerous product or service categories. For most themes (e-commerce and non-e-commerce), a search feature is standard. Choosing the right theme can help prospects and customers not only find what they are looking for but also keep them coming back. It can also save a company time and money by not purchasing multiple themes in hopes of landing the right one that meets its needs.

How do you choose a theme for your online store? Choosing an e-commerce theme for your online store is crucial to its ability to lead prospects and customers through the sales funnel. What is a sales channel? In an Entrepreneur.com article, Ryan Deiss, co-founder of Digital Marketer, explained that a sales channel is a “multi-step, multi-modality process that moves prospective browsers into buyers.”⁵ He went on to say, “lots must occur between the time that a prospect is aware enough to enter your funnel, to the time when they take action and successfully complete a purchase.” An e-commerce theme serves as an extension to a business’s already established brand. For startups, it can help acquaint prospects with a company and its brand. Regardless of how long a business has been in existence, it still must carefully choose an e-commerce theme. Choosing an e-commerce theme is an important step that should not be taken lightly. When choosing a theme, aesthetics and layout should be considered but also business goals. How will the selected theme help a business reach their short-term and long-term goals?

What elements should be considered when evaluating a theme? Let’s look at a few in the following sections.

Theme Examples

Now that some of the things to look for when evaluating themes have been discussed, let’s look at some examples.

8Store

8Store is a free WordPress-WooCommerce responsive theme that is suitable for business use (Figure 5-9).

Sold from Dessign.net

The Sold theme is another free WooCommerce responsive theme with a clean and minimal design (Figure 5-10).

E-commerce Gem

The e-commerce Gem theme is available for download at www.wordpress.org (Figure 5-11). According to Wordpress.org, it is a multipurpose theme that can be used for all types of e-commerce websites and any store type. According to the Wordpress.org website, the e-commerce Gem theme’s features consist of “product search with category select, multiple sections on the front page, full width easy to use slider, latest and featured product carousel, call to actions, advertisement section, banners and more.”⁷

Unlike brick and mortar stores, sales associates are not walking around to greet and assist customers who might need help. Although providing customer service via online chat might be available, it is still not the same as personal face-to-face attention.

Summary

Before launching any e-commerce store, it is imperative that the customer experience be carefully considered and planned. When it comes to an online store, the saying, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression” is true. With the advances in social media, a negative customer experience can spread over the Internet like a wildfire and impact whether future customers will visit the store. Choosing an e-commerce theme should not be taken lightly because it forms the basis for a successful or unsuccessful store and customer experience. It is always a good idea to think about what potential customers would like to see upon entering an online store and build from there.