Making your first impression count in ecommerce: Optimizing online customer experience

In the UK, according to the Center for Retail Research 26.55% of all retail sales are conducted online with 18.8% in North America, so providing an entirely flawless and secure ecommerce experience is unavoidably critical for brands selling online. Authenticating and registering customers is the front door to your store, and the more straightforward, consistent, and trustworthy the experience, the more likely customers are to repeat it.

Research shows us that 90% of customers would rather leave a site than go through a ‘traditional’ registration system. 42% of customers have abandoned an account application due to friction, and 30% of customers loyal to a brand would stop doing business with it after one bad experience. Well-designed forms, minimal data collection and as few clicks or screens as possible say something about your brand and, let’s be honest, you only get one chance to make a good first impression.

Of course, there are different forces at play too, your chief marketing officer (CMO) will have an entirely different set of priorities to your identity architect. The CMO wants a personalized experience for customers, while the identity architect prioritizes security and compliance. Bridging the gap between the two requires expert collaboration and a comprehensive approach that can be easily followed by both to optimize customer experience. It’s a three-step process…

Keeping track of the core data is straightforward via a CIAM dashboard to provide an uncomplicated way to view valuable insights into user behavior, which can help formulate better ways of doing things. At a granular level it’s easier to see each stage of registration from username submission, through credentials and submissions, as well as recording journey progress and status. The start of the journey timestamped, the screen name and journey point, the customer’s IP and geolocation and the browser user details used in the process. You can then analyse which screens take the longest to complete, which take multiple attempts, where the common abandonment points are, and if there is any correlation between those events and the geo-location or devices used. All the information forms the basis of feedback and refinement and a way to optimize the process.

By following the eight-step framework, you can be sure that your customer experience is continuously optimized…

When there is so much choice online the tasks that seem like just ‘back-office administration’ can make the biggest difference in attract and retaining customers. If your registration and authentication process for customers is cumbersome and annoying, your customers have many other places to shop that aren’t yourselves. It should be a priority to work through the process and continually refine and optimize it if you want to grow your revenues and differentiate your brand in a crowded digital marketplace.

To learn more about CIAM and how you can leverage it to improve your customer journey, read our guide, ‘How CIAM balances security & CX for a frictionless customer journey’.

Research sources | Crazy Egg, Liminal, PWC