For businesses striving to achieve sustainable growth in ecommerce, it's vital to have deep insights into the customer lifecycle. Marketing and sales efforts increasingly rely on robust data to reveal opportunities and maintain excellent service. When leaders understand the steps that go into each purchase, they can make smarter strategic choices.
Businesses learn about the customer lifecycle to evaluate current operations and determine what initiatives will drive ongoing success. The right choices at each stage can drive long-term loyalty and encourage positive buzz. With enhanced visibility, powerful tools and extensive resources, organizations can put an effective customer experience strategy into action.
Discovering the customer lifecycle
"Ecommerce and social media have transformed how people progress through the steps."
There are many ways to break down the customer lifecycle depending on the particular requirements of a business. While ecommerce and social media have transformed how people progress through the steps, the general stages remain much the same. The American Express OPEN Forum presented five basic steps that make up the customer experience.
It all starts with reach, or catching the consumer's notice through marketing efforts. That initial interest leads to acquisition, when the business makes initial contact with the customer, whether through a phone call or an ecommerce page. Then comes conversion, moving the newly established relationship into a sale.
Having made that first sale, a company strives to retain the customer, encouraging him or her to keep coming back to the organization for particular needs. The final stage is loyalty, in which someone openly advocates for the business. While each stage along the way can have many twists and turns, especially in today's fast-paced world of ecommerce, this framework remains an invaluable way of thinking about a customer's journey.
Gaining visibility in ecommerce
To continue growing, ecommerce businesses must consider how they will acquire new customers and usher them through every step in the lifecycle. Analytics and business intelligence can be a major help, offering a real-time view of how people interact with a company. Insights like finding out how much time a visitor spends on a landing page or when people are at the greatest risk of abandoning a purchase reveal where leaders should act to improve and streamline their operations.
Gathering up-to-date, reliable customer information leads to better results from marketing and acquisition strategies. With an advanced order management system, organizations keep tabs on every aspect of a purchase. A company can create a seamless experience that engages consumers and keeps them updated on vital information like product availability and shipping.
Taking steps to deliver better experiences
With a thorough view into the customer lifecycle, organizations work proactively to make meaningful improvements. That can mean building a smoothly functioning ecommerce page, expanding on customer service offerings or making warehousing and fulfillment more efficient.
Ecommerce fulfillment can become a serious challenge as a company grows, and having access to high-quality facilities and delivery makes a big difference in customer satisfaction. As the public grows increasingly accustomed to having the exact products they want delivered fast, it's only becoming more crucial to have the upper hand in getting deliveries packed and out the door.
An experienced, resourceful partner helps companies to take their customer lifecycle to the next level. SFG brings ecommerce organizations the technology and services necessary for offering consumers consistently excellent experiences from the first interaction on through many transactions to come.
