Retail has undergone a dramatic transformation over the last decade. Once dominant retailers are being given a run for their money amid growing consumer preference for shopping online. As it unfolds, this transformation has unleashed changes across many areas of retail. This is well documented by industry commentators in the media. Some of these shifts include:

 Keen Pricing

 80 percent of first-time shoppers compare products prior to buying. These statistics have made e-commerce sites to offer competitive pricing. It also presents an opportunity to track your competitors’ pricing.

However, e-retailers today are frequently being forced to perform millions of price-changes every day. The action either offers lowest price or entrench a calculated premium price perception among shoppers.

 Product Range Availability.

If customers cannot find what they are looking for on a website, all other aspects of how an e-commerce operator optimizes their retail strategy fall by the wayside.E-commerce success remains dependent largely on its capability to cater effectively to the needs and desires of its target audience. For example, a website offering a wide product range may still end up failing compared to a small niche website. The small niche site can have limited but highly targeted assortment that understands its customer’s sweet spot.

However, with millions of products on offer online , harvesting deep insights into a competitor’s design mix can appear daunting.

Commendable Customer Feedback

  As competitive pricing becomes an expected cost of doing business, retailers will need to place greater support resources and more effective processes to resolve customer problems and complaints in a timely fashion at the heart of their customer service model.

Following the online social revolution, 9 out of 10 retail customers now expect a consistent response across all social media channels. Successful companies like Jumia have been quick to understand this significant shift in customer preferences. They are demonstrating their willingness to go the extra mile by establishing a robust support structure.

Remarkable Customer Experience

While bricks and mortar retail stores continue to attract customers by enabling shoppers to touch, feel and test items before they purchase, online retailers have channelized their efforts into increasingly refining their web user experience.

Several studies reveal that it takes only a couple of seconds for a  website visitor to decide whether to stay on or leave an e-commerce site. Aspects such as visual design, ease of use, content attractiveness, website loading time and pervasive calls to action (CTA) are a few of the key user experience parameters that influence visitors to stay on a website.

Enhanced Promotional Strategies

With so many options for a shopper to choose from in an increasingly competitive online retailing environment, attracting new customers and entrenching customer loyalty is an ongoing challenge. Strategic online promotions are emerging as an effective technique in solving the customer recruitment dilemma. Online promotions for generating inbound website traffic will do wonders if executed correctly.

However, for online promotions to be effective, it is critical for e-retailers to understand their competitor’s strategy if they are going to be able to sustain their competitiveness. Keeping a keen eye on and reacting to competitors’ promotions is a key aspect to designing effective online promotions.

Let’s face it, online shopping and e-marketing is the in-thing at the moment. Within a few years’ time, it will be the main thing for sure. These successful features will enable you to scale greater e-commerce heights after you have brought them to life.