1. Improve your site speed and page load time, especially for mobile users.
Site speed comes in at the top of the customer friction “hit list”: there is nothing more frustrating than a slow website. Online shoppers expect fast page load times with 2-3 seconds recommended as best practice (you can measure your site speed here). Google now includes site speed in search ranking, bringing an additional benefit to reducing page load times across all devices. Even small improvements can make a difference – a recent Deloitte survey found that a 0.1-second improvement in site speed led to consumers spending almost 10% more. [1]
2. Implement low-click journeys and the “3-click rule”
Improving navigation and site search helps your customers browse your website effortlessly. The “3-click rule” is an unofficial web design rule recommending that customers should be able to find what they are looking for within three clicks, to reduce frustration. The best way to test for this is to create some user stories, which measure how quickly a customer will be able to find one of your best sellers, top brands, or even one of your more niche products. Google Analytics and Hot Jar are great tools for checking the most visited category pages and customer journeys taking place on your site.
3. Prioritise fast, omnichannel customer response times
Delivering great customer service helps to reassure your customers and establish trust. In many cases, customers will turn to other channels such as social media, text messaging or live chat with their queries, so ensuring all touchpoints are seamlessly connected can reduce abandoned carts and customer friction.
4. Consider flexible subscriptions
The subscription model is ideal for today’s customer-centric world, offering stability for businesses and convenience to customers. Subscriptions are highly suited to health supplements, and many customers enjoy being able to ‘set and forget’ their regular orders, so they have one less thing to worry about. Flexible subscriptions that are easy to pause, alter and cancel at any time are the best way of reducing friction for your loyal customers.
5. Optimise the checkout
A complicated checkout process with lengthy forms is likely to create friction and increase abandoned carts, as people simply give up before completing their order. Providing a guest checkout option can help, as well as offering popular payment methods, and transparency around shipping fees and delivery times.
6. Personalised, post-purchase flow
The post-purchase customer journey is just as important as what happens before an order is placed. Refreshing and personalising your automated email flows with tailored content can help to bring customers back time and time again.
References:
[1] Deloitte Digital - Milliseconds make millions