What are Britain’s best online retailers doing right?
Which? has recently named Britain’s best and worst online retailers, with Homebase faring the worst out of the big brands.
This survey has identified some key things that businesses are doing well and what others are not doing so well when it comes to their e-commerce sites.
More than 10,000 Which? members were asked to rate the most popular online shops based on their experiences with them in the past six months.
Whilst major brands such as Homebase, Dorothy Perkins and Sports Direct ranked low, specialist retailers ranked higher. These top scoring retailers were led by LizEarle.com which came out top due to its high-quality products, excellent service and good money-off offers.
Those who were ranked as the best performers did a few key things:
- Treated customers well
- Offered a more personalised service
- Offered high-quality products
- Excellent customer service
- Had good money-off offers
In comparison, those that ranked lowest had a few notable failures:
- Websites were confusing and hard to navigate
- Poor customer service
- Bad value for money
- Stock wasn’t correctly updated on the site
Which? identified that the top performers treated customers well and offered a more personalised service to their customers. As a business it is no longer enough to simply showcase your products or services online, instead it is important to really understand how your customers think, what they like and more importantly their shopping habits.
Using tools such as Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager, businesses can easily track customer journeys to better understand their habits, whilst also gaining other important metrics. Combine this with further investigation on Google Trends and metrics from social media and businesses will have a better idea of how to appeal to customers.
The results from Which? also identify the need for a well-designed website. As mentioned above, websites that were confusing and hard to navigate ranked lowest. As more customers head online, the look, speed and ease of navigation is becoming just as important as the products on show when it comes to website build and design.
Smaller and more specialised online retailers appear to be picking up the slack from bigger retailers, providing excellent service to their customers alongside great products. They are giving consumers exactly what they want and in return are getting rewarded for it.
For more help on improving your website, contact the experts at Varn today.
