Customer experience can mean the difference between a one-off purchase and a loyal customer who returns again and again. During periods of economic uncertainty, when people are even more selective about their spending, an outstanding customer experience is crucial.
It’s only natural that customers are happier when their shopping experiences are convenient, frictionless, and customized to their needs. And who doesn’t appreciate being offered rewards for loyalty? When you’re able to check all these boxes, you’ll be more likely to retain customers. Let’s explore how modern retailers can thrive by meeting customer expectations.
Make payments easy
First, focus on enhancing the payments process. Make easy payments a top priority using tools like tokenization to store customer credentials across channels or subscription models to enable automated, repeat purchases. Once customers have made the decision to buy, they want the process to be seamless, without friction, and with their preferred payment method easily available.
Embrace multiple sales channels
Offer the platform that most suits the needs of your customer base: physical, digital, or ideally a combination of both. Each has its unique advantages. Physical stores give customers a hands-on experience—particularly important for clothes or higher-priced items like furniture and often preferred by less tech-savvy consumers.
Online, customers can do further research, compare similar products, and check prices. On social media, they have easy access to recommendations and peer reviews. Combining physical and digital touchpoints can also be an effective strategy. You could use in-store QR codes to direct customers to each product’s webpage, enabling them to add things to a digital wish list as they shop and order items in store for delivery.
Attracting and keeping customers can be easier when you simplify the buying process and blend experiences across physical and digital platforms. And this can be a great way to drive increased satisfaction and customer loyalty, meaning higher sales in the long run.
Make customers feel special
Recognizing a returning customer is not only convenient for you, it feels personal for them—two things that make the experience rewarding. Customers feel valued when you remember their preferred delivery or pickup location or their favorite payment method. And if their credentials are already on file and up to date when they’re ready to make a purchase, it’s an even better experience.
Promotions, loyalty points, or other rewards can also help cement customer loyalty. In fact, 78% of U.S. consumers say good loyalty programs influence their purchase decisions or make them more likely to consider a brand.1 Taking advantage of the latest tokenization technology can help you recognize customers by gathering data across payment channels, regardless of the payment method they use.
Get the full picture
To learn more about how payments are vital to retail innovation, download our Retail Executive Guide.
1 "To keep customers coming back, brands must rethink their loyalty strategies,” Insider Intelligence, December 2022.
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