What does it take for the household goods industry to succeed in the online world? Aside from creating powerful marketing messages, they should also devise effective and efficient e-commerce customer service best practices. Here are the reasons why.

Because of its convenient features, nothing can seem to stop the growth of online shopping. It is like giving people the ability to access an entire shopping mall with their hands without going anywhere. For a world that is so busy with work, family gatherings, celebrations, and other events, online shopping has become a habit to many. There’s no wonder that in 2017, Statista found out that about 1.66 billion people worldwide purchased goods online. In hindsight, a CMO study figured that while 43 percent of the purchases are influenced by online information, online sales are only nine percent of in-store sales. This means that many people are still aren’t comfortable making purchases online.

The growing online population is hard to ignore. There’s a lot of opportunities out there. The market is still unripe yet it is already so huge that if you just do what is right, you can succeed. Sure, success doesn’t happen overnight. But with enough trials and errors, it is possible for you to get the exact ingredients in building an empire in the digital world.

The household goods industry is one of those that are set to grow in e-commerce. The products usually sold under this include kitchenware, furniture, clothing, bedding, books, appliances, tools, and other products that are used within the house. As a matter of fact, its niche market, the furniture industry, represent one of the strongest e-commerce sales in the United States, Statista revealed.

So how can businesses under this industry support their growth?

Creating powerful marketing messages and offering top-of-the-line products are some of the best ways to do so. But these are just the foundation. It is important to have strong pillars to support your business. Devising e-commerce customer service best practices is an effective way to facilitate business growth and increase consumers trust in your business.

E-commerce customer service best practices

Providing customer service to the very reason of your online store’s existence — your customers — is so crucial that you should not, in any way, find any reasons to neglect it.

To give you some ideas of how you can better serve your customers, we’ve listed the top e-commerce customer service best practices that your online shop could follow.

24/7 customer service

Being open 24/7 has upsides and downsides. Operating an online business allows you to earn even you’re sleeping but this also mean that you should be available to your customers at any time of the day.

Providing round-the-clock customer service means a genuine concern to the needs of your customers. When you care for them, there’s also a huge possibility that they will also care for your business.

Some of the best types of support for this are the following:

• Phone customer service
• Live chat support
• Social media support

When doing business online, you should also find ways to have multichannel and omnichannel support to improve your customer service.

Easy-to-navigate website

One way of showing that you care is by making it easier for your customers to navigate your site. The simpler your processes are, the better.

Mobile first

Ensuring that your online store can be navigated easily using mobile is also a necessity. Many people buy their stuff online because it is more convenient and accessible compared to desktop.

Accurate product descriptions

You should not disappoint your customers by telling them product features only to get a totally different product. During checkout, it is also a good practice to show them all the charges that go with their purchase. Remember, honesty is an important element in building trust and strong relationships with customers.

FAQs

Serving your customers does not always mean that you need to personally be connected with them. Giving them support through phone or live chat is ideal but there are customers who prefer to help themselves. Providing all the materials that they need like an updated and comprehensive FAQs section, blogs, explainer and tutorial videos are indirect ways of serving your customers.

Order update

Another online customer service best practice is by sending your customers updates about the status of their order. This will give them confidence over your business and sends a message that your company is worth their trust.

How about you? What are the e-commerce customer service best practices that you have already implemented in your online store? Share it with us?

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