Passed on 21 May, 2025
4. Creating a smooth e-commerce experience
Once you’ve taken your first steps into e-commerce, your next job is to improve the shopping experience. In this lesson, you’ll explore how to streamline the checkout process.
✅ Learning objectivesBy the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:Identify potential ways to improve customers’ online shopping experience.Recognise how an improved shopping experience could improve sales.
Learning objectives
By the end of this lesson, you’ll be able to:
Identify potential ways to improve customers’ online shopping experience.
Recognise how an improved shopping experience could improve sales.
Streamlining your online shop
Offering customers an easy online shopping experience can help you meet e-commerce goals.
Be your own customer
Imagine you're a customer visiting your online shop for the first time. Rate how easy the shopping experience feels. If you don’t have an online shop yet, think about a recent shopping experience you've had.Tip: Ask a friend to review your site for fresh insights — they might spot things you’ve missed.
Tip: Ask a friend to review your site for fresh insights — they might spot things you’ve missed.
Tip: Ask a friend to review your site for fresh insights — they might spot things you’ve missed.
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What do you think?
If a customer finds shopping on a website difficult, what impact do you think it could have?
Customers might spend less
Customers might not buy anything
Customers might not recommend your business to others
Customers might have a negative perception of your brand
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Improving E-commerce
Explore examples of how analysing customer buying behaviour can help you to make decisions about which improvements to make to an online shop.
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Transcript
Transcript
Shopping in practice
Let’s explore a case study to understand common e-commerce challenges and potential solutions.
Meet Gunther
Meet Gunther, a golf enthusiast who runs an online shop specialising in premium golf clubs, accessories, and apparel. Although his website attracts visitors, Gunther faces some challenges that impact his sales and customer satisfaction.
Improving online sales for Gunther’s golf shop
Let’s review Gunther’s website issues and consider actions to improve the shopping experience.
1. High cart abandonment rate
Gunther’s analytics reveal a high cart abandonment rate, with many customers adding items like clubs or accessories but leaving before purchase. This could be due to a complex checkout, limited payment options, or unexpected costs at checkout.
2. Low engagement on product pages
Gunther’s data reveals that, although customers frequently visit his product pages, they rarely add items to their carts. This suggests that the product pages might benefit from more engaging content, such as detailed descriptions, customer reviews, or high-quality images showcasing the golf gear from various angles.
3. Poor mobile experience
Gunther’s shop receives a lot of traffic from mobile users, yet few mobile visitors complete a purchase. This suggests his mobile site may not be optimised, making it difficult for customers to browse products or check out smoothly on their phones.
✅ ActivityConsider the following questions to help Gunther enhance his online shopping experience.It’s important to note that, in real life, business owners and digital marketers would tackle one problem at a time, with one solution. This would allow them to measure their solutions success. However, to put the lesson content into practice, we’d like you to consider multiple challenges for this activity.Check the items off as you go.How could Gunther reduce the high cart abandonment rate?What steps could Gunther take to boost engagement on his product pages?How could Gunther optimise his site for a better mobile shopping experience?
Activity
Consider the following questions to help Gunther enhance his online shopping experience.It’s important to note that, in real life, business owners and digital marketers would tackle one problem at a time, with one solution. This would allow them to measure their solutions success. However, to put the lesson content into practice, we’d like you to consider multiple challenges for this activity.
It’s important to note that, in real life, business owners and digital marketers would tackle one problem at a time, with one solution. This would allow them to measure their solutions success. However, to put the lesson content into practice, we’d like you to consider multiple challenges for this activity.
It’s important to note that, in real life, business owners and digital marketers would tackle one problem at a time, with one solution. This would allow them to measure their solutions success. However, to put the lesson content into practice, we’d like you to consider multiple challenges for this activity.
How could Gunther reduce the high cart abandonment rate?
What steps could Gunther take to boost engagement on his product pages?
How could Gunther optimise his site for a better mobile shopping experience?
Download PDF
Download PDF
What does Gunther do?
Gunther decides that his priority is to reduce the high cart abandonment rate. That way, when he addresses his other challenges, there shouldn’t be barriers for customers wanting to complete their purchases.Gunther starts by comparing his delivery costs to those of his competitors and realises that his are significantly higher. He puts a cost reduction into place. Once he has measured the outcome, he will decide on his next steps.
Gunther starts by comparing his delivery costs to those of his competitors and realises that his are significantly higher. He puts a cost reduction into place. Once he has measured the outcome, he will decide on his next steps.
Gunther starts by comparing his delivery costs to those of his competitors and realises that his are significantly higher. He puts a cost reduction into place. Once he has measured the outcome, he will decide on his next steps.
Check your knowledge
It's time for you to check and reflect on what you've learned so far.
Question 1 of 1
Jo wants to use analytics data and visitor surveys to make some improvements to her e-commerce website, but she has limited time and budget.What actions could Jo take for each of these findings?
What actions could Jo take for each of these findings?
What actions could Jo take for each of these findings?
Introduce responsive design.
correct
Add customer reviews.
correct
Create registration for customer accounts.
correct
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Submit
Yes.If she sees people access her shop a lot from their mobiles, Jo can introduce responsive design to improve her customers’ browsing experience. Improving product pages could be the answer if lots of people visit but don’t buy from her shop. Finally, customer accounts can simplify the check-out process, helping people complete their purchases more easily.
Lesson complete
You have now explored examples of how analysing data can help you make improvements to your e-commerce website and streamline your customers’ buying experience.Head to the next lesson to discover more about product promotion and merchandising.
Head to the next lesson to discover more about product promotion and merchandising.
Head to the next lesson to discover more about product promotion and merchandising.