It is important for the owners of an online shop to build customer loyalty. Therefore, the information in the online shop, the manager of the business, and public communication should answer the following questions:
- What is the guarantee that the product will be delivered?
- What is the guarantee that the right product will be delivered?
- What will be the quality of delivered goods?
In order to inform the customer, it is useful to create a section of the page where the following information is laid out:
- The delivery of goods—the timing and means
- The cost of delivery, depending on the distance of delivery and the weight of the product (usually, the cost of delivery is not included in the price of the product)
- The terms and conditions of returning a product (depending on the legislation, it might be mandatory, but the shop can offer this as an extra option)
- The way of handling disputes and whom to contact in such cases (the person in charge should know the legal details and also have an authority to act on behalf of the online shop)
Providing such information indicates that the management of the online shop is willing to secure the delivery of the goods, inform the customers about the process of delivery, and help the client in handling disputes.
Of course, it is not possible to predict all of the information that should be available on your page, but as the shop will be operational, this will emerge.
The information about delivery and returning goods can have a reference to the applicable legislation. This will indicate that the management of the shop knows the legislation and that it is considered important—all this will increase the trust in your online shop.
One of the ways to ensure that the visitor of the shop buys the right goods is prompting the customer to confirm the selected goods (in our case, berries) before a visitor makes the payment:
If the purchase is made by a registered user, it is recommended that a confirmation e-mail be sent to the customer. This e-mail should contain information about the purchase (the price and the quantity of the goods).
If the customer has made a mistake, such e-mail of confirmation gives him/her a chance to contact the representatives of the online shop who can then correct this mistake.
To convince the customer about the quality of the goods, it is possible to refer to certificates or documentation that confirm the quality.
This information can be displayed next to the description of the goods. These documents should also be available online as well as for download (as, for example, a pdf document) as seen in the following screenshot:
If you sell the goods (say, the berries) as the middleman, you must consider the complaints of customers. Sometimes it might be required to switch the suppliers of the goods because the quality of goods influences your reputation—the customers will not make return purchases and will spread negative information about you to others.
The quality of goods should be monitored persistently. The range of available goods should also be adjusted when such a need arises.
Customer loyalty for the online shop is gained gradually. But at the time of establishing an online shop, one can also make sure that the right information is available. This will foster loyalty and will stimulate the customer to return to the online shop again and again.
When creating an online shop, one should ensure that the system works without faults—all the functions work correctly, and the online shop is available 24/7. Likewise, it is important to enlarge the number of visitors to the online shop to increase its popularity.
The service of online purchases means that the customer will be able to get some online support.
There are several ways that the visitor to an online shop can contact its employees:
- Phone
- Fax
- Skype
- An online contact form
- Online chat
- A video call
It is not recommended to use all these means of contact, but rather choose three or four methods that are more relevant to your target audience.
The statistics of which means of communication the customers use to contact the online shop can be useful to consider the usefulness of some of these methods.
When choosing the means of communication, it is necessary to remember that there are some people who like to ask questions "silently"—they will use e-mail or online contact form. Some people, however, prefer live communication—the phone or Skype. With this in mind, it is recommended to combine various means of communication.