7 Ways to Increase Website Engagement for Ecommerce Businesses

Ecommerce is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, with a projected growth rate of up to 25% annually.

But it’s not just about getting people to buy stuff—it’s about keeping them coming back.

The best way to do that? Focus on ecommerce customer engagement.

When it comes to ecommerce, nothing is more important than customer engagement. A customer who is engaged with your company is more likely to buy from you, and they’re more likely to tell their friends about their experience. 

Any ecommerce business that invests in boosting customer engagement is bound to bag a win in the long run.

We’ve been talking about the importance of an omnichannel strategy for ecommerce. In our last blog post, we talked about how the channels and times that online shoppers interact with your site are important parts of that strategy.

In this post, we’ll cover strategies to boost on-site ecommerce customer engagement. Whether you’re looking to increase sales or just improve the overall experience for your customers, these tips will help you get started.

What is ecommerce customer engagement, and why is it important?

Simply put, customer engagement is nothing but an ongoing interaction between your brand and your customers (and potential customers). Customer engagement can help you retain customers and do much more than just limit their interaction to a one-off purchase. 

A Gartner report succinctly covers why customer engagement in ecommerce is of utmost importance. According to Gartner, customer engagement,

• Increases customer loyalty & trust
• Provides valuable feedback and actionable insights
• Improves customer experience and,
• Increases sales funnel velocity

Ecommerce businesses are always looking for ways to improve their customer experience, which is why they are always looking for new ways to engage with their customers. 

Engagement can come in many forms: it could be a simple comment on social media or an email list that you send out regularly. But no matter what form it takes, engaging with your customers will help you build relationships with them and will ultimately lead to more sales.

Why is ecommerce website engagement so important?

A Forbes article called out that 56% of the brands that excelled in an engagement strategy exceeded revenue goals, versus just 19% that fell short. 

By ensuring a great user experience while a customer is on your website is a sure-shot way of seeing that coveted uptick in sales and other engagement metrics. 

An easy-to-navigate UI-UX and a clean, crisp, and visually appealing design and text are the hygiene. However, there are many other ways deployed by successful ecommerce businesses to increase customer engagement on your website.

7 Strategies to Boost Ecommerce Customer Engagement on your Website

Don’t rely on the basics; go a step beyond to ensure your customers are fully engaged and engrossed while browsing your e-commerce website. 

Here are our top 7 recommendations for you to deploy now!

1. Initiate a conversation with ‘welcome message’ automation

Whether your ecommerce website is powered by a live chat, messenger widget, or WhatsApp widget, you need to initiate the conversation when someone lands on your site. 

The right way is to start a welcome series with a simple proactive message like ‘can we help you?’ 

The automated conversation can also lead the users to discover products based on what they are looking for. 

Wondering how? 

Well, picture this – when a customer walks into a store, they can’t simply go back in a second or two; they get engaged almost instantly. 

Why? Because there is a real human who greets them and makes them feel welcomed. 

The same can be and should be replicated for your customers who come to your ecommerce website. Artificial intelligence is your answer to building store-like experiences on chat, catapulting brands into c-commerce globally.

Don’t know where to look for the perfect automation solution?

LimeChat can help you unlock the power of conversational online commerce. They can automate customer interactions on Live Chat, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Messenger. Thereby helping you boost sales by leveraging the sheer power of interactive guided buying. 

2. Simplify and improve website navigation

Having an enjoyable, intuitive layout is essential for seamless website navigation. It not only eases the customer’s product discovery journey but also delights them. 

Users today love clutter-free, easy-to-navigate, and aesthetically appealing websites. 

Here are some quick tips to improve your website’s navigation with immediate effect:

1. Stick to conventional labels (e.g., standard sections like contact us, help, customer support, about us, etc shouldn’t be unnecessarily named anything fancy)
2. Use horizontal navigation bars (they are the most optimal for an e-commerce website where the number of listings, information groups, etc. can be huge)
3. Make the search box conspicuous (it aids navigation by letting users simply search instead of figuring it out all by themselves)
4. Break your navigation into clear categories with up to 6-7 items. Use the main menu, second, and third-level dropdown menu to help users navigate as they narrow down their selection.

3. Display personalised product recommendations

Customised product recommendations can tremendously increase website engagement and also the number of converts. These are great for boosting upsell and cross-sell opportunities and pique a customer’s interest in buying more than what they originally planned for. 

Personalised product suggestions can be based on many factors, for example:

• Previously viewed products
• Wishlisted products
• Products frequently purchased together (example, a screen guard or other protective accessories for a mobile phone)
• New arrivals or products that are back in stock after being sold out. 
• Top selling products of the category 
• Bundle deals 

Research shows that recommendation campaigns drive sales, fueling 24% of orders and 26% of revenue. 

Personalised recommendations are a game-changer among recommendation campaigns. And, your website is the best place to show personalised recommendations and influence the purchase decision at its most critical point.

Bonus tip: Personalising recommendations means taking into account the type of customer. For example, to a new customer, you may want to actively show ‘recently viewed products as compared to an old, regular customer who may be the best fit for upselling and cross-selling.

3. Display supporting content that is relevant and up to date

An ecommerce website’s sole purpose is to facilitate the sales of products. However, customers often get distracted by flashy websites that are too ‘pushy.’ 

Instead, try to supplement your website with relevant, useful, and up-to-date content that can help your customers make an informed choice. Like articles, infographics, quick one-liner tips, or anything that basically helps them understand more about the product lines you sell. 

Content like visual lookbooks, how-to guides, videos, guides, etc., all stick very well with customers and can engage them on your e-commerce website for much longer. As an example, check out Vital Proteins, a brand that sells proteins and collagen. It has a whole section here dedicated to explaining to customers all they need to know about collagen, its benefits, the right way to consume it, etc.

4. Gamify the user experience – use interactivity wherever possible!

Everyone loves a low-effort game that gives a quick thrill in the moment. You can use a mini-game, a survey, a quiz, or even a real-time scoreboard to keep users engaged. 

A lot of ecommerce websites use this hack to increase website engagement. For example, your ecommerce website may have a simple game where players are given a score instantly at the end of it. 

You can also share score ranges against which there can be different rewards like a freebie, a premium sample, or a discount on a certain minimum cart value. When the users know they can win an additional off by playing a game, they become more invested than entitled to that discount. 

In short, a customer is always more likely to utilise a discount code when they’ve earned it themselves instead of finding it in an email pleading them to make a purchase!  

5. Segment visitors and personalise their shopping experience 

Not all conversations work well with all customers. When we stress on the importance of personalization, we mean doing it to every extent possible. 

A great starting point is segmenting the visitors depending on the landing page, their interactions with your business, their cart status, etc. The conversation for each such segment should be highly personalised and so should be their experience after they’ve left your website. 

The after-conversation automation can be automated with the help of engagement platforms like LimeChat.

6. Personalise the user experience with dynamic content

Take personalization to the next level by making your UX relevant to each user. Dynamic UX is the future, and dynamic content will be its key driver. 

Dynamic content basically means digital content that changes based on data, user behaviour, and preferences. This includes all possible formats like audio, video, and text.

Bonus tip: Keep your design language visual-heavy and go easy with text

Lastly, while all of the above are great ideas to increase website engagement, they all will need a baseline to operate on. This baseline is nothing but a clean website design. 

Think of your website as a one-on-one interaction with your customer. Just as customers prefer warm, to-the-point, and empathetic salespersons in stores, they prefer websites that are clean, easy to understand & navigate. So go easy on the text and go heavy on audio-visual cues wherever possible to increase customer engagement. 

Rule of thumb – create a website that is pleasant to spend time on and is crystal clear in its messaging.

Crack the code on ecommerce website customer engagement with LimeChat!

At LimeChat, we believe the fundamental to delivering a great experience online is to replicate in-store interactions. 

Our technology can help you boost customer engagement on your e-commerce website with smart automation and chatbots. 

With the power of level-3 AI, it can help streamline conversations methodically and hence help in increasing conversions, improve customer retention, and take conversational marketing to the next level. 

With LimeChat, you can build a community that’s as engaged as it is diverse. You can create engaging content that will tantalise your customers’ taste buds and make them return again and again for more. You can also use our tools to help you listen to what your customers are saying about your products so that you know how to improve them—or even come up with new ones! And all this comes at a price that won’t break the bank.

Book a free demo now to witness the power of LimeChat’s level-3 AI that 150+ brands already swear by!