When consumers shop online, you learn from the products they buy, their browsing behavior, and post-sale interactions. Digital transactions paint a detailed picture with valuable data points from the first touch point up to delivery.
These client profiles create a data-backed narrative that illustrates how your buyer interacts with you, which should ultimately guide your product. In this article, we'll navigate how to make sense of these data points to create an insightful client profile and meaningful client experiences.
Be creative with your data
Data generally drives decisions. Using universal metrics as your "North Star" stats is standard practice in this data-centric era. Think -- cart abandonment, customer churn, and customer lifetime value. While these metrics are fundamental in understanding your business and buyer, these are just the broad strokes. Find data points that are specific to your business that can paint a more precise client profile.
Look at your industry's and products' distinctive characteristics, and consider how they might tell a story of your buyer's journey. Consider delving into each if you have a wide range of inventory types. What are their respective average costs to ship? Consider whether an average order value correlates with a buyer's willingness to spend on shipping or insurance.
Create confident customers
Proactively placing communications in a buyer's browsing journey can provide businesses with further client insights and, importantly, convert browsers to loyal buyers. Creating friction during product discovery is counterintuitive. However, creating intentional touchpoints instead of a rushed checkout experience is an exercise in client education and an investment in brand trust. Thoughtful tech that empowers buyers rather than pushes them towards a purchase distinguishes an intentional transaction from a fast-fashion checkout experience. In industries that support the exchange of unique and high-value goods, expertise and safety take precedence over “fast” and “free.”
Tools like Arta Estimates enable curious buyers to obtain instant shipping costs so they can approach checkout with confidence and understanding. Proactively providing pricing eliminates any surprises at checkout, creates space for education, and allows you to show off your expertise within the industry. Consider implementing informative messaging throughout the browsing and checkout to educate and set expectations. Create intentional “pauses” throughout the browsing process to create moments to build trust and education around your transaction. A seamless checkout experience does not always mean a speedy one.
Be tasteful with your tech
Hoping for a human to interrupt your circular conversation with a robot when troubleshooting your wifi is, unfortunately, a universal experience. When designing a client experience, an important skill to hone in on is discerning where automation can be helpful versus harmful. Especially in luxury industries where transactions are usually a highly personable experience, companies may be hesitant to automate elements of their business. The answer is simple -- you must strike a strategic blend of automation and human touch. Combining automation with authenticity is important to create an efficient and genuine experience. Here are a few instances of how we achieve this balance at Arta:
- Custom Clearance | Navigating customs clearance is a tedious and frustrating task in any context, especially in the unique and high-value collectables industry. This creates a perfect space to let automation do the heavy lifting. At Arta, we automate the creation of custom clearance documents. This automation enables businesses to scale internationally regardless of in-house expertise or staffing. Importantly, this automation is complemented by an informative email drip, offering sellers and buyers a clear understanding of what to expect from the clearance process. Should a buyer or seller have any further questions, the reply-to inbox is monitored by our team of experts.
- Tracking | Arta integrates with parcel tracking systems to ensure our clients are updated at every point in a shipment's journey. Users can follow along within Arta's platform, and third parties can utilize Arta hosted public URLs. Within Arta's platform, users can communicate directly with our Support and Operations teams to clarify any details that traditional parcel tracking may not account for. This human conversation, alongside tracking automation, illustrates our empathetic approach to automation.
- Claims | Claims are an unfortunate occurrence in our field, and we know better than anyone that each case comes with its unique circumstances. Knowing when to leave automation out of a workflow intentionally is just as important. That's why we have a dedicated team that owns our Transit Insurance claims process to guide buyers through the entirety of the claim resolution.
When a customer transacts with your business, there’s a good chance they’ll interact with a mix of both your product and services. Create narratives with data points to get to know what these interactions may look like. Get specific. This may offer a new perspective or an opportunity to test a new course of action, like subsidized shipping for a particular product skew. When you know precisely who your customers are, it becomes easier to identify opportunities for automation and areas for your business’s support services to shine.
