What precisely is a hybrid shopping experience?

Hybrid shopping takes into account the elements that are a blend of both in-person and eCommerce shopping options, where there is a seamless connection between both the physical and virtual worlds.

Several businesses currently allow shoppers to order items online and have them collected at one of their stores in the customers’ vicinity. This is made possible thanks to custom e-commerce solutions that handle multi-channel operations. Additionally, several companies are enabling consumers to return products that were purchased online to physical counterpart stores and get back their cash or refund. In more recent times, the pandemic brought forward the possibility of curbside pickup, and brick-and-mortar stores have begun offering the option of mobile self-checkout.

Hybrid journeys such as these are propelled by integrated e-commerce software solution and a robust strategy that helps businesses with marketing campaigns, brand messaging, product data spanning various channels as well as shopper data. Thanks to e-commerce software development businesses gain robust platforms and are able to offer shoppers a highly frictionless and smooth journey.

In-store staff is able to access customers’ account data or it can also be extracted through various devices, whereas customers can look up data of their preferred products like availability in-store, pricing, comparisons, etc.

To put it simply, shoppers are given a free rein on how and when they want to shop. This possibility of convenience is the primary cause that dictates shopper behavior today.

Why do you need a hybrid shopping strategy?

Customers of varying ages – counting Baby Boomers (62%) and Gen Z (58%), continue to have a preference for purchasing from a brick-and-mortar store. Moreover, 45% of in-store shoppers carry out online research before purchasing.

Hybrid shopping is favored over conventional and online shopping primarily because of the level of convenience offered. Your prospective customers do not actively search for a particular shopping experience, rather they seek the most ideal overall shopping journey depending on their needs at varying times. They have come to expect shopping journeys that are straightforward, friction-free and that can accommodate their timeline and preferences. It could be that you have not yet opted for hybrid customer experiences as you don’t want to ‘rock the boat’ but continue with what feels familiar. Here’s why you should change that fact.

With custom e-commerce development you gain state-of-the-art solutions to help you offer higher personalization, lower friction, and optimized convenience that lead to high customer satisfaction. This, in turn, elicits a positive response and boosts brand loyalty, often translating to positive reviews, less churn, and higher revenue.

So, before you decide to invest in the latest e-commerce software solutions, figure out how the technology solution will boost your overall strategy. Invest sufficient time in assessing various options before you decide on a firm that offers the solutions that align with your needs. Overall user-friendliness, level of customer support, and product training availability are further considerations to keep in mind when assessing provider options. Now, are you all set to take your business up a notch with hybrid shopping experiences?

A bunch of questions needs to be addressed – Where do you sell? What tactics to use to convince people to buy? What level of marketing is needed? How to actually generate revenue and process payments?  

With the right ecommerce software solutions you can be assured of smooth transactions, seamless customer orders, clear shipping settings and excellent security.

We’ve touched upon key factors that will help you start a successful online store.

Mobile-responsive site

It’s undeniable that the use of smartphones for online shopping keeps rising with every passing day.  

Merchants need to work double-time to create a site design that is mobile-friendly.

This ensures that shoppers can make purchases, regardless of the device they’re using.

Your online store would need to be designed in accordance with operating system requirements to boost your site’s responsiveness.

Appealing web design

Research suggests that 93% of online shoppers consider a site’s visual appeal before making a purchase.

So, if your site’s web design is shoddy, you can’t expect a thriving ecommerce business. 

Your ecommerce industry solutions need to have intuitive layouts, clean designs and follow the latest web design trends.

What’s more it gives sellers complete control over their customers’ experiences. 

SEO-friendliness

Online stores need to generate traffic if they want to experience sales.

But, how do you draw traffic to your site? The simple answer is- Search Engine Optimization.

A good sprinkling of SEO keywords in your product titles and descriptions is likely to get your site to rank higher on search engine results pages.

The higher the number of people who find you online, the more site visits and conversions you could potentially get.

Offer free shipping

Offering free shipping may seem counterproductive at first and you may worry about the upfront costs.

Nevertheless, a high number of merchants have witnessed huge returns and amplified sales on offering their customers free shipping.

Make your generous policy blatantly clear to your shoppers by giving it a prominent place on your online store’s home page.

Popular payment options

You can’t have an online store with payments options. Customers tend to have preferred payment methods.

So, provide them with a wide choice of popular payment options that will allow them to seamlessly make a purchase.

Additionally, you can give customers the option of saving their payment details to ensure that further purchases will be a breeze. 

It’s important to align your online store to your target buyers’ needs and preferences. Once you are able to strategically craft each element of your ecommerce store you will begin to experience more and more conversions.

From tech integrations to pricing, expertise to scope for support there are several key considerations to make before selecting an ecommerce Solution Provider.

Integration of Systems

You would need to assess how your potential ecommerce industry solutions will adapt to your current tech stack and IT infrastructure. What you want to steer clear of here are systems that function in silos and result in added maintenance costs and resources, and a higher margin for error. You would also need to take complete advantage of your current working processes and tech investments.

E-commerce Costs  

Pricing is always an essential consideration when selecting an e-commerce solution provider. From implementation fees, to additional connection fees, customization fees, support fees you would need to factor in all these considerations and more when making an e-commerce vendor pricing comparison. 

Out-of-the-box e-commerce Software Comparison

After you have created your priority list, begin searching for vendors who deliver most, if not all, of your mandatory requirements as part of their standard, out-of-the-box e-commerce solutions. On the whole, you would do well to avoid a lot of customizations; because this can unnecessarily lengthen your project timeline and force you exceed your budget.   

Time-to-market  

Ensure that you select a provider who is able to deliver your web store in accordance with the deadline you have set. The faster your web store goes live, the faster you can start building your revenue online. How quickly your e-commerce vendor takes to complete your web store hinges on their working processes and also the solution you select.

Support Capabilities

You will need support from your e-commerce software vendor during the pre-launch, launch, and post-launch stages of your new e-commerce platform. To ensure optimal running of your e-commerce project, the provider you have selected should cater to your support and servicing requirements.

As with so many other businesses, IT solutions for healthcare industry have the power to revolutionize this sector. In a number of ways, it has already dramatically reshaped healthcare. Access to applications like Doctor on Demand and the like have changed how we view traditional healthcare.

On top of expanding access, e-commerce in healthcare can enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and in the end lead to healthier, content patients.

Access

Above all e-commerce is highly advantageous in enabling people to gain access to data. Armed with superior transparency concerning their health, patients can coordinate with their doctors to facilitate more informed decisions with regard to their treatment.

Efficiency

E-commerce also has a significant impact on promoting efficiency in healthcare. Ensuring that non-emergency patients are redirected from hospitals and doctors’ offices to online platforms, patients that are in urgent need of hospital resources are able to get the care they need. Hospital resources can involve not only physical medical items and tools but also the valuable time of medical staff and physicians.

Lowered Costs

Leveraging the tremendous efficiency brought about by e-commerce has led to reduced healthcare costs.  It has been found that online doctor visits are almost half of less than half in comparison to office visits, and there is an even higher difference when it comes to urgent care visits. 

Healthier Patients

The combination of higher efficiency and lowered costs is bound to result in healthier patients. Often healthcare visits get sidetracked for a number of families, due to costs. Through eCommerce Industry Solutions an increased number of individuals and families would be able to afford checkups and doctor visits, resulting in a much healthier populace.