The onset of the pandemic led to the need for isolation in our homes. Increased time and confinement to our homes caused many people to reconsider their home aesthetics. Subsequently, home and gardening eCommerce has grown to be one of the most sought-after verticals since then.
7 Challenges in Home and Garden eCommerce And How To Fix Them
However, the sector presents its challenges. This article highlights seven key challenges and how to overcome them.
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Converting First-Time Visitors
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A lot of thought is put into the home and garden products one purchases. They are a significant investment with high-ticket items such as expensive lawnmowers, including a robot mower.
It is unlikely to achieve an impromptu purchase as shoppers have increased their time considering these products. It is, therefore, a challenge to convert them to buyers in a short span.
You can address this by deploying pop-ups with discounts for visitors to use on future purchases. It gives them an incentive to purchase from you and build loyalty to your brand.
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Re-engaging New and Existing Customer
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An indecisive shopper can easily forfeit purchasing from you and head to a competitor. The sector is highly competitive, so you must engage with visitors to increase the chances of sales.
Pop-ups not only incentivize first-time visitors. They also re-engage visitors before leaving the site without purchasing items.
The pop-up can promote a sale by increasing urgency through a personalized timer gearing toward the sale triggers action from a shopper. FOMO marketing is effective in eCommerce.
These coupon codes also enable you to collect information from the shopper, such as email addresses. It provides an avenue to re-engage shoppers beyond the website via email. It assists you in minimizing traffic loss on your website.
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Acknowledging Customer’s Preferences
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Customers have unique affinities towards particular brands. This reflects whenever they browse your website or make a purchase.
Home and garden eCommerce customers are particular about what they seek. Therefore, showcasing products that are not relevant to them encourages them to search elsewhere.
Home and garden retailers’ analysis of their customers’ preferences regarding the product type, price, brands, and categories yields higher conversions.
Retailers can then apply A/B testing of various strategies to understand what works for your brand.
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Offering Personalised Content in a Customer’s Multi-Stage Shopping Journey
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The user experience of your website must offer shoppers personalized content. It avoids shoppers diverting to a competitor’s page.
Home and garden shoppers act upon product discovery through personalized recommendations. However, the solution goes beyond personalized recommendations.
You can deploy personalized content campaigns of particular brands, especially to shoppers with an affinity for higher-priced items such as garden machinery.
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Encouraging Product Discovery with High AOV Despite Large Catalogue
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Most home and garden retailers have a large catalog with various products. This limits how they can maximize product discovery for customers.
Products in the sector are often part of larger purchases hence a challenge for product discovery that incentivizes shoppers to buy in larger quantities.
Retailers can offer explicit and dynamic product bundles. This enables shoppers to encounter a product faster and easily by viewing it.
These ‘complete the look’ recommendations often are a call to action to shoppers to maximize their orders. This also boosts the AOV.
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Offering Relevant Customer Segmentation on Season and Location
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Customer segmentation is critical in delivering relevant customer experiences. However, some retailers often forget to consider the season and location in personalizing the shopper’s experience.
A shopper’s geolocation enables retailers to use segmentation in offering product recommendations. In addition, it provides users with critical information, such as the best sellers in their area and the most in-demand products based on the season.
This is essential in having a higher conversion rate.
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Communicating Shipping Terms and Conditions
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Home and Garden retailers partner with several suppliers with their unique supply chain and distribution processes.
These processes are often affected during high-demand seasons and unique occurrences such as the covid 19 pandemic. In addition, large purchases also may inhibit delivery to a customer’s address.
The customer organizes their delivery from the delivery point to their homes.
Home and garden retailers must be transparent concerning their shipping terms. They can communicate this on their websites through pop-ups and personalized content.
Conclusion
There are several ways home and garden retailers can overcome challenges to offer shoppers a personalized experience to encourage conversion.
The above challenges and solutions enable retailers to build trust and loyalty of their products to new and existing customers.
Author bio: Leslie Vincent, gardening expert for Atkins Ireland, a leading supplier of garden tools & machinery, farm parts, tractors, and tractor parts, and much more.
