Ecommerce Customer Experience: The Essential Guide for Shopify Brand Owners

Product pricing and availability used to rule the land.

But considering the current climate of competition and the economic squeeze we’re all feelin’, success today goes far beyond a simple transaction.

Whether you’re a new Shopify founder or just added fuel to the fire and are looking for fast growth, you must recognize the ecommerce customer experience modern consumers crave.

What does that mean, what does it look like, and how can you begin to lay the groundwork to deliver on this new scale of experience?

At the end of this primer, you’ll emerge with a thorough understanding of the modern customer experience in ecommerce, its key building blocks, metrics to measure to see if you’re pulling it off, and why it all matters.

Defining the ecommerce customer experience

What’s the ecommerce customer experience?

It’s every single interaction and touchpoint a customer has with your brand — as experience from the customer's perspective.

Seems a little broad? Yeah, that’s intentional. The ecommerce customer experience encompasses everything, from the first moment a person hears about your brand to the point where they stop engaging with your company. In some cases, the experience can even persist beyond this stage — as some brands find value in working to re-engage past customers.

Each brand, industry, and target customer base will demand a unique experience based on customer needs and circumstances. So, while there’s no single formula for crafting an exceptional digital customer experience today, there are some essential components every Shopify brand owner should keep in mind.

6 key elements of modern customer experience management

Crafting an exceptional ecommerce customer experience is a necessity for modern Shopify businesses. Today, customer expectations include seamless, secure, and personalized online shopping experiences. Let’s explore six key elements ecommerce brands can use to create that top-tier ecommerce experience.

1. Human-centered, AI-enabled support

We get it, introducing AI into your customer support flow, especially if you’ve been managing it all by yourself, can be a scary prospect.

What if it says something wrong? What if it goes haywire and you have to do a bunch of rework to fix everything?

At OpenDesk, we took this very legitimate concern to heart in creating a smarter support platform that uses AI to empower Shopify founders — and give them ultimate control over and insight into the AI functionality so the human focus is never lost.

OpenDesk offers a singular platform where support can view and interact with all your customer channels at once. We use AI, alongside your Shopify company’s customer data, to attach sentiment, label, and prioritize inquiries so you always know who to respond to first to keep retention and profit high.

Your ticket response capabilities are where our AI integration gets unique.

OpenDesk enables brands to enrich the AI by adding their own documentation, so it’s always accurate. On top of this, you can edit any AI-boosted responses to make sure the voice is on-brand. To make sure this solution maintains your customer service standards, you can always view your automated customer satisfaction score vs. your manual customer satisfaction score and adjust as necessary if you find the AI automation isn’t quite performing how you want it to.

Finally, we put AI to use to measure a modern metric we call ‘Tickets per Order’. This automatically tracks how often customers experience specific issues (missing items, order delays, etc.), so you can quickly pinpoint and address your biggest pain points — reducing ticket numbers at the source.

Optimizing support with AI doesn’t have to put humanity in the backseat, and it doesn’t have to be expensive or hard to set up! Join the waitlist to get started with OpenDesk and find out how easy it can be to improve your customer experience.

2. Design that makes it easy to shop

A poor user experience on an ecommerce website can cause as many as 60% of consumers to abandon their purchase altogether.

Suffice it to say that user-friendly web design is the backbone of providing a positive customer experience that makes people want to shop.

Luckily, setting up an online business with Shopify is a huge step in the right direction of creating a great ecommerce experience.

That said, here are some important things to note when designing your website on Shopify:

• Choose an up-to-date template that’s optimized for the experience modern consumers want, with features that make it beautiful, mobile-ready, easy for you to edit, and more.
• Make sure the menu you set up to help users navigate your storefront is supremely easy to understand and use — you don’t want consumers to miss any important pages or products!
• Search is one of the most used parts of any ecommerce site today. Whether you go with the default Shopify search feature or add an app for that, make sure your ecommerce site can serve search results that allow customers to find exactly what they need.

A well-structured, visually appealing site doesn’t just satisfy customers; it can also improve your SEO and search engine rankings. When users spend more time engaging with the content they’re looking for on your site, it signals to search engines that your site offers value.

3. Full-fledged omnichannel presence (social focus)

It was already coming, but we certainly saw the pandemic accelerate the shift toward omnichannel experiences. Now, today’s customers expect the ability to engage across all platforms — from in-store to online shopping and beyond.

Optimizing your omnichannel approach isn’t simply about providing a basic experience across channels. It’s about creating a seamless transition between them. There are a handful of key strategies and tools for making this work:

• Adopt AI and automation in your support flow to provide real-time assistance on various platforms, guiding customers smoothly through their journey.
• Use an omnichannel-ready, single-source-of-truth support platform to ensure all agents have access to up-to-date customer information, improving communication and response times even when taking up a conversation on a new channel.
• Set up inventory and fulfillment systems that work smoothly from mobile app to website, enable flexible shopping options such as “buy online, pick up in-store” (BOPIS), and make for easy and flexible returns to enhance convenience.
• Leverage social commerce. It’s where shoppers, especially of the Gen Z and Millennial variety, go to discover and research brands. Tailor your marketing and support strategies to meet audience preferences on all the social channels you’re on.

4. Thoughtful personalization

The 2024 State of Personalization report found that 89% of business decision-makers believe personalization will become invaluable to their success in the coming years.

This is because many modern shoppers respond less to the “spray and pray” approach, looking instead for authenticity, conversation, and inclusion in their experiences with brands.

AI is one of the most powerful tools for embedding personalization at different touchpoints. By using machine learning, retailers can predict product preferences and refine recommendations, based on actual customer behavior and demographic information.

With the right tooling, personalizing the ecommerce customer experience is achievable and nearly limitless.

5. Contemporary payment options

There are dozens of payment methods consumers can choose between. Buy now, pay later (BNPL) options like Klarna and Shop Pay are popular upstarts, while digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc.) are on the rise around the world.

If you’re looking to keep your ecommerce experience current, make sure you’re set up to accept the various types of payments your audience wants to use.

Between Shopify’s default payment capabilities and the various payment apps on the platform, it should be easy to optimize your checkout experience to reduce cart abandonment and boost sales and profit.

6. Supply chain optimization

If retailers have seen anything over the past few years, it’s how important, yet delicate, the ecommerce supply chain can be!

A smooth supply chain is an impactful element of a great customer experience. These tips will help Shopify owners prevent breakdowns:

• Use a single, central system to manage inventory across channels, reducing overselling and stockouts.
• Analyze past sales and trends to anticipate inventory needs. This both keeps cash flow stable and minimizes product shortages.
• Simplify how you handle returns so you can quickly restock items and improve customer satisfaction.
• Streamline picking, packing, and shipping. You can achieve this by reconsidering your processes and layout or automating tasks where possible.
• Partner with dependable suppliers and diversify sources to avoid disruptions in the first place.

An optimized supply chain helps customers experience the full value of your brand without annoying delays or disappointments getting in the way.

What makes a great ecommerce customer experience important?

Not to overstate the matter, but a seamless customer experience can make or break a Shopify business.

With the shift toward online shopping and ever-increasing competition, here are the stat-backed reasons why prioritizing a great ecommerce customer experience is more important than ever.

Boost retention

It's much easier to sell a product to someone who knows about your brand. Typically, engagement tactics for this audience are lower cost and simpler to pull off — think content marketing, email marketing, etc. On the flip side, it’s more complicated and expensive to make a new person aware of your brand. Even with costly ads and expensive sales personnel, it can take as many as eight customer interactions just to get on their radar.

All that to say — retention is king. And a lovely ecommerce customer experience can boost it.

As many as 55% of people say they would stop buying from a brand they liked after multiple bad experiences. Another sizeable group (8%) would leave after just one.

And it’s not even as simple as being “not bad” today. Close to a third (32%) of shoppers say they’re willing to drop a company for providing experiences that are simply inconsistent.

What separates bad from good? Seamlessness, it appears.

Just over half (51%) of shoppers report being less inclined to stay loyal to brands that don’t make the online experience as seamless as the in-person one. With this number rising to 69% for Gen Z and 57% for Millennial shoppers, it’s clear that a seamless experience is becoming one of the most important parts of the customer experience.

Improve profit

Investing in a better customer experience doesn’t just generally increase customer satisfaction — it can directly boost profits.

Forrester found that 40% of consumers were willing to pay more just for an improved experience! Conversely, as we’ve already stated, many wouldn't hesitate to stop shopping with a brand if they have a poor experience. This shows that experience quality directly impacts customer spending and your profits over time.

By focusing on creating a smooth and enjoyable shopping journey, brands can encourage customers to not only return more frequently but to spend more during those visits.

Increase (good) word-of-mouth marketing

Oh boy, do customers talk.

When customers are disappointed about their experience with a business, a whopping 79% will share their negative experience in person. And, 53% will leave online reviews about their interaction.

Don’t want that kind of negative attention?

Then focus on well-crafted shopping experiences that turn satisfied customers into vocal advocates and generate positive word-of-mouth marketing — which can bring in new customers at little to no cost. This is powerful because, after all, the majority of people trust recommendations from folks they know.

Outshine competitors

In a crowded marketplace, a strong customer experience has become a clear differentiator.

This is because only about a third of buyers are actually satisfied with their experiences on brand websites. A staggering 76% of shoppers report challenges navigating retailer websites to even find the products they’re looking for — much less any details or helpful content surrounding them.

By putting together the puzzle pieces we detailed above — smart support, better design, personalization, modern payment options, and so on — it’s pretty doable to build an experience that outperforms your competition.

How to know you’re delivering the best shopping experience (8 metrics)

While understanding customers' perceptions of your retail experience can be tricky, several metrics can help you gain insight into how customers view your products, services, and brand overall.

Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)

You’re likely familiar with CSAT — a well-known metric used during the customer service workflow to provide a quick look at overall customer satisfaction.

CSAT rates are usually collected through a simple survey that asks: “How satisfied were you with [product/website/service] today?” Recipients provide their rating on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being very unsatisfied and 5 being very satisfied.

These scores are then averaged and expressed as a percentage.

CSAT = (sum of all scores / total # of responses) x 100

The higher the percentage, the higher your CSAT and the happier you should be with how customers experience your product, website, or service.

Net Promoter Score® (NPS)

NPS is used to gauge customer loyalty by asking how likely a customer is to recommend your brand on a 0 to 10 scale. NPS feedback can be gathered via an email survey after a customer has had time to experience your product or brand experience.

NPS responses are categorized into:

• Promoters (9 to 10): Enthusiastic customers who’d happily recommend your brand to others
• Passives (7 to 8): Satisfied customers that might not provide any word-of-mouth marketing
• Detractors (0 to 6): Unhappy customers who likely won’t return to make purchases

Here’s how to find your score:

NPS = (number of promoters / total number of respondents) - (number of detractors / total number of respondents)

You can multiply this number by 100 to express it as a percentage. Again, pushing this number higher is always the goal.

Customer effort score (CES)

CES assesses how much work customers put into their interactions with your brand.

It’s usually found by asking customers questions like “How easy was it for you to [insert action]?” after they’ve had a significant experience like making a purchase, interacting with support, etc. This metric helps identify specific friction points in the customer journey.

Usually, responses are rated from 1 (very difficult) to 5 or 7 (very easy). Find your CES using this formula:

CES = sum of CES ratings / number of responses

Always aim to increase your CES, as lower scores signal obstacles that need to be addressed to enhance the customer experience.

First response time (FRT)

FRT (which can also stand for ‘first reply time’) tracks how long it takes customer support to respond to the first customer inquiry, measured in hours or days based on your preferences.

A shorter FRT often indicates you’ve boosted customer satisfaction. It’s often achieved by improving the experience to reduce support needs in the first place, growing your customer support team, or optimizing your customer service flow at less expense with an automation-enabled support platform for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs).

Calculate your current score using this simple technique:

FRT = sum of first response times / number of tickets

Average resolution time (ART)

ART tracks the average time it takes to fully resolve customer support requests. Like FRT, it’s typically tracked in either hours or days.

It’s found by comparing time spent resolving tickets to the number of tickets received, all in a specific amount of time, like so:

ART = total resolution time / number of tickets

Faster resolution times, meaning a lower ART number, usually correlates with a better customer experience.

Customer lifetime value (LTV)

LTV represents the projected revenue a customer will bring in over their relationship with your brand, reflecting a positive customer experience.

There are two steps to determining this metric:

1. Customer value = customer’s average purchase value x customer’s average number of purchases
2. Customer lifetime value = customer value x your average customer lifespan

Ideally, you can grow LTV over time. This indicates you’re winning and retaining loyal customers who are happy with your brand.

Customer churn

Churn rate shows the percentage of customers who stop engaging with your brand. In the ecommerce space, this means they stop purchasing from your business.

High churn can be a red flag, pointing to customer experience issues that may drive buyers away. Tracking and reducing this number is critical, as churn happens when your retention efforts fail. And, as you know, keeping current customers is generally less expensive than acquiring new ones.

Expressed as a percentage, find churn rate with this equation:

Churn rate = (lost customers / total customers at the start of time period) x 100

Customer retention

Retention rate is the flipside of churn rate and reflects your brand's ability to keep customers over time. Unlike with churn rate, you want a high retention rate, as this shows you’re doing a great job creating experiences and meeting customer needs.

Here’s how to calculate customer retention:

Customer retention = [(number of customers at end of period - number of customers added in period) / number of customers at start of period] x 100

Improve ecommerce customer experiences with OpenDesk

Now you know — with a Shopify ecommerce business, one of your main goals must be crafting a seamless, tailored experience that leaves customers eager to return to and recommend your brand.

We’ve shared everything you need to know to develop a deep understanding of the ideal ecommerce customer experience, and the building blocks to begin delivering it on your own site.

Where to begin?

You can start on this journey right now by signing up to try OpenDesk.

OpenDesk doesn’t just store all your tickets in one place, it smartly organizes them by importance so you always know who to reply to first. Struggling to keep up? Train and take advantage of our human-centric AI to answer tickets faster — and track your automated CSAT score to make sure customers are happy with the accuracy and tone of your responses.

With OpenDesk, we offer a simple, affordable pricing plan to help Shopify SMBs power up their support experiences without blowing up their budgets.

Get on our waitlist to see it in action soon.