Update from August 2023: For more up-to-date information on retail experiences and reaching new customers, check out our retail guide for 2023. You can also access information on shopping trends and how they have influenced 2023 by reading our article.
With 41% of Swedish shoppers now looking online for customer electronics, fashion, and even toys, 2020 has seen a big shift towards e-commerce. It’s therefore critical your retail site delivers a great user experience. And while many retailers quickly adjusted to ensure their retail sites could keep up with the increased demand seen during the pandemic, the busy holiday season can make it challenging to find the headspace needed to audit and improve the shopping experience.
Scroll your site the way a customer would
Using our free online tool Grow My Store, you can see how your site compares to other retailers in your sector. Simply type in your site’s URL and specify your business type and category. The tool will then analyse your site, outline how it’s performing, and will give you personalised recommendations on areas where you can improve.
From the report, you’ll find 22 different customer experience metrics to help you plan future changes. Among them are whether or not users can search or filter your products, to what extent shopper personalisation is on offer, as well as how fast and mobile-friendly your site is.
How users research, compare, and find you
Shopping this holiday season will be different, but we know that Swedish shoppers like to start researching gift ideas as early as August. Grow My Store lets you dive into industry-specific benchmarks such as the number of consumers using search engines this holiday season to research the products you sell. It can also provide insights into what encourages them to pick one retailer over another; or even how long they typically take to make a purchasing decision. You’ll also receive personalised recommendations and an action plan for optimising your website both today and in the future.
Heimathund, a German dog accessories retailer, used the tool to learn how their online store could drive more traffic, attract new customers, and bump up sales.
Grow My Store offered them the following recommendations:
- Clarify product descriptions for the user
- Ease site navigation by adding a search bar
- Offer your customers the option to collect/return in-store when ordering online
- Optimise your mobile shopping experience
- Tips on decreasing the amount of shoppers abandoning their carts
Heimathund saw a significant increase in orders after implementing the recommendations, including a 440% increase in revenue and a 490% increase in online orders. It also drove a steady flow of new customers to their offline store, as online users were curious to pick up and try the products they’d explored online.
If you want to increase your store's digital impact on the world – head to Grow My Store to get your free report, filled with recommendations, to set you on your way.
