We have seen a pandemic which has shaken up consumption habits, marketplace players imposing their own standards and new generations with different sensibilities becoming consumers. The world is changing very fast, and so are customer expectations. To ensure the success of a marketplace we need to be aware of this and take into account a number of key factors.
Many consumers, and particularly the younger generations, have become accustomed to starting their product searches on the leading marketplaces, with Amazon in first place. This is a habit that has been acquired because of the plethora of products on offer, along with the availability of fast deliveries and seamless returns. However, on these platforms the customer experience at the moment of making a choice can be a limitation – or an opportunity!
Because this new generation, the “Now” generation, won’t wait. It’s vital that your search function and your pages load instantly, but also that the first products listed are relevant. These items must correspond to what the customer wants to buy - which is why they have come to the marketplace – Despite the often vast volume of products and categories. The risk here is losing the visitor.
Personalisation therefore appears to be the key to satisfying the customer, but it is important not to be led into a trap. If personalisation isn’t relevant, it risks disappointing the customer. For a marketplace, the volume of products and categories makes it impossible to manually construct personalisation rules across the whole of the shopping journey. AI technologies can address this problem with mechanisms for individualising the shopping journey based on the behaviour of each customer.
How can you meet customer expectations?
New habits and expectations have developed from the use of marketplaces
Above all, selling means responding to the needs or desires of the customer. To do this, it’s essential to understand them and know their expectations in terms of customer experience. Even more so now that online shoppers have matured further during the pandemic.
The Amazon reflex is drawing in more consumers
In the US and UK, marketplaces have become the starting point for nearly half of product searches. Only 9% of customers begin their search on a branded e-commerce site, and 19% go through Google. This is even more true among young people: 52% of 18–24-year-olds use marketplaces, compared with 44% for all age groups combined. These figures show the extent to which marketplaces have become essential places for shopping, not only because the customer will almost certainly find what they came there for, but also because these giants of online sales have been able to develop unrivalled delivery and product return services, and to offer impeccable customer service. But what about the experience of the customer at the moment they make their choice? We will look at the limitations of this model later.
The “Now” generation won’t wait
Some time ago, Google joined forces with the NellyRodi agency to paint a profile of Generation Y, by studying representatives of this demographic in the USA, Japan and France. Among the essential values evidenced in the study, instantaneity has appeared as a top characteristic: people who have grown up with the internet are used to receiving immediate responses to their questions and needs.
This “Now Generation” is particularly impatient. Generation Z certainly confirms this trend and also suffers from a shorter attention span. That’s why internet users more readily leave sites that are slow to load, or that do not immediately answer their questions.
The influence of the loading speed of sites on the rates of bounce and conversion is well known: (20% of users abandon their basket because of loading time), but it’s also necessary to factor in the relevance of responses: the first thing that the customer does once the site has loaded is to search for a product. If the result received is not what they were expecting, they aren’t going to make several more attempts to relaunch their search. With a marketplace, the number of products and categories rises every quickly, and so the risk of losing visitors is greater.
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