Since the Covid-19 outbreak, a lot has changed: the way we perceive life and business, both as individuals and entities, and the expectations we have, both as consumers and merchants, everything has evolved, e-commerce included.

Confined to an in-home existence or to the hybrid model, consumers have changed their habits and started to buy almost everything online. Also, they raised their expectations and, consequently, the bar for merchants.

Merchants must keep up with them, not only to meet the demand for products or services but, upmost important, to cement their customers relationship by providing for an excellent online shopping experience.

So, what are consumers really expecting when shopping online?

Online shopping experience: the consumer’s expectation

Whether in-store or online, but especially online, people are looking for stress-free shopping. Moreover, today’s consumer has the urge to buy in a fast, easy and simple way – and they want it here-and-now.

It doesn’t mean that today’s consumer is somehow lazy or detached, on the contrary: they are informed and ready for innovation, they research online for a product before buying, and complain if they are dissatisfied with the outcome of the shopping experience.

Regarding online shopping, the top factors consumers take into account when making a decision to buy or to abandon cart turn out to be almost the same.

As one can infer, there are tangible and intangible factors that contribute to the positive or negative evaluation that the consumer makes of the online shopping experience.

Therefore, meeting the e-shopper’s demand it’s more than providing for the desired product or service, it’s about providing for the best shopping experience that turns a visitor into a new customer, and ultimately, them into loyal customers.

Providing for a brilliant experience

So, what can merchants do to provide the best shopping experience for their e-business customers? Address both tangible and intangible factors.

First, issues related to website operability, to product description, to shipping costs and delivery time, to checkout process and payment methods, and to return policy and customer care, must definitely feature merchants top priorities. These are the tangible factors, and depend exclusively on the companies’ management choices.

• Adopt all-in-one digital finance solution, such as BoaCompra’s,  that offers risk analysis and beyond
• Warrant security solutions and procedures, such as  PCI compliance, and tokenization
• Adopt alternative and local payment methods

However, even before addressing the above and set an e-commerce strategy, merchants must built the foundation of any business – the relationship with the market, and their target.

• Acknowledgment and deep understanding of the market, and the consumer’s behaviour (the intangible factors)
• Localize content, to meet consumer’s language, culture and etiquette
• Localize checkout, including local currency and preferred payment methods

Although there are nearly 5 billion global internet users and English is the #1 in top ten languages, merchants must realize that most users are non-English speakers and have distinct geographical and cultural background:

• only 25.9% are English speakers
• 9.7% are from Latin America/Caribbean ( 2498% growth rate between 2000-2020)
• only 6.9% are from North America (208% growth rate between 2000-2020)

Therefore, investing time and effort in the above set will ensure your customers the best user experience and it will ensure your business’ message is relevant to a global audience.

Why partner with BoaCompra

Keeping up with the market trends and meeting the consumer’s expectations can be quite a taxing challenge, as it implies a thorough knowledge of the consumption habits and markets (LATAM markets have very specific characteristics), diverting merchants from their business. This why having a partner such as BoaCompra, that has both the expertise in digital financial technology and 15 years’ experience, will allow companies to deliver value, to optimize fulfillment, and to expand their business.

Learn more about our the potential, the trends, and the challenges of selling digital goods in Brazil and how to expand your business in our exclusive guide: