For many ecommerce brands, customer experience really starts to fall apart once their customers hit the post-purchase stage. Most companies front load their resources on acquiring customers and leave everything past the checkout as an afterthought—including package protection, communication, and more.

However, everything that happens after someone hits “Buy Now” is a critical point that makes or breaks a repeat purchase. It’s when customers are seeking authenticity and transparency from the brands they just bought from, and the experience they have could be the difference between one-time customer and lifelong fan. So, when the brand falls off the map and goes silent after purchase, customers are left frustrated, anxious, and wanting for a better buying experience.

Brands that don’t distribute resources along the entire customer journey don’t realize that buying behavior has changed and the customer experience is more important than ever before. In fact, global spending on customer experience technologies is predicted to reach $641 billion in 2022, and 87% of business leaders cite customer experience as the top factor for company growth.

Let’s take a look at a few tactics ecommerce brands can adopt to enhance customer experience after acquisition and conversion, helping to increase customer loyalty and strengthen overall company success.

What’s the Impact of the Entire Customer Experience?

As competition in the ecommerce industry rises, it’s no longer enough to try and differentiate on price or convenience. Heck, sometimes it’s not even enough to compete on product offerings if it’s an easily reproducible good. With the internet in their palm at a moment’s notice, shoppers know they can find good prices and products from dozens of brands in just seconds. The deciding question boils down to “Which brand can give me the best experience?”

Modern consumers are looking for companies that deliver an exceptional experience—from the moment of initial awareness to the day the product arrives at their doorstep (and beyond). Brands can no longer count on a nice Facebook ad or trendy site color to be enough to earn a purchase. It’s time for online stores to dig deeper and truly try to engage with each person who comes through their digital doors. 

A superior customer experience has a huge impact on consumer behavior and brand loyalty. Seventy-three percent of consumers say that customer experience drives their buying decisions, and 86% of buyers will even pay more for a product to get a great customer experience.

When people have an above-average experience with a brand, they’re more likely to come back for more. Not only is a standout experience more delightful in the moment, it’s more memorable in the long-term. Folks who are lucky enough to have a comprehensively enjoyable experience are also more likely to tell their friends about it, turning them into brand advocates who help the brand scale. 

In the end, experiences are what help ecommerce brands differentiate from the competition and stand above a sea of noise. And bad experiences will most certainly send customers heading away from one brand and into the arms of another.

The CX Can’t Be Good without a Great PPX

There’s a lot of talk about what a “good” customer experience (CX) is, but how do you rightly judge what’s good or not? After all, “good” is relative to each shopper and whether a specific experience meets or exceeds expectations and ultimately gets their purchase in their hands. 

While that’s true, we can say what’s not a good experience. An online shopping experience that isn’t good is one that causes, well, bad feelings. Anxiety, frustration, distrust, despair, and beyond are all objectively bad feelings, so any shopping experience that conjures those up definitely fails at being good.

For companies ready to join the customer experience revolution, the post-purchase experience is one of the most important areas to give attention. It’s the part of the customer journey where anxiety is highest (someone just gave you their money in the hopes that they’ll get their purchase in return), and one misstep can amplify anxiety and bring up all those bad feelings we just talked about.

In fact, poor customer service is costing today’s companies more than $75 billion annually, and much of the trouble starts once a customer hits that “Complete Purchase” button. Many customers feel unappreciated and frustrated (AKA, bad) by their customer service interactions—but the post-purchase experience can change all of that. By prioritizing proactive, responsive, and transparent communication, ecommerce brands can deliver an all-around positive customer experience that brings shoppers back and earns loyalty.

Package Protection’s Place in the Customer Experience

So how does package protection relate to all this hype about the customer journey and post-purchase experience? Here’s how: Package protection, also known as shipping insurance, erases hesitancy and builds the trust and transparency that shoppers are seeking today. 

When customers know their package is in good hands and they have the support of the brand—even if that package is lost, stolen by porch pirates, or damaged—they develop a more positive relationship with the brand. When an online store offers free or low-cost protection for every purchase at checkout, trust is earned and shoppers feel cared for. Even if a shopper abstains from protection during a transaction, the fact that the option exists eases anxieties.   

Since about 210 million packages were stolen in 2021, package protection is quickly climbing the ranks as top consideration when making a purchase. Seventy-two percent of Americans say the coronavirus pandemic has increased their concern about package theft, which should come as no surprise, since almost 40% of survey respondents have packages delivered several times a week. 

Porch piracy coupled with a spike in delayed or lost packages due to the massive surge in shipping volume means that when it comes to dodging bad experiences—anxious, frustrating, untrustworthy experiences—protecting people’s packages is a must.

How Package Protection Works

Clearly, package protection gives today’s ecommerce brands a leg up against the competition. But what exactly is package protection, anyway?

Package protection is a form of buyer insurance that protects packages in case of theft, loss, or damage. It offers customers added peace of mind at checkout, since they know that even if things go wrong, the company has an easy way to make things right. Plus, shipping insurance also protects the brand’s bottom line. Instead of eating the cost of the purchase or replacement, the store is also protected from loss. 

It’s important to keep in mind that not all package protection software is created equal—but Route Protect provides custom buyer protection to fit any unique business model. This means that a brand can choose to automatically offer protection on high-value purchases, protection on every purchase no matter the value, or let the shopper choose what level of insurance they want. Check out our page on the best shipping insurance providers to find out more.

Route offers automated approvals and instant issue resolution, helping to increase purchase intent by up to 50%. With a 92% customer satisfaction rate, Route is sure to boost any brand’s post-purchase customer experience.

Complete the Customer Experience with Route Protect

Creating a strategy that helps your online store thrive today can’t be restricted to one portion of the customer journey or one tactic like slashing prices. Online shopping has evolved beyond short-sighted and siloed attempts to acquire more customers, and that means the people doing the online shopping have evolved, too. 

Earning loyalty, increasing repeat customer rates, and bumping up average order size are some key factors to scaling big, but those aren’t attainable goals without a good customer experience. If your customer experience neglects the post-purchase journey, including communication, tracking, and package protection, then it won’t be long before customers go to competitors where those perks are a given.

Ecommerce is only going to continue growing. Get ahead of the competition and lead the way with a complete customer experience from acquisition to post-purchase and beyond.

Ready to compete with package protection?