Shopware's second webinar week took place! After hosting a webinar week on business scaling for the first time in March, we provide now the recordings of our second webinar week (please note that all webinars were held in German). This time the topic was Customer Experience. In this blog post, we'll tell you all about why this issue is more relevant than ever, which webinars took place, and how you can watch the German recordings for free.
Content
1. Customer Experience – what does it actually mean?
2. The advantages of an outstanding customer experience
3. Do you remember Hannah?
4. Shopware Webinar: the topic of customer experience
5. The program for our webinar week on the topic of customer experience
Webinar 1 – 21. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Shopware
Webinar 2 – 22. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: Findologic
Webinar 3 – 23. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: Epoq
Webinar 4 – 28. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: elio
Webinar 5 – 29. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: PremSoft
Webinar 6 – 30. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: CleverReach
6. Register for our webinar week!
Customer Experience – what does it actually mean?
Customer experience describes how customers perceive your brand or company. The term refers to their overall experience with your business – every interaction and touchpoint before, during and after the purchase shapes your customer's shopping experience.
The experience itself consists of many factors: from the first impression you make with your brand to appealing offers in your store, to user-friendly customization options in the shopping cart. Elements such as good customer service, uncomplicated returns, or fast shipping also play an important role.
All these interactions are ultimately part of the customer journey and need to be considered across all channels. All touchpoints with your customers can be aligned with an optimal customer experience, creating a holistic shopping experience.
An outstanding customer experience should therefore be the goal of every online merchant. Throughout the customer journey, it’s important to create entirely positive customer experiences. This results not only in loyal customers and perhaps even true fans of your brand but also in greater sales. But that’s by no means all!
The advantages of an outstanding customer experience
An optimized customer experience also brings numerous other benefits that will drive your business growth. For example, you can increase your brand value, which is based, among other things, on the non-material value of your brand. The more positive the customer experiences are, the better your reputation in the market and the higher the market value of your company.
An optimal customer experience also results in an increase in your Customer Lifetime Value. The CLV describes the financial value that your customer has for your business during their "customer life". Through comprehensive customer care or by focusing on the shopping experience of your customers, you can build future-oriented customer relationships.
In addition, an impressive customer experience helps to strengthen your__ customer loyalty. __Customers who have a positive experience with your brand are likely to become regular purchasers. In the best-case scenario, a positive customer experience can even make your customers identify with your brand.
Ultimately, optimizing the customer experience also helps you to__ reduce costs.__ Negative experiences with your company can lead to customers turning away from your brand and switching to the competition. A high customer churn rate in turn leads to major financial losses. However, with a well-thought-out customer experience strategy, negative customer experiences can be reduced, leading to an overall cost saving.
We would like to illustrate once again why the topic of customer experience is currently more topical than ever, using the example of the entrepreneur Hannah, who we already introduced to you in our first blog post for the webinar week on the topic of business scaling.
Don't feel like reading? Jump straight to the webinar content to get an overview of the program.
Do you remember Hannah?
She is the young student who, even during her studies, was already dreaming of her own online store. She wanted to take on the market with her seamless socks. Thanks to her great business idea, her online store got off to a good start and her high-quality socks without seams quickly became very popular with athletes. Her concept worked! Orders continued to increase and word of her business idea spread outside the sports scene. She was able to make her first business a reality with almost textbook success.
After some time, however, the young founder reached the limits of feasibility with her small company. Further sales channels needed to be connected and additional optimizations were necessary. Hannah already suspected that scaling up could not work without a solid foundation for all her data. Something had to change.
The solution to Hannah's problems: Shopware's first Webinar Week on Scaling a company. In just one week, she was able to learn a lot from dedicated webinars. Experts provided explanations using examples of the options she had with her business, and if she was unclear, she quickly received competent answers to her queries. Thanks to the newly acquired knowledge, Hannah was ultimately able to achieve her goals. She managed to connect more sales channels, integrate more flexible payment methods and optimize the shipping service provider contract.
Hannah's small online store has long since become a competitive company that can hold its own in the market. But the ambitious young founder is far from standing still. She wants to continue to drive the growth of her company. The first step was to expand her product range. In addition to her seamless socks, she now also offers seamless functional underwear, promising pure comfort. This is particularly popular with skiers. But Hannah knows that nowadays a good product alone is no longer enough.
Products and services are currently becoming progressively interchangeable because it’s increasingly easier to compare them online. And the high quality and fair prices of her seamless garments have long since ceased to be a unique selling point, as other suppliers with similar products are now also active on the market. Accordingly, the competitive situation is constantly changing and, with it, the buying behavior of customers. Hannah often has to rethink her business concept and has already realized that she is facing a new challenge. She reads specialist articles to learn more about her situation and hopes to get tips from other entrepreneurs. One buzzword that comes up, again and again, is customer experience. This means creating positive experiences for customers along the entire customer journey, in order to bind customers more closely to the company and the brand. But how can she succeed in optimizing the customer experience? How can she manage to win not only customers but even true fans of her brand?
Once again, she searches for answers to her questions and comes across a blog post by the manufacturer of her online store software on the topic of Digital Customer Experience. She would shortly get even more information, however, as Hannah comes across another Shopware webinar week on this very topic, which is already scheduled to take place soon. Hannah is delighted and decides that what worked once can work a second time. She quickly signed up for the Webinar week, securing access to inspiring webinars all about customer experience.
Shopware Webinar: the topic of customer experience
Now is a great time to invest in your online business, as online retail is booming and enjoying great growth across all sectors. In the ever-evolving world of digital commerce, it’s important to keep up. In addition, more and more companies are becoming aware of the particular importance of a positive customer experience, so that the topic of customer experience is becoming increasingly present.
However, many entrepreneurs still do not recognize the comprehensive possibilities of customer experience. That’s because there’s much more to customer experience than good customer support and classic marketing strategies. Optimizing your customer experience is a highly complex and long-term process that requires a complete redesign of the way you interact and communicate with your customers. Your customer experience management must therefore be about continuous adjustments and developments, based on the reviews from your customers.
And precisely because the topic is so complex and because our last webinar week on the topic of business scaling was a complete success, we are now offering you another webinar week on the topic of customer experience. In this webinar week, we will look at all dimensions of customer experience in a total of six exciting webinars to give you a comprehensive insight into all CX measures. We'll be joined by our Shopware partners Findologic, epoq, elio, CleverReach, and the winner of the Shopware App Contest 2021 PremSoft. In their webinar slots, our partners each deal with a specific aspect of the topic of customer experience. Do you think that sounds exciting? Then check out the program for our webinar week now!
The program for our webinar week on the topic of customer experience
Webinar 1 - 21. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Shopware (German)
You too can create a customer experience!│What Omnichannel, Digital Sales Rooms, or Headless Commerce can contribute to the Shopping Experience in your online store
In Shopware 6, we provide you with many leverage points connected with the design of the customer experience in your online store. But what might this look like? It's simple:
Through your ongoing marketing activities – we hope you promote your products properly – potential customers become aware of your products. Seen online and reserved offline, you offer your customers a special kind of shopping experience. Since it's generally not just about online and offline connections, you don't necessarily need an offline store. It's about linking your sales and communication channels.
And yet, with all online trading, there’s one major disadvantage for you and your customers. You lose the haptic impression of the product and the personal advice. Admittedly, we cannot completely replace the haptic impression in online retail. However, we’ve made sure that you can also offer your customers personal advice in your online store. And even (digitally) face to face.
Speaking of individuality: imagine you can create product pages, category pages, or service pages completely individually. With the layout that your customers want, that guides your customers and that shows your products in the favorable light of your digital store window: your online store. By telling product stories and intuitively arranging texts, images, and buttons, you inform your customers so comprehensively that the path to the checkout is virtually mapped out. And there’s also a remedy for manual effort: automation is the key word here.
Automation is one thing. But how flexible are you with your store system? We’ve a solution for you. Simply use separate front-end and back-end systems. In this way, you give yourself the necessary room for maneuver to offer your customers an outstanding customer experience. And that's what it's all about, right?
Do you want to know how all this can be implemented in a Shopware store? Then register now for the webinar and get inspired. Optimizing customer experience in your online store starts with registration for this webinar!
The webinar took place on 21 June 2022 and was recorded.
Webinar 2 - 22. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: Findologic (German)
Search, decide, come back │How almost 200 leading Shopware stores use their onsite search as leverage
What is a customer looking for in your online store? Let's say you’ve an online store for catering supplies. You know that the silver containers you often see at ice cream parlors, sausage stands, or at buffets are called "catering containers". You also know that there are different size designations of these, such as 1/1, ½, ¼, 1/3, etc. and that in your range you offer these containers in different materials. You know that – because you’re a professional!
For a birthday, Hannah looks for suitable ways to arrange the treats and enters the following in the search function of your online stores:
- Food container large
- Food container medium
- Container for food aluminum small
- Food storage plastic
She remembers that a friend once told her that he set up his buffet for his birthday with fancy GN containers made of melamine. So Hannah looks for:
- GN container chic
- GN container melamine
What if, when Hannah enters "container for food aluminum" she is taken to your stainless steel Gastronorm containers in sizes ¼ to 1/9 and the input "GN container chic" takes her to the overview of your melamine GN containers in different colors? That's right – she is satisfied, clicks through your range and, in the best case, completes her purchase. For friends and relatives, she comes back after the party and equips her relatives with your products – because she knows what she's getting with you.
This is how the customer search experience can (and should) be – and not just for catering supplies.
In this webinar, we´ll show how high-performance search influences the customer experience. The speaker has this to say about it:
"25 minutes of concentrated focus on the biggest leverage point in your online store. The only leverage point for talking to your users, inspiring your users, and turning your users into fans.
If they feel understood and a purchase decision can be made easily, why shouldn't they continue to trust your brand and your online store and, above all, come back?"
In this entertaining webinar, Simon Reichel, COO of Findologic GmbH, with 8 years of experience in his industry, sheds light on the topic of onsite search functions using real-life examples – so that you too can gain smart quick wins for your business.
Afterwards, an exclusive "Guide to Success" will be sent to all participants as a summary.
Don't want your customers to have to search in vain? Then register for the webinar and get important insights. Get started now!
The webinar took place on 22 June 2022 and was fully recorded.
Webinar 3 - 23. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: Epoq (German)
Customer experience rethought │An entertaining customer experience for an increased repurchase rate
The first step has been taken. Hannah shopped in your online store for the first time to get a new much-needed sports bag. Since then, she has taken it with her every time she goes to the gym. And when she trains hard, her workout gear also wears out quickly. After a few cardio sessions on the treadmill, Hannah now also needs new running shoes.
But how do you get Hannah to remember your brand and your online store so that she ultimately buys a pair of new sneakers from you? And what makes a good customer experience for Hannah anyway?
What counts is an optimal customer experience. This determines whether Hannah will make a second or third purchase in your online store. After all, a smooth shopping experience is paramount when it comes to increasing repurchase rates.
For example, if Hannah has a bad experience on her second purchase from your online store, she will leave without a pair of new sports shoes and most likely not return.
In this webinar, you will learn how to avoid this and guarantee a good customer experience. In addition, you will be given an exciting strategy that will tell you how to offer your customers not only a good experience but also an entertaining customer experience.
Do you think that sounds exciting? Then register for the webinar and ensure an increased repurchase rate.
This webinar took place on 23 June 2022 and was recorded.
Webinar 4 - 28. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: elio (German)
Performance ecommerce in your online store │ Shopping experiences from a technical perspective
You’ve probably had this experience yourself: you’ve arrived at the homepage of the online store of your choice and would now like to find out about their range of products. But wait, isn't there a picture missing? And should this heading really appear on the far right of the page? You try to escape this by clicking on the category overview, and now you're presented with a white page. Your browser loads, and loads, and loads. Finally, the products that interest you´ve appeared, but unfortunately the presentation hasn't improved. You leave the online store frustrated, because you’re sure that things will be better with the next supplier and you will be able to get what you need much faster. And you would be right!
Yes, this description was perhaps a little exaggerated. But often it’s only fractions of a second that decide whether a customer stays in your online store – or moves on.
Since this also depends on technical aspects, Sascha and Simon from Elio will show you in this webinar how you can make the customer experience in your online store more pleasant from a technical point of view. Here, Sascha and Simon will go into the following points in more detail:
- Performance optimization in Shopware 6 (template, plugins)
- Cloud hosting in Microsoft Azure (scalable hosting setup)
- Take off worldwide with Shopware Multitenancy (project examples)
Don't want to keep your customers waiting for images and content? Then register for the webinar and get important insights. Get started now!
The webinar took place on 28 June 2022 and was recorded.
Webinar 5 - 29. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: PremSoft (German)
Save the best (hopefully) till last! │How to offer your customers the best checkout experience
Up to 80 percent of customers cancel their purchase at the checkout. What are the reasons behind this, and can the dropout rate be reduced? In our 45-minute webinar, Sven from PremSoft will discuss this and many other factors that can provide you – and your customers – with an optimal customer experience at the checkout. You can look forward to the following topics:
Analysis of your current situation:
- What could be the reasons for high dropout rates?
- Is comparing yourself to competitors worthwhile, and how can you do it?
The path to an optimized checkout:
- What can the structure of an optimal checkout look like?
- What role do guest orders play?
- Do payment methods and shipping methods have an influence on the customer experience at the checkout?
Small factors – big effect:
- Transparency and reliability as a driving factor
- Avoid technical problems – prevent frustration
- Mobile optimized instead of shopping with a magnifying glass
Non-stop optimization:
- How can you check/monitor success?
- One page checkout & autocomplete
Do you want to take the checkout process in your online store to a new level? Then register now for the webinar and get valuable insights. Get started now!
The webinar took place on 28 June 2022 and was fully recorded.
Webinar 6 - 30. June 2022 11 am - 12 pm CEST – Partner: CleverReach (German with English subtitles)
And what happens after the purchase? │Strengthen customer loyalty with email marketing and marketing automation
The needs of your customers are usually very different, just like the contents of their shopping carts in your online store. As an online merchant, you should know what your customers want and take a closer look at their shopping behavior accordingly.
What's more, after a purchase is also before a purchase! Even after a customer has made a purchase in your online store, you should continue to positively influence the customer experience and deal intelligently with the data obtained from your customers. You’re also interested in how you can encourage your customers to buy again. For example, by sending them suggestions for related products from previous shopping carts. Feedback from your customers also helps you to better understand their shopping behavior and adapt your online store according to their needs.
In this webinar by Shopware partner CleverReach, you will learn how to do all this and how to strengthen the bond with your customers with the help of email marketing and marketing automation. CleverReach tells you which tools you can use to make your daily tasks easier and to simplify the flood of manual task steps.
Do you want to get to know your customers better? Then register for the CleverReach webinar and learn how you can automatically strengthen the bond with your customers. We look forward to your interest.
This webinar took place on 30 June 2022 and was recorded.
You don't want to miss the content of the second webinar week and want to learn more about customer experience? Then register now for free and get access to all recordings of the mentioned webinars (please note that the webinars were held in German only)!
