Part of Series: Ecommerce User Experience
The best way to sell products online is not to bully or trick shoppers (as some retailers attempt to do), but to build long-term, positive relationships with them. Attract and convince new customers, help them discover products they’ll love, and provide support throughout their buying journey, and beyond.

In order to compete for customers, you’ll need to deeply understand and anticipate their needs. Learn which ecommerce selling strategies actually work, and which ones only annoy or disrupt shoppers. In the ever-changing retail landscape, factors such as free shipping, flexible return policies and easy reordering matter for first impressions and earning repeat business.

This 331-page report contains 102 recommendations based on our user research. Discussions and 344 screenshot illustrations supplement the findings.

Topics

• How ecommerce UX continues to change and evolve
  The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
  Sophisticated new approaches to social media
  Improved strategies to upsell and recommend products
  The expansion of augmented reality (AR) shopping tools
• Promotions
  How to promote products and sales without harassing or pressuring customers
  Helping customers apply promotional codes and coupons
  Leveraging influencer audiences and social media fanbases
• Pricing, checkout, shipping, and returns
  How to justify prices
  Where and when to communicate pricing
  How to show additional charges and fees
  The importance of clarifying shipping costs
  The value of free shipping
  Alternative strategies for retailers that can’t offer free shipping
• Selection, availability, and delivery time
  Showing inventory availability
  How to handle backordered and sold-out items
  Explaining shipping delays
• Providing answers, support, and assurance
  How to anticipate product questions and provide the right answers
  Educating customers about complex or technical products
  How to offer and design a product finder quiz
  Product comparisons
• Product display and positioning
  Promoting popular or new products throughout a site or app
  When to offer samples (for example, upholstered furniture)
  Which retailers should consider emerging trends like augmented reality features or livestream selling
• Driving incremental and additional sales
  Different types of related product recommendations
  Helping customers find products that go together or are part of a set
  Avoiding fake personalization
  Encouraging bigger purchases without resorting to unethical dark patterns
• Supporting gift buying
  The importance of offering gift cards and registries
  Adding personal messages to gift purchases
• Enabling an omnichannel retail experience
  Helping customers move between digital stores and physical locations
  In-store and curbside pickup processes, and how to explain them to customers
  Email, text message, and push notifications
• Loyalty and repeat customers
  How to design for returning customers
  Loyalty and reward programs
  Gamification to encourage loyalty
  How to easily encourage returning customers to make repeat purchases
  Auto-fill and auto-ship options

Research Method
The information in this report is based on five separate rounds of ecommerce studies for this and the previous four editions of this report. These studies included a mix of the following methodologies.

• Diary-based longitudinal studies
• Eyetracking
• Expert review

Representative users tested 350+ ecommerce websites. The studies took place in the United States, the United Kingdom, Denmark, India, and China