With the festive season being kicked into high gear, many customers are turning to e-commerce. Thanks to online brands such as Amazon, customers have grown to expect and desire personalised experiences. Customers don’t just want next-day delivery as a “wow” factor, customers are looking at which brand pays attention to them throughout the buying process. Brands need to be aware of this and how they can secure long-term customer loyalty.

There is always a surge in online orders during the festive season, starting with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. With this year introducing unprecedented local lockdowns and social distancing measures in stores, consumers are most definitely shifting to online shopping.

Primis believes e-commerce needs to be the priority sales channel for all retailers during this time. Retailers need to ensure their e-commerce operations can effectively handle the surplus demand, otherwise, they are at risk of alienating loyal customers as well as potential new customers.

Primis Communications is a customer experience-focused enterprise delivering pre- and post-purchase SAAS solutions to online retailers. With the growing popularity of e-commerce and the movement towards customer-centricity, Primis emerged as a platform to improve the online customer experience. Founder and CEO, Rebecca Griffiths, has over 15 years of success within SaaS sales, B2B and B2C sectors, having worked for leading brands. With her extensive knowledge of the industry, she also has experience in post-purchase, outbound and returns management and a passionate understanding of consumers. Rebecca doesn’t consider herself an entrepreneur. Instead, she defines herself as wanting to set up a business, which follows her goals and values of being open, honest, hardworking, faithful and collaborative. Businesses should make the world a better place.

Primis is focused on delivering a customer-centric service, ensuring that the customer experience journey promotes loyalty. The goal is not to solely promote the final-mile communication but to build lasting relationships. Their mission is to be able to create a 360-degree, customer-centric platform. Creating long-term relationships with retail customers is at the forefront of her mind each day – she approaches all opportunities in a consultative manner.

With its vision of customer-centricity, Primis seeks to address consumer pain points and improve consumer touch points across the digital consumer journey.

E-commerce is growing at an average annual growth rate of 20 – 30%. Between 2017 to 2023, e-commerce spending is expected to increase by 175%. This is without considering the recent Covid pandemic which has accelerated the shift away from physical stores to digital shopping by roughly five years. 40% of customers believe post-purchase experiences make up the most memorable aspects of a brand, with 83% of customers believing that retailers do not care about their experience after they have bought their product. Primis seeks to challenge the latter with its unique service offering. Their services will improve the customer experience provided by retailers who choose to work with the company. The goal is to provide open communication and personalised experience. Rebecca commented, “It is only by being open with customers that a retailer can look to generate customer loyalty, and make the customer feel that they are being looked after, thereby ensuring they do not suffer buyer’s remorse.”

As e-commerce accelerates, more companies are entering the market to meet the growing demand for high-quality online services. Primis has carefully considered how to differentiate itself and how the platform will expand into new product areas, which are needed by retailers and consumers. The company has spent a lot of time planning their pre-purchase platform, covering anything from sustainable delivery options to understanding how the product is made. Key to Primis’ success is to consider these options and collaborate with the right companies and set up partnerships with them. When explaining the importance of efficient logistics partners to drive the success of a retailer, Rebecca commented, “Alas, as we move into December, if a retailer does not have this set up already, they will not be able to set anything up before the Christmas rush! However, they can look to resolve issues they may have found during the Christmas period and Primis can work alongside a retailer to provide advice and guidance on solutions available to them through both our product offerings and those of our partners.”

In touching on the demand among consumers for effective and accessible e-commerce solutions, it is important to consider what the future holds regarding online shopping and customer experiences. Rebecca believes that since the future is all about “personalisation and ease of use” consumers will expect their e-commerce journey to be more intuitive. Recent polls showed that 35% of customers would shop online more if they could “try on” the product before they buy. With the recent focus on voice and Augmented Reality (AR), the assumption is that consumers would eventually be able to use these technologies to visualise their products more easily, and through voice commands look, inquire and then order their products from their preferred e-commerce site.

There is also a big drive towards sustainability, as directed by the United Nations as part of their SDG and as more customers become increasingly eco-conscious. Businesses need to be more sustainable, and fast!  Customers will look to understand more about their carbon footprint and will expect e-commerce sites to relay this type of information to them, as this will form part of their buying decision. From Rebecca’s perspective, the online shopping experience is about having access to information via a multitude of technologies – such as voice recognition, SMS, emails, push notifications, and GPS alerts. Engaging in these touch points shows that the brand is going above and beyond to help with the customer’s desired products. Ultimately, having various methods to satisfy a consumer will most certainly drive their loyalty to the brand. Primis seeks to enhance the level of loyalty and satisfaction of its partners and customers to bring them a personalised and excellent service experience.

Want to know more about Primis?

Visit their website: www.primis-communications.com or follow them on Linkedin: primis-communications