
Improving the customer experience is now top priority for many businesses. But what does it mean to improve the experience? And are what are the benefits of doing so?

A good customer experience can mean many things—from delivering better services to building digital journeys that allow your customers to interact when and where they choose. The key is to understand what makes your customers tick and how they want to interact with your brand. 

## Why customer experience is important 

So, let's talk about what the customer experience is, and why it matters.

The customer experience is your brand in action. It's how customers perceive you and your business—it’s how they feel about you when they interact with you (or not). And it's actually a competitive advantage, because other brands can only copy what you offer if they understand how to do it properly. The best way for them to understand? By watching you!

So when we talk about improving customer experience, what exactly are we trying to improve? As a marketer or business owner, there are probably three main areas where an improvement can be made: Your product or service; Your marketing strategy; and finally (and perhaps most importantly), Your approach toward communicating with customers online.

## The benefits of improving customer experience 

Improving customer experience is an important aspect of any business. It can lead to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and profitability. Customers who have a positive experience with a business are more likely to return, recommend, and spend more money with the business. 

Additionally, providing an excellent customer experience can lead to better reviews and higher ratings, which can improve brand reputation and attract new customers. Improving customer experience can also lead to increased employee engagement and satisfaction, which can further improve customer experience. Finally, improved customer experience can lead to cost savings as businesses can reduce customer service costs and increase efficiency.

Here are some of the many benefits.


### 1. Increased customer satisfaction

By focusing on the customer experience, companies are able to increase customer satisfaction. Customers have a seamless and enjoyable experience and are able to interact when and where they choose. 

This leads to improved satisfaction and better relationships and exceeding (or at least meeting) customer needs and expectations. 


### 2. Creating a loyal customer base

By focusing on customer experience, companies create a positive experience that helps build customer loyalty. Customers who have a positive experience with a business are more likely to return and refer others to the business.

Customers will be more likely to buy from you again

They'll be more likely to recommend you through testimonials and case studies 

They'll be more likely to refer you when asked by friends or colleagues


### 3. Providing more value for customers

One of the easiest ways to provide more value for customers is by improving your customer experience. Customer experience can be defined as the entire journey that a customer takes when interacting with your company, including their interactions with employees, products, services and digital platforms. A good customer experience will ensure that they feel valued and needed while also fostering loyalty by creating positive emotions and memories during each interaction.

Customer experience is more than just a transaction. It's about providing added value along every touchpoint of your business process so that customers have a great overall experience with you—whether it's in person or digitally. And if you don't already have a solid strategy in place for improving customer experience, here are some ways to get started:


### 4. Increased revenue

Customers who have a positive experience with a business are more likely to return, increasing the business’s revenue. Additionally, customers who have a great experience are more likely to refer others to the business, generating more revenue.
 

### 5. Improved customer feedback

A customer experience strategy helps businesses gather valuable customer feedback. This feedback can help businesses improve their products and services, as well as identify areas where they can further improve the customer experience. 


### 6. Improved brand reputation

Customers who have positive experiences with a business are more likely to speak positively about the business. This can help businesses build a positive reputation and increase brand awareness.


### 7. Gaining more repeat customers

There's more to customer experience than simply making sure your customers are satisfied and happy. When you go the extra mile to provide a great service experience, it can actually help your business in several different ways:

Repeat customers are more likely to buy from you again. This means that they'll not only be returning for new purchases, but also that they're more willing to refer other potential buyers if they have a positive experience with your brand.

Repeat customers are more likely to recommend your business to others. When someone tries out something that they love and enjoy — especially if it's considerably better from what they're used to— they'll often want tell others around them (including friends, colleagues and co-workers) about this great product or experience 


### 8. Building a better company culture

One of the reasons why customers enjoy engaging with businesses is because of their experiences as consumers—how easy it was to find what they wanted, how friendly the salesperson was, how quickly they got their product or service delivered. These experiences affect whether or not people will return in the future (and often drive word-of-mouth), so it's crucial that businesses focus on improving them if they want repeat business. But improving these things isn't just good for boosting sales; it also improves your company culture by making employees feel happy and valued at work. The happier your workers are with their jobs, the more likely they'll be motivated by their role within your organization—and that means better results!

Companies who improve their customer experience benefit across the board.

Improving your customer experience can benefit your company in a number of ways:

The happier, more loyal customers you have will be more likely to recommend your business to others.

Repeat business is a big plus for any company. When people come back and buy from you again, it’s because they love what you do (or at least like it enough). This is called loyal customers who buy from you over and over again. And the more loyal customers become, the less likely they are to leave or switch companies unless something goes wrong with their service or product experience. So if there isn’t anything wrong with their experiences now, why would they change? Because it's not just about keeping them happy—it's also about making sure that nothing goes wrong either! This can lead into...

Better company culture! Companies who improve their customer experience generally report better employee morale as well as increased productivity among staff members who feel appreciated by management and appreciated by clients because of how well they're treated when working together on projects such as new product development projects which require collaboration between different departments within larger organizations such as marketing teams vs technical teams vs production teams etcetera etcetera etcetera


### Conclusion

So, how do you go about improving your customer experience? The first thing you need to do is make sure that customers are at the center of everything you do. For example, ask yourself what you can do to make it easier for them or more enjoyable for them. Ask yourself if there’s anything they might be frustrated with right now and see if there’s something you can change about it. This is the basis for building out your customer experience strategy. 



 Improving customer experience should be top priority for businesses. In this article we explain why focusing on CX is important and the benefits of doing so.

proxyclick-visitor-management-system-EPeK7w5Eeic-unsplash.jpg

Importance of Customer Experience

Pillar - Customer Experience - Home

Customer Experience

The importance of improving Customer Experience


The customer experience gap is becoming more and more evident. Customers across industries are demanding a more seamless, personalized experience that aligns with their needs and expectations. This trend is forcing companies to rethink how they engage with customers, from engaging them at every touch point in their journey through to being able to provide an immediate response.     

In this post, we look at how to close the gap between customer expectations and your business's ability to meet those expectations.

The best way for companies to stay ahead of the curve is by investing in customer engagement technologies that will allow them to get closer to their customers than ever before. By deploying interactive self-service solutions, they can boost their engagement rates while also providing a better overall experience than competitors who haven't invested in technology yet or don't have the funding available for such investments. In this post we'll explore some examples of how companies are closing the customer experience gap through leveraging interactive self-service solutions within different industry verticals:


## What is the Customer Experience Gap?

The customer experience gap is the gap between a customer's expectations and a company's ability to meet those expectations. It can be caused by a number of things—poor product quality, lack of communication or service, or even simply being misunderstood by your customers. The problem is that this gap exists for almost every business out there today, but it doesn't have to be this way!



## Why you need to overcome the Customer Experience Gap

The customer experience gap is the difference between your company’s actual performance and what your customers expect. Customers are more demanding, they have higher expectations, and the battle for their loyalty has become a war. If you don’t address this gap, you will lose customers to your competitors who do.

The most basic explanation for why this is so important is that if you have high-quality customer service but no one knows about it because no one talks about it in social media (which is where people go first when they want to research something), then all of your efforts are wasted.

In addition to being an important metric in its own right, measuring a company's ability to close the customer experience gap can also be used as an indicator of success when it comes down to doing business with other companies or organizations -- particularly those who specialize in providing services related directly or indirectly towards improving efficiency within businesses' supply chain systems such as logistics/distribution centers; distribution operations professionals; freight forwarders; etcetera).

A company's ability to close the customer experience gap can be used as an indicator of success when it comes down to doing business with other companies or organizations -- particularly those who specialize in providing services related directly or indirectly towards improving efficiency within businesses' supply chain systems such as logistics/distribution centers; distribution operations professionals; freight forwarders; etcetera).


## How to Close the Customer Experience Gap

There are five basic steps 

1. Understand who your customers are 
2. Understand what your customers want
3. Benchmark your experience today (and the experience offered by competitors, if appropriate)
4. Identifty the opportunities 
5. Identifty how to turn those things into a solution

Understand what your customers want: By getting out of the building and talking to your customers, you can gain valuable insight into what they want. You may hear something like “I wish I could get a better price on my car insurance” or “I hate that I have to wait so long when I call customer service.”

Once you’ve heard what your customers want, it’s time to start benchmarking your experience today: Benchmarking is a great way to learn how other companies are doing things and then see if there are ways that you can improve upon them. For example, let’s say that you run an insurance company. You could benchmark the customer service experience at several other insurance companies in order to gain some insight into how they handle certain situations.

Once you’ve benchmarked other companies, it’s time to start experimenting: Once you have a good idea of what your customers want and how other companies are doing things, it’s time to experiment with different solutions. For example, if one of the things that your customers complain about most often is price, then it might make sense to start offering discounts for those who pay on time or offer some sort of loyalty program.


## Customer experience is a competitive advantage. 

These days, having an excellent customer experience has become more important than ever for businesses of all sizes because it's a key driver of growth and profitability. It also helps you create loyal customers who are willing to pay more for your products or services over time.

As the experience gap closes, your business will be in a better position to win and retain customers.


## Conclusion

By adopting a customer-centric approach and applying the right tools to preserve your customers' loyalty, you can bridge the gap between great products and experiences. 

Your business will not only be more successful, but it will also become more aligned with the needs of your customers.



In this post, we look at how to close the gap between customer expectations and your business's ability to meet those expectations.


Closing the Customer Experience Gap 

Pillar - Customer Experience - Learn

Insights

Closing the Customer Experience Gap




Organisations that can take advantage of kiosk and touchscreen technologies can expect to be seen as market-leaders in the eyes of their consumers, and their competition. But there is a caveat. The user experience provided by the kiosk must be smooth, highly responsive and improve the customer experience.

Locations such as airports and train stations have long used kiosk-based technology. Still, the first generation of these devices was often slow and subjected people to poor user experience. With today’s mobile processing power, and range of tablet devices, interactive kiosks and touchscreens have come a long way.

We’re in an age where tablet-based technology is a very realistic and efficient business solution. The ROI for utilising iPads and secure tablet kiosks is much higher now than a couple of years ago. Combine this with benefits like higher staff efficiency and increased customer satisfaction, doing things the old way doesn’t make sense anymore.


Benefits of Kiosks
------------------

Kiosks offer several benefits that improve the customer experience.

*   Can be combined with needs-matching tools to match prospective customers to the best product for their needs
*   Can place an entire wealth of information at the fingertips of staff and customers
*   Can provide detailed information across a broad product range, helping to increase conversion and order value.

More in-depth product and user engagement
-----------------------------------------

A kiosk places the full company and product information at the consumer’s fingertips. This enables them to explore and compare features and benefits, depending on their tastes and familiarity with the brand. Some may approach the kiosks with a product in mind and want to view specific detailed product information, while other customers may wish to browse and find products that best meet their needs.

Customised products and increased order value
---------------------------------------------

Consumers can access a wide array of products, options and promotions via a kiosk, regardless of whether these are displayed on store signage. Consumers can view customisation options at their own pace. This encourages exploration and can lead to purchasing additional options and related products, increasing average revenue per order.

Improved in-store efficiency
----------------------------

Consumers are easily deterred from purchasing by having to wait for staff to become available. Intelligent, self-service kiosks tackle these issues. Convenient for customers, they improve efficiency and improve the customer experience.

Help staff answer questions
---------------------------

Offering a wealth of information, an interactive kiosk allows consumers to answer any questions they have about a product quickly. Besides, salespeople can use kiosks to support their own knowledge, when interacting with customers that have detailed questions. This leads to more knowledgeable answers and improved customer experience.

Why retail is an ideal use case
-------------------------------

Intelligent kiosks enable retailers to create seamless, multi-channel customer experiences. Food companies use them to support online ordering and customisation. Retailers, like Argos, use kiosks as a way into their extensive product catalogue.

In a recent article, Bloomberg noted that sale orders placed via Taco Bell’s new app are generating 20% more revenue than those taken by human cashiers, primarily due to people selecting additional ingredients. In the same vein, McDonald’s recently expanded its ‘build-your-own burger’ touchscreen kiosk.

The uplift these brands have seen in sales partly results from customers being able to see and select from the entire menu, but also because restaurants now can promote add-ons, such as a new appetiser or seasonal drink.

Retailers are now able to deliver a much higher-value personal service through a digital platform. “The app’s biggest advantage is that it unlocks the entire menu”, says Tressie Lieberman, Director of Digital Experience at Taco Bell. The app interface displays not only add-ons but lesser-known items and sides that may get lost on restaurant menu boards - Bloomberg


The AEG Pilot
-------------

AEG’s consumer research found that consumers struggled to understand the differences across their range of products. This was compounded by store layouts and time restrictions of salespeople, who were busy working across multiple brands.

AEG saw an opportunity to help users make an informed product decision. With intelligent needs-matching, they would help their consumers understand whether the appliance they were looking at would meet their needs while simplifying the buying experience. They would provide the customer with interactive kiosks that contained relevant information about key product benefits, along with helpful content and video.

The kiosks asked consumers a short sequence of questions before providing intelligent recommendations. We ran a series of user tests with consumers of all generations, with all generations interested in using the technology, but at their own pace. The results were considerable. We saw a significant uplift in sales where kiosks were present, and the kiosks also provided AEG with a better insight into user needs.



We examine how kiosk and touchscreen technologies enable retailers to create seamless, multi-channel customer experiences and be seen as market leaders.

Kiosks Customer Experience

How digital kiosks help to improve Customer Experience in retail



Building a customer experience strategy is one of the most important steps a business can take to establish and strengthen its brand. A good strategy can help you build customer loyalty, create a positive impression of your brand, increase sales and improve customer retention. 

But what is a customer experience strategy? And how do you go about creating one?

In this post, we'll look at why it is essential to develop a strategy for customer experience (CX), and how to go about building one.

## Why focus on customer experience?

Today's customers expect businesses to provide a seamless, consistent and entirely digital experience at every stage of their journey. In order to meet these expectations, you need to put the customer at the centre of everything you do.

A good experience helps to create a positive impression of your company, leading to increased sales and higher customer retention rates. So it's essential to get this right. 

## What is customer experience strategy 

Customer experience strategy is the first step in creating an experience that better meets the needs of your customers. It helps you identify the most important aspects of their journey, such as their expectations and requirements, and then discover how to meet them. It also helps you identify gaps in your current offering and opportunities for improvement.

So when we talk about improving customer experience, what exactly are we trying to improve? Well, as a CMO or marketing leader, there are probably three main areas where improvements can be made: Your product or service; Your marketing strategy; and finally (and perhaps most importantly), Your approach toward communicating with customers.

Time to get started.

## How to build a customer experience strategy  

In order to successfully improve the customer experience, CMO's and marketing teams need to focus on the following six steps: 

1. Understand the customer needs
2. Map the customer journey
3. Identify experience gaps & opportunities 
4. Score and rank each opportunity 
5. Define your customer experience vision (a north star) 
6. Build a customer experience roadmap to get there.

Here's a breakdown of the steps to take.

### Step 1. Understand customer needs 

Having a clear understanding of your audience, their objectives and their needs is essential.  

The first step is to make sure you have up-to-date versions of your buyer personas. Each of your target audiences should be represented by a buyer persona, and their motivations, needs and influence on the buying decision should be established and written down.

These personas can be created by interviewing customers, prospects and others who represent your target market.  

For example, a component manufacturer might have buyer personas that include 'specifiers' (who advise on component selection) as well as 'OEMs' (original equipment manufacturers) and 'processors' (who are including those components into their own products).  

Each of these personas has distinct and different needs. The specifier would be interested primarily in component properties and case studies for similar applications, whereas the OEM would be more interested in distribution and security of supply.  Both personas influence the buying decision. 

### Step 2. Map the customer journey  

Customer journey mapping is the process of identifying all the touchpoints between your business and customers, and then examining how well those touchpoints are working.

The first step in customer journey mapping is to identify all of the touchpoints (website, mobile app, retail locations, support channels) where your business interacts with customers. 

Then, for each customer persona, map out the entire journey from start to finish—across all relevant touchpoints and over time. You can use tools, such as Google Slides, PowerPoint or Visio to draw out a map that outlines your customer's entire experience from start to finish.

You should get granular with this step by looking at each touchpoint (e.g. first visit to the website) and consider the scenarios in which a user might arrive at that point (e.g. what are they doing before they click to visit your site, why are they visiting). 

You should also describe what information or tools each person needs at that stage. Think about what the person wants at each stage of the journey, what are they thinking, what do they there to find, what do they need to do.  You should also define how each touchpoint will operate under various circumstances (for example, if a customer calls instead of using the website). 

For instance, a prospective student researching a course would want to know the qualifications required for admission, where and when the course runs, and the benefits of studying at that institution.  

The key to remember is that each persona has their journey and their own experience.

### Step 3. Identify experience gaps & opportunities 

Now, review your journey map against the experience that you currently provide. 

Identify the pain points and ‘experience gaps’ (the roadblocks) that negatively impact customer perceptions today, and identify the opportunities where the experience can be improved.

For example, a component manufacturer might identify the need to provide 'researchers' with more detailed product information, technical datasheets, processing guides, supporting FAQs as well as product comparison tools.

It’s important here not just to think about incremental improvements, but also radical ones that may require significant investment or substantial changes in how we do things today.

As an example, many fast food restaurants have historically struggled with long queues at cash registers, leading to the introduction of new in-store ordering kiosks and "click and collect" services. 

### Step 4. Score & rank the opportunities 

Evaluate and score each potential opportunity by both the value to the customer, as well as how easy or difficult it will be to implement. A simple 1 to 5 rating is usually adequate at this stage.

Ideally, you should also capture the relevant importance according to business goals as well as a description of what needs to be done, who will do it and when.

You might need to consider multiple solutions for each gap or opportunity. In some situations, it might be better to settle for a partial solution rather than put in the effort required to solve the problem entirely.

The goal of this process is to make sure that we’re addressing each gap or opportunity as effectively as possible. This can be done by considering the following questions: 

* What problem are we trying to solve?  
* Do similar experience gaps exist elsewhere? In other industries? 
* What solutions have they tried and how well did they work out?  
* Could we better address the need ?

This can help identify which solutions will work best for each gap, especially if there are several possibilities.

### Step 5. Define your customer experience vision 

Based on the steps above, you should now set out a vision of what you want the resulting customer experience to be. This defines your "north star" as well as the rationale, the steps, capabilities and changes you need to make to get there.  

Creating an experience vision is an important step in creating a successful customer experience. The experience vision sets out how you want your customers to feel when interacting with your brand or product. 

Use this as a guiding light when making decisions that impact the customer experience.

You should include 

1. Your brand values. The first step in creating an experience vision is to identify the core values of your brand. What do you want to stand for? What’s important to your brand and how do you want customers to feel when they interact with your products or services?

 2. A summary of customer needs. It’s important to include your customers’ wants and needs when creating an experience vision. What kind of experience do they expect when interacting with your brand? Do they prefer speed, convenience, or personalized service? Understanding your customers will help you create an experience vision that meets their expectations. 

3. Goals and objectives. The experience vision should include both short-term and long-term goals and objectives. Based on opportunities you identified and prioritized above, think about the objectives you want to achieve in the next three months, six months, and one year. 

4. Experience Blueprint. Once you have identified your brand values, customers needs, and set goals, you should set out examples of what good looks like.  This could be in the form of sketches, wireframes or a swipe file. Essentially anything that will help you communicate to internal stakeholders what you are looking to achieve as a result. 

### Step 6. Build your roadmap 

Creating an experience roadmap is a great way to align your team, stakeholders and even communicate to customers about what’s coming next.

It sets out what you are trying to achieve, why it is important and how you intend to get there. It also discusses dependencies, and how progress will be tracked and measured.

When creating an experience roadmap, there are a few steps to keep in mind: 

1. Define your priorities – Start by defining your customer experience goals and priorities. This will help set the tone for the rest of your roadmap and ensure that all stakeholders are on the same page. 

2. Identify milestones – Set out the key milestones, as well as the steps and dependencies you need to reach to achieve those goals. This will serve as the foundation for your roadmap. 

3. Establish the timeline – Establishing a timeline for your milestones is essential for making sure that everyone stays on track. This will also help you prioritize tasks and allocate resources efficiently. 

4. Measure progress – Set out how you will track progress and measure improvements as the project progresses. This is key to making sure that your roadmap is being followed and that you are making progress towards meeting your goals. Make sure to track progress regularly and adjust your roadmap as needed. 

## Summary

Customer experience strategy is a way to improve your customer satisfaction, increase your customer loyalty and build trust with your customers. 

A good example of the above would be the CX strategy work we did for global polymer manufacturer Victrex. Our research uncovered the need for the website 'to act as a resource' with a vastly improved search, easier access to technical datasheets, processing guides, technical FAQs as well as grade comparison tools.

If you want to create a customer experience strategy that will help you grow your business, then we recommend getting in touch.



In this post, we look at why it is essential to develop strategy for customer experience (CX) and how to go about building one.


Customer Experience Strategy

How to build an effective Customer Experience Strategy (CX) in 2023


## Why a process-focused approach is better 

By implementing platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics or Microsoft Power Apps, we are essentially delivering a new capability for end-to-end business processes.

There are many benefits of aligning the project delivery to your business processes 

* Business processes are well understood by stakeholders. 

* Processes are richer in context than a requirements list

* Processes show the connections between different business units, roles, functions, task-level steps, and the integrations between systems. This helps with designing a more cohesive and integrated overall solution.

* Helps to more easily and logically determine the sequence of work starting with the most critical business processes first

* Provides a more accurate picture of the project progress by measuring the capability of the system to execute your end-to-end business processes.

* Improved testing and training as processes can be mapped from system design, through to data setup and testing and training.

The value of taking a process-focused approach does not end with a better definition of requirements. It also results in faster delivery of working software as requirements and testing activities are more readily understood.

And by viewing the solution from the context of a business process, we reduce unnecessary customizations and reconfigurations, delivering a higher-quality solution faster. 




How Microsoft Dynamics and Power Apps deliver new capabilities for managing end-to-end business processes.


Business Process Transformation

Pillar - Data Platforms - Home

Data Platforms

Business Process Transformation with Microsoft Dynamics and Power Apps 



I was having a conversation with the marketing director at a manufacturing company we’ve recently started to help, and I brought up the topic of digital transformation (or DX as it has become fashionably known).

They were wary of using the term “digital transformation” saying it has become too overused. Everyone seem to associate a different meaning with the phrase — often using it as an umbrella term for everything from marketing to finance to supply chain management to human resources  — to the point where the phrase has become almost meaningless.

In my view, they are correct.

I added that many consulting firms, such as McKinsey, talk about digital transformation in terms of concepts like being agile, embracing change, transforming the organizational culture and focusing on skills—and so on.

While these aspects are essential for transforming an organization, they fail to provide marketing leaders with a clear understanding of what digital transformation is—or how to go about it.

I explained that we’d recently developed a roadmap and framework for marketing leaders to approach digital transformation in a much more meaningful way.

So, let's unpack it. 

## What digital transformation really means 

We believe digital transformation is best defined as the digitalization of the business from the top down—how the company connects with customers, provides products and services to them, interacts with employees and partners, and does business with suppliers. 

For marketing leaders, this means placing needs of the customer first, and organizing the business around the customer’s journey, their needs and their expectations.

Thus the question then becomes, how will your business meet rising expectations of modern and digitally-savvy customers? Customers who expect to be able to seamlessly interact with your company at every stage of the journey.

Or to put it another way, should your business deliver the level of customer experience provided by today’s leading B2C brands?  

I believe the answer to that question is yes.

 
## How to go about it 

We believe the most sensible approach to digital transformation is a top-down strategy that is mapped to key business functions.

Here are the questions we believe should be addressed. 

* Do we need to adjust our business model ?

* How can we deliver a seamless end-to-end customer journey through digital channels ?

* How can we drive innovation, create value-add products, and build digital revenue streams ?

* What is the customer data foundation needed to support this ?

* What is the technology foundation needed to support this ?

* What is our operating model to support digital customers ?

These form the key principles that our digital transformation strategy is built upon.

These principles help provide better alignment among the different business functions, allowing a cohesive and coherent overall roadmap that delivers faster ROI and the ability to prioritize initiatives between these pillars.



What really is digital transformation — and how do you go about it?

Digital Transformation Guide

Digital Transformation

The essential guide to Digital Transformation success 



In this post, we examine the pros and cons of the popular frameworks for cross-platform mobile development. We evaluate some of the popular frameworks you might use for cross-platform mobile app development, helping you find what is best suited for your project.

PhoneGap, Xamarin, Unity, Qt and Appcelerator Titanium are the frameworks that currently account for 80% of all cross-platform development for mobile.


PhoneGap
--------

PhoneGap makes it possible to develop mobile applications using industry standard web technologies (HTML5, JavaScript and CSS3). As a result it has risen quickly to become the most popular cross-platform framework, as it avoids the need to use native programming languages (Java for Android, Objective-C for iOS and C# for Windows Phone).

### How PhoneGap works

An app developed using PhoneGap is structured as a fully native app into which HTML and JavaScript components are embedded as one or more WebViews. These WebViews are just thin containers, which can render a simple user interface using web technologies, and handle communication with the underlying device - to send a message, open the camera etc.

Additional functionality can be written as a plugin and then called from the WebView. PhoneGap provides a cloud-based service (called Build) to compile the application for each platform, avoiding the need to install the software development kit (SDK) for each platform.

PhoneGap can be used to build two types of applications.

*   Web Hybrid: used when you don’t need native UI elements, this way the whole application will be in one WebView
*   Native Hybrid: used when you do need native UI elements, this way the application contains several WebViews in the native container

### Advantages

*   With simple APIs, developers who already work with HTML, CSS and JavaScript find it very easy to start developing with PhoneGap.
*   Anything already written as a web page can be quickly packaged into a mobile app, making it a useful tool for small applications and prototypes.
*   Plugins allow functionality to accesses the native device APIs
*   Supports all mobile platforms &endash; no need to install local SDKs as the cloud-based ‘Build’ service takes care of compliation.

### Disadvantages

*   The user interface is rendered using an embedded browser. This gives a poor and slugging response compared to a native application.
*   The embedded browser behaves differently on different devies, so the user interface of the app varies.
*   Existing PhoneGap plugins are often outdated, so extending your application means writing your own plugins.
*   To get the most out of PhoneGap, developers really should know the coding language for each platform.

Xamarin
-------

Xamarin is the second most popular cross-platform framework. Designed for the enterprise, apps are developed using a single, shared C# codebase. This is then compiled down into true native applications on Android, iOS and Windows Phone.

### How Xamarin works

When using Xamarin, the code for the application is split by the developer into two parts: the ‘core’ and the ‘user interface’.

The ‘core’ part is made up of data storage, business logic code and the rest of the code that isn’t part of the user interface. A developer would write this code once and reuse across all platforms.

With the ‘user interface’ part, the developer would write the underlying code in C# and use native UI design tools to provide a different user interface layer specific to each platform.

### Advantages

*   A C# developer can create apps that look and feel like native Android and iOS apps with native UI elements.
*   You don’t need to know Java or Objective-C to create the final version
*   As Xamarin is based on ‘Mono’ framework, you can use the .NET stack
*   It is connected with a growing community
*   Developers can use TestCloud to test their applications automatically.

### Disadvantages

*   When you develop significantly customised UI or interaction, an internal Xamarin error appears citing compatibility issues, missing features etc.
*   As access to native platform features is carried out through a specific ‘\*.dll’ you don’t have real control of what is being generated as the final code that will be run on the devices
*   The process of deploying the Android application to the emulator, or to the real device, is very slow.

Unity
-----

Unity is a cross-platform game engine, popular among developers in the creation of mobile games and is one of the best tools for showcasing 3D content.

### How Unity works

The developer uses C#, Boo or Unity Script, which is similar to JavaScript just with type annotations, to write the generic code for all platforms. Platform-specific code, such as native UI, is added as native code libraries.

Using plugins, Unity enables the native libraries to be wrapped into C#, creating a code bridge. By maintaining this wrapper, it opens up access to a wide variety of APIs, allowing communication with native, platform-specific code.

### Advantages

*   Great option for making mobile games for a range of devices
*   Deployment to multiple platforms is easy to manage
*   The 3D engine gives high quality results without any complex configuration
*   There are a lot of good, free and reasonable priced plugins
*   Unity allows the developer to make their own shaders and change the way that Unity renders the game.

### Disadvantages

*   Unfriendly User-Interface and hard to learn for beginners
*   Engine source code is not available. This means that, if a developer comes across a bug in the engine, he has to wait for it to be fixed or attempt a work around for the error
*   Unity’s compilers are not optimised for ARM processors for some mobile devices.

Qt
--

The next cross-platform framework on the list is Qt. With Qt, you write your code once, maintaining one codebase, and deploy across all screens and platforms, without the need for separate implementations on each device.

### How Qt works

In Qt Creator, you can build applications for all compatible platforms. With Qt, the backend is developed using C++ and UI is developed on QML, which is a Qt-specific declarative language.

When it comes to platform-specific code, such as UI, the developer adds libraries for each language’s corresponding platform: Java for Android, Objective-C for iOS etc. Next, the library is wrapped in C++, giving the application access to the library API.

### Advantages

*   Qt has lots of good tools that are helpful for development, such as IDE QT Creator, Qt Designer and code profiling
*   It has libraries that contain intuitive APIs for elements like threading, networking, animations and more.

### Disadvantages

*   Qt is difficult for beginners
*   For several applications, the developer will have to learn each platform’s APIs
*   Much less developers choose this option due to a small, active community.

Appcelerator Titanium
---------------------

The final cross-platform framework we are looking at is Appcelerator Titanium, which can be used to develop cross-platform applications with native UI elements for all supported platforms using only JavaScript.

### How Appcelerator Titanium works

With Titanium, the developer does not create web pages with HTML and CSS, but instead, builds UI using JavaScript code. The developer compiles the application for a specific platform in Titanium Studio, and can benefit from installing third-party, platform-specific SDKs beforehand.

At runtime, the JavaScript interpreter runs JavaScript code in an environment with proxies for the native objects, such as input controls and windows. The JavaScript command ‘create text field’ creates a native ‘UITextView’ for iOS and Android.

### Advantages

*   The use of JavaScript allows easy development without the need to know platform languages
*   Native API usage gives access to iOS and Android features, meaing higher performance for applications that aren’t too large
*   UI is essentially native, Titanium applications feel and look better than apps built on other platforms
*   Appcelerator provides real-time analytics and a marketplace for third party components.

### Disadvantages

*   There are delays when the application starts up due to the library loading
*   Development of complex applications is difficult, because JavaScript usage negatively affects application performance
*   “Appcelerator supports only common across all platform features”
*   Developers are required to manage target platform SDKs locally.

Takeaways
---------

There is no perfect solution – as all frameworks have their pros and cons. For very simple apps it is possible to get away with using PhoneGap as long as responsiveness is not a key criteria. For more serious development we recommend using Xamarin and even then, consider combining Xamarin with native development for all user interface elements.


In this post, we review the popular frameworks for cross-platform mobile app development.

Mobile App Frameworks

What are the best technologies/frameworks for mobile app development in 2023



In this post, we breakdown the best practices for developing single-page applications with React - from file structure to performance to testing.

## Why React js 

React is an excellent choice for building single-page applications. Developed by Facebook and now widely adopted, React is our preferred technology choice for building single-page applications due to its excellent performance and clean component-based architecture.

React structures the user interface into a set of small individual components, each having their own isolated state. The structure makes it very easy to develop reusable components and test them.

One of the most significant advantages of developing applications using React is performance. Rather than manipulate the elements of the page directly, React works with an in-memory representation of the page (the “Virtual DOM”) before copying the changes to the actual HTML tree, delivering much faster user experience.

Another advantage is declarative views, which make the code extremely easy to understand. In react, a component is simply a JavaScript function which takes input data (model) and returns what to display (view).

The practices we use for developing React applications are as follows

1. To decide what should be a component
2. To develop the structure of the application
3. To design the application state - how data affects the state
4. Performance optimisation
5. Automation and testing


1\. Decide what should be a React component
-------------------------------------------

When approaching the development of a new React application, we start with reviewing wireframes and proposed layouts to identify logical blocks. While these will include the navigation, header and footer areas, we also look at the information presented in cards, lists, galleries, buttons and the like.

We split these blocks into smaller and smaller pieces (components). For example, the individual cards contained within a list view are likely to include images, icons and buttons.

To help determine when a component should be broken down further, we review whether that component can be reused in another place or used with other data.

Typically we use components to represent individual items (such as cards, sitemap) and critical elements within those cards (such as images, icons, buttons).

2\. Design a clear structure for the React application
------------------------------------------------------

We take a modular and highly-structured approach to React applications. The practices we use to organise React applications are as follows:

*   Each component lives in a separate folder (under a parent /components folder).
*   A single component has a single JSX file – aka “Single Responsibility Principle.”
*   Use “Higher-Order Components” to separate presentation from complex logic – so that we split components into dumb (rendering only) and smart (logic without presentation, state management, event handlers) parts whenever possible.
*   All files are stored alongside the respective component (JSX, styles, images, etc.).
*   All application pages live under a /pages folder – along with their relevant layouts and partials.
*   Core application modules – such as services, utilities, helpers, actions, reducers, middleware modules also live in dedicated folders.

The approach makes it very easy to understand everything used by each component.

3\. Design the data management state
------------------------------------

A single page application depends on data which can come from many different sources (API endpoints, user inputs, device hardware, etc.). A vital part of the design is to decide how to store and best manage this data.

We load data into the redux store if:

*   it loads data from the server (i.e. HTTPS requests to API endpoints)
*   if the data is rendered in several parts of the page (e.g. message count and list)
*   if different components update the same data independently (e.g. search filters)

All authentication information is also stored in the redux store, because any component might rely on this, checking roles/authorisation before showing specific data.

The data should be in a local state of the component if only this component uses this data. For example, the following data are a good candidate to be stored in the local state:

*   a value of the input field;
*   a validation result (valid or invalid value);
*   an active tab;
*   a state of a collapsible panel.

4\. Consider performance optimisations
--------------------------------------

By default, React will re-render all components, even when data has not changed. To improve performance, and reduce unnecessary calculation we design our applications to track when components need to be updated – via shouldComponentUpdate()

For more information, see: [https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/react-component.html#shouldcomponentupdate](https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/react-component.html#shouldcomponentupdate) and [https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/optimizing-performance.html](https://facebook.github.io/react/docs/optimizing-performance.html)

5\. DevOps automation
---------------------

To support our practices, we use extensive automation, helping to deliver a React application quickly and effectively

*   JavaScript code is written in a modular fashion with dependencies declared via CommonJS and Asynchronous Module Definition (AMD).
*   All code is developed using ES6
*   WebPack is used to compile all JavaScript modules, allowing us to bundle or output multiple files as needed.
*   ESLint is used – our linting rules are available at [https://github.com/graphuk](https://github.com/graphuk)

In this post, we breakdown the best practices for developing single-page applications with React - from file structure to performance to testing.

React Best Practices

React best practices for single-page web applications

A key technology underpinning the applications we develop is React as it offers many benefits. Providing great developer tools, and backed by a strong community, it boosts productivity and facilitates the process of writing and maintaining front-end components. Also, as React uses a [Virtual DOM](https://reactjs.org/docs/faq-internals.html), the performance is vastly superior to a traditional JavaScript application. 

React is well suited to building large-scale applications with data that repeatedly changes. 

React provides a more natural creation of interactive UIs, a component-based structure, and much more. This is beneficial for building the design systems and component libraries that are an important part of rolling out [customer experience](/customer-experience) improvements and [digital transformation strategy](/digital-transformation).

However, it is essential to understand that React renders your application on the client-side, meaning that all JavaScript files and dependencies must be downloaded to the user’s browser before the page can start to be rendered by the browser. The fact remains that while React is extremely fast once the application is loaded, there is an increase in the initial load time (over vanilla HTML). Also, only some web crawlers can index the website or application.

Server-side rendering (SSR) aims to address these problems. In this article, I want to introduce you to SSR within React, the reasons to use it, and some popular frameworks for rendering React on the server-side.

## Server-side and client-side rendering

Earlier web technologies like ASP.NET, PHP or Java, have always used a server-side approach. Whenever the user performs an action (such as a website search), the browser sends the request to the server, and the entire HTML page is generated on the server before being downloaded to the client. The issue, of course, is that this makes the overall user experience extremely slow as the user waits for each page to load.

By contrast, a React application pre-loads all pages and components to the browser, allowing it to respond immediately to the user’s action. The React application only needs to contact the server to fetch data that it has not previously loaded or cached.

## The best of both worlds

With the introduction of server-side rendering to React, it is possible to get the best of both worlds. The initial page is rendered directly from the server, and the subsequent pages load directly from the client. The server-side rendering provides the user with a much faster initial page load, with React then handling all subsequent interactions, only contacting the server to obtain the data needed for future requests.

### Performance benefits

Improved performance is a key benefit from moving to server-side rendering. SSR means there is no need for loaders or spinners for the initial load. The fully formed HTML page is sent down from the server on the first request and shown immediately without waiting for JavaScript files and dependencies to load.

Faster load times deliver a better experience for the end-user, and often result in increased conversion. The substantial performance benefits are one of the main reasons we recommend incorporating SSR for large and busy websites and applications.

### SEO benefits

While Google and Bing can index JavaScript applications, it is still better to provide server-side rendered content ready for Google and other search engines to index. This is because the search engine crawlers will only wait a few seconds for the page to load. If the content is not yet loaded, then it won’t be indexed.

The advantage of SSR is that you get all the SEO benefits of a traditional HTML website since bots can now crawl the entire page. An app rendered with SSR can also be crawled by search engines that don’t execute JavaScript code - such as internal / enterprise search platforms which expect to index fully formed HTML pages.

### Social Media

A similar benefit with SSR is that social media snippets and images are correctly shown when sharing an application page via social media. This is currently not possible when you just have a client-side rendered apps.

### Accessibility

A further benefit is for accessibility, as server-side rendering ensures that screen readers can access the content.

### Robustness

Finally, a server-side rendered page also provides a useful fallback as dependencies on JavaScript load are removed. The content will always be delivered regardless of browser or network connection issues.

## Popular frameworks for rendering React on the server-side

While the benefits of server-side rendering are clear, it is essential to consider whether you need static rendering where all pages can be pre-rendered and generated in advance, or whether you need full server rendering, where every request is handled dynamically (as with a typical ASP.NET or NodeJS application)

Full server rendering is always slower than serving pre-rendered static HTML content. To support static rendering, you simply need to generate the HTML pages for every possible request ahead of time. For content-focused websites with limited personalisation, this is fine. But what if you’re building something where you can’t predict all possible requests, like a search engine? Or what if you need to incorporate user-generated content and the response changes on every request? In that case, you’ll need server rendering.

For static rendering, there are a variety of solutions. Tools like Gatsby aim to support scenarios where dynamic server rendering would typically be needed. Others, like Jekyl and Metalsmith, simply propose a template-based approach.

### Navi

Navi is a JavaScript library for declaratively mapping URLs to asynchronous content. It comes with a static HTML generation tool that works well with React.

### React-snap

Pre-renders a web app into static HTML. It uses a headless Chrome browser to crawl all available links starting from the home page. Uses best practices to get the best loading performance. It also provides the possibility to inline critical CSS to further improve load performance.

### React-snapshot

An alternative to react-snap. A zero-configuration static pre-rendered for React apps. It provides the possibility to specify additional paths as entry points and exclude particular paths from being crawled.

### Gatsby

Gatsby is a React-based Static Site Generator that has won the hearts of many with its exceptional UX (user experience) and DX (developer experience). Gatsby uses the JAMstack. The JAMstack is not about specific technologies. It’s a new way of building websites and apps that delivers better performance, higher security, lower cost of scaling, and better developer experience.

To be precise, it doesn’t do SSR at runtime. Instead, Gatsby does server-side rendering with Node.js at build time, where it creates static HTML, CSS, and JS when deploying the site. This leads to blazing-fast load times and has further optimisations such as route-based code splitting and prefetching.

### Next.js

Next has SSR capabilities along with client application capabilities. It supports automatic code-splitting for faster page loads and client-side routing with optimised prefetching.

## How we pre-rendered the Graph website

The Graph website is a static website where all content is public. As a result, the number of pages is predictable, the content is not drawn from a database, and the content will be static and the same for all users.

Gatsby was created specifically for such sites. It has simple options for creating and hosting a site. It separates the content from the design so that developers and editors can work similarly to CMS-powered websites, and everything will still be compiled as a site at build time.

Gatsby, it is excellent for out-of-the-box scenarios, but if you prefer to fine-tune the configuration, it isn’t the best option. Gatsby does not provide the possibility to configure public.html, web.config, or service workers. As we wanted to configure these, we decided to use react-snapshot. Also, the react-snapshot has pretty fewer dependencies then Gatsby.

The Graph website is hosted on Microsoft Azure as an Windows-based App Service. This allowed us to take advantage of the Microsoft Azure infrastructure, notably security, load balancing, and automated management. We also wanted to take advantage of the DevOps capabilities, including continuous deployment from Azure DevOps and GitHub, package management, deployment slots, and TLS/SSL certificates.

With react-snapshot rendering our pages as .html files, the only action we needed to take on Azure was to add a web.config file to rewrite the incoming server requests (e.g. https://graph.digital/product-development) to the physical .html files which have been rendered.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <configuration>
        <system.webServer>
            <rewrite>
                <rules>
                    <clear />
                    <-- rewrite to support server-side html page rendering -->
                    <rule name="react route to static files" enabled="true" stopProcessing="true">
                        <match url="(.*?)/?$" negate="false" />
                        <conditions>
                            <add input="{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/{R:1}.html" matchType="IsFile" />
                        </conditions>
                        <action type="Rewrite" url="{R:1}.html" />
                    </rule>
                </rules>
            </rewrite>
        </system.webServer>
    </configuration>

Do you always need SSR?
-----------------------

The short answer is that ‘it depends’. Not all applications benefit from server-side rendering, especially apps that require authentication or provide users with a dashboard.

The expertise required for building a server-rendered React app is higher than an app initialised using create-react-app. In addition, the hosting considerations mean you might need to keep a server up and running.

Conclusion
----------

Client-side rendered React apps are great but having apps rendered on the server does provide key benefits including performance, search engine visibility and social sharing.

I would highly encourage you to explore server-side rendering for your React apps and use it for your next product to see these benefits in action.


Why server-side rendering React applications delivers important performance and SEO benefits.

React Server Side Rendering

The benefits of React server side rendering 


React js is one of the leading technologies for building modern web applications. In this post we look at precisely why React has taken over as our platform of choice for building websites to dashboards. Fast, scalable and flexible and some of the the best developer tools on the planet.


Before single-page applications
-------------------------------

Today’s users expect website and mobile apps to be blazingly fast and highly responsive — and many businesses are starting to compete based on user experience, including site performance.

In the not so distant past, the traditional approach would be to develop applications using server-rendered HTML. Each user interaction would generate a new request to the server (located in the cloud, but often in a different geography to the user) and would result in the entire page being reloaded.

Each time a user clicked a button on the website, they would need to wait for the new page to load, and for the browser to render the entire page layout. As HTML5 is a verbose language, this resulted in slow-loading pages and poor user experience. Due to the higher latency of 3G/4G mobile networks, this was especially noticeable on mobile devices.

The first step forwards was for developers to sprinkle a few JavaScript requests on top of the server-rendered HTML application. Whenever an application needed to retrieve or store data on the server, a JavaScript request would fire in the background. This approach exchanged a much smaller amount of data (JSON or XML) than was possible with server-rendered HTML, and resulted in only the relevant part of the page is updated. This gave users a much faster experience.

While this approach was okay to start with, as applications became more sophisticated, they also became harder to maintain. The same HTML needed to be rendered on the server (using technologies such as ASP.NET) as well as in the browser (using client-side technologies and JavaScript templates).

It meant we needed to build the same templates twice. Rendering the HTML on the server was still required for the initial page to load (as well as for SEO) and rendering subsequent interactions on the client gave users a faster application. Also, we now needed to share the state of the application (remembering user preferences such as “sort order”) between the two worlds. With duplicate code, application development was becoming messy.


AngularJS and the MVC frameworks
--------------------------------

To make building web applications more straightforward, several JavaScript frameworks were born. Some of the most popular include [Angular.js](https://angularjs.org) (built and maintained by Google), Backbone and Ember.

While these frameworks each have their specialities and advocates, they all achieve very similar goals. They bring the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern into browser-based applications.

It finally meant we had a clean and consistent architecture for building more substantial and complex applications. The frameworks improved communication between the browser and the server and allowed testing of each element in isolation.

However, a common problem with all of these frameworks was performance — especially when rendering and updating large blocks of content.

Consider an email application. As you read, reply or delete emails you would expect an immediate response. However, this was still not possible with many of the frameworks — instead, you would experience a short but perceptible delay.

As a result, a new approach was required.

ReactJS
-------

[React.js](https://reactjs.org) is a high-performance library for creating user interfaces. Created as an open-source project by Facebook, it has rapidly become one of the most popular JavaScript libraries in existence today. It has an active community and is well supported. Facebook uses React on Instagram, as well as many parts of Facebook.

The “Virtual DOM” is what many developers think of as the main benefit of React, but it’s not the complete picture. React provides a very distinct set of benefits for building single-page applications

### Performance

The poor performance seen with the previous Javascript frameworks occurs because they all try to manipulate the HTML document (DOM) directly. As the user interacts with a web application, many elements often need to be updated, which leads to the sluggish response.

By contrast, React works with a virtual representation of the DOM. When the user interacts with the application, the operations are run against the virtual DOM before a composite set of changes are then rendered into the visible page. This creates a huge performance benefit.

### UI components

The main benefit of React is components. React structures your user interface into a set of small individual parts, each with their own isolated state. The structure makes it very easy to develop reusable components and test them.

### Small library vs. bloated framework

Many Javascript frameworks are bloated with things that developers don’t often need. By contrast, React is very small and very lightweight. The API can be learned in a day. If you miss the functionality provided by the larger frameworks, then React with Flux makes an excellent choice.

### Easier to test

The use of React components makes testing considerably more straightforward. It results in applications that have better code coverage and are more robust. With faster development times, it means complete applications can be released to users more quickly.  A new breed of component-based testing tools such as [Storybook.js](https://storybook.js.org) have also emerged.

### Supports both client-rendering and server-rendering

React is fantastic on the client-side, but its support for server-rendering makes it truly special. Because React uses a Virtual DOM instead of a real browser, it runs perfectly under Node.js on the server, allowing us to render client and server-side using the same templates – which is precisely how we built our website.

### Active community

React has a vibrant and active community. There are many open-source packages for everyday tasks such as animation, form validation, testing etc.

Facebook is continuing to develop React further. The best part is that Facebook developers discuss almost everything with the community. They propose an idea and get feedback before releasing a new feature.

Takeaways
---------

React is a robust modern framework suitable for complex and large-scale web and mobile applications.  We are developing almost all of our projects using React, including the checkout for global e-commerce store Graham & Brown, business applications embedded in Microsoft Teams, as well as our website.



React is one of the leading technologies for building modern web applications. In this post we look at why React has taken over as our platform of choice.

Why React

Why use React for building high performance web applications

How retailers can increase ecommerce conversion: Predictive search
==================================================================

Throughout this series, we are sharing the definitive best practices that will improve your e-commerce website and increase your revenue and conversion rates. In part 1, we looked at [how to effectively use landing pages](/ecommerce/learn/ecommerce-conversion-rate-landing-pages) to drive sales, as this is where your customers will begin their online interaction with you.

Part 2 of the series explains how to extend your search function to ensure your customers can get to correct and relevant product information as quickly as possible. The best way to achieve this is to use ‘search’ to its full potential.

Back in 2004, Google introduced predictive search with auto-complete and this has since become a universal feature that customers expect as part of the ecommerce shopping experience.

Fast, predictive search
-----------------------

A customer’s shopping experience is a journey. This means that the search function also needs to be about discovery, displaying something to them that encourages further exploration and gives them instant access. All this can be delivered by using predictive search and the auto-complete function, which are both elements that we used when redesigning the e-commerce site of global retailer, [Graham & Brown](https://www.grahambrown.com/uk).

### Display relevant items, collections or articles

We advocate using predictive search on your site, as it allows the customer to see highly relevant suggestions of products, collections or articles as they type. This gets the customer to the right information as quickly as possible. Predictive search is a global best practice, especially for e-commerce. Usually it takes the form of a drop-down box that pops up immediately with auto-complete suggestions as users type, without them needing to hit the ‘search’ button in order to see typical search queries.

This immediate display gives visitors an efficient way of navigating to relevant results, rather than having to type a search expression, which might be a slightly different term or phrase that will yield a limited number of results.

After incorporating predictive search for Graham & Brown, we saw the percentage of visitors who viewed at least one product page increase by over 20%. It also increased the average time spent on the site by 11.27%.

### Include collection pages with suggestions

Including collection pages in your predictive search suggestions is an added benefit to the customer experience. This enables the user to engage further with other items and content that are related to their original search. For example, search for ‘Kelly Hoppen’ on the Graham & Brown site, you will be offered a mixture of relevant products, collection pages and articles.

We also recommend your search functions work across any languages your site caters for, as well as for any products, collections or lifestyle content.

After launching our updated predictive search for Graham & Brown, we saw time on site increase by 16.56% for those visitors who used the search function. In addition to this, we found that the search was providing a much better way for customers to find exactly what they were looking for, regardless of where they entered the site, with the bounce rate decreasing by 35.68%.

### Introduce auto-complete function

We recommend you incorporate the auto-complete function in your predictive search. This feature also helps save your customer typing time. This is especially important for mobile or tablet users without a physical keyboard.

Auto-complete presents your customer with the most relevant search matches across your site. This is beneficial because they may not be able to remember an exact title or product line of, for example, a product you sell. This problem can be solved with auto-complete, as search suggestions will help guide them to what it is they are searching for, despite not knowing the exact terms used across your site. They can select the item through visual recall, identifying the product they were looking for out of the auto-complete suggestions.

### Help customers save time

Another important advantage of using predictive search is to save your visitors’ time on typing. [Smart Insights](http://www.smartinsights.com/mobile-marketing/mobile-marketing-analytics/mobile-marketing-statistics/) showed that more and more customers are using devices without a physical keyboard to shop online. These  visitors will appreciate a search function that predicts the product or collection they are trying to find.


Advanced search & search results
--------------------------------

While most companies will incorporate predictive search, not all are able to. So, if you fall into this category, you will need to make sure your site has a strong keyword search and well-structured results page that allows the customer to ‘drill down’ or filter their results further.

For the Graham & Brown site, we recommended that the customer be able to filter their search by any criteria, such as colour, designer, or room. This allows the user to perform a keyword search for ‘wallpaper’ and then refine their search to only display the specific styles, colours, brands or designers they are interested in.

Furthermore, we found that users often search for common product terms. These often exist as landing pages and provide a more useful experience, as discussed in part-one of this series

In these cases, rather than direct the user to the generic search results page, a better approach is to direct the user to the existing landing page that matches the customer’s search combination (e.g. black wallpaper). Now, users are shown a collection page connected with their search, but this now contains additional content and tips, not simply another screen of products. This is important as it drives search engine optimisation (SEO).

On the Graham & Brown site, we further improved and streamlined their search feature by introducing filters into the advanced search results and ensuring any search queries would display relevant landing pages to visit. After measuring the effect of these changes, we identified that: 1) after using the search, the time on site increased by 16.56% and 2) the number of pages visitors viewed after getting search results increased by 17.52%.

Make search about discovery
---------------------------

If ‘search’ is about exploration, it follows that you want to make it as easy as possible for customers to find and peruse the items they are most interested in, as quickly as possible.

The fashion retailer Zara takes predictive search even further and uses a feature we plan to include for Graham & Brown. When a customer searches for an item on Zara’s site, the predictive search takes over the whole screen with relevant products and related items appearing as the customer types. This immediately provides users with a wider range and more detailed view of products they are potentially interested in.

### Using Apache Solr for predictive search

With Graham & Brown, our initial approach was to use Apache Solr.. This leading, open-source, search platform already provides auto-complete functionality However, we found that Solr provides incomplete suggestions for search terms.

As Graham & Brown is a multilingual website, we needed the predictive search to return results for the visitors in their preferred language and country. However, the Solr predictive search component only accepts a single search term in each request. It is not possible to pass Solr information about the language or country of the visitor, to apply in the search results.

Another constraint was that only a set of suggested search words were returned. For a customer typing, ‘red’, the only keyword suggestions would be ‘red paint, or ‘red wallpaper’; we wanted to include richer information in the results, such as price, product image and page URL. We also wanted to further combine this with details of offers, promotions and stock level.

### How we overcame the limitations of Solr

To achieve a more comprehensive search function, and still use the Solr auto-suggest component, we would have had to create additional lookup requests to locate the missing data, but this would have an impact on site response time.

To present visitors with smarter, quicker and more powerful suggestions, we ended up creating our own predictive search ‘suggester’ component, running against the underlying Solr index. This returns a fuller set of search suggestions, with only one HTTP request, and takes approximately 50 milliseconds.

As a result, Graham & Brown customers now see results relevant to their corresponding culture and country, grouped by content type, i.e. products, collections, designers and articles. These results are also accompanied by some additional useful information, such as product price or product image, giving customers an improved search function that helps them reach relevant results.

Next: promotions, bundles & product management
----------------------------------------------

Coming up soon. The next article focuses on how to incorporate promotions and product bundles. Elements that your marketing team will appreciate and be able to use effectively to upsell and cross-sell, leading to an increase in average order value.


In this series, we explain how retail stores can boost ecommerce conversion rates. In this part, we show how to build product search to help your customers discover products quickly and easily. 

Ecommerce Conversion Rate – Product Search 

Ecommerce - Insights

Learn

How to increase your Ecommerce Conversion Rate – Product Search 

In 2021, retail ecommerce sales were estimated at $4.9 trillion US dollars worldwide. Over the next four years, that's  predicted to grow by 50%, reaching $7.4 trillion by 2025.

For many businesses, this increase will be critical to their growth and expansion into new markets and territories. More and more, companies will need to strengthen their online e-commerce presence and there can be significant commercial benefits from doing so.   

In this blog series, we share the best practices that, when implemented, will ensure your company has a successful e-commerce website that results in an immediate increase in sales.

This article details how to effectively use landing pages to drive sales, as this is where your customers will begin their online interaction with you.

## Make Navigation Engaging

Many e-commerce sites predominantly consist of only two page templates: a product page and a product collection page. The problem with using this approach, is that grids and lists of products do not deliver the best possible user experience because they are not captivating enough. 

Users find it difficult to navigate never-ending grids of product collections, which all look the same. There is nothing to anchor them and they lose their place in the site, which disrupts their shopping journey. The shopper becomes disorientated and quickly loses interest. 

So, what can you do to ensure you are offering an engaging customer experience? You can start by using landing pages to attract the customer, rather than presenting them with a mere list, or grid, of products.

## Curate Your Product Collections 

First, turn your collection pages into comprehensive landing pages that allow customers to easily view closely related products. For example, end of line items or items by the same designer.

When redesigning the website of iconic home furnishing brand, Graham & Brown, we enabled their marketing team to put these collection pages together to create an improved user experience for their customers.

For example, a customer interested in designer Kelly Hoppen is able to clearly find and explore her wall art, or, a parent with a child obsessed with Elsa can search for decor by Disney character.

These pages display a curated set of products to the customer and, as a result, are even more valuable when it comes to promoting seasonal stock additions or coordinating specific marketing initiatives. House of Fraser delivers another example of this. They promote their baking merchandise with a unique landing page, capturing customers through their interest in the BBC’s popular Great British Bake Off.

## Mix Content, Products & Lifestyle

To further increase the value of your landing pages, you can combine ‘curated collections’ with relevant and engaging content. Elements such as glossy and captivating images, information about designers and even the inclusion of blogs and articles will all increase the quality of your site. Combining ‘curated collections’ with excellent content makes the landing pages inspirational and engages the shopper. They are taken on a journey and provided with a measurably improved customer experience.

In order to provide the flexibility to create this experience, it is often better to start with a Content Management System (CMS) platform that enables e-commerce, rather than an dedicated e-commerce platform, as these often have limited content management capabilities. Dyson’s engaging site is a clear example of this. Using the Sitecore CMS, they seamlessly blend product information and lifestyle articles with visually engaging multimedia that captures the customer. For Graham & Brown, we used the same Sitecore CMS platform, to give them a flexible platform with adaptable templates to bring product and inspirational content together.

## How you can apply these recommendations 

If your site receives a healthy amount of visitor traffic, but your number of product page views are low or you find people are not clicking “add to basket”, the best place to start is with your landing pages.

We recommend you use ‘curated collections’ together with wider content on your landing pages to give customers a captivating first impression. This will encourage them to explore further and begin the journey from first time visitor to loyal advocate, which will lead to an increase in your revenue and customer satisfaction.

Next on our priority list is your site’s search function. Using search successfully is another vital component to increase your conversion or revenue rates.




In this series, we explain how retail stores can boost ecommerce conversion rates. In this part, we show how to structure landing pages to deliver a better customer experience.
