The key to a successful Valentine’s Day is customer experience analytics

February is finally here, which means that Valentine’s Day is right around the corner. Just as the Christmas season is a prime shopping time, so is Valentine’s Day when it comes to online consumers, especially those of the last-minute persuasion. Customers can buy almost anything online these days, and considering the fact that most online stores having mobile and desktop apps, the process is easier than ever before. So why not capitalize on the season, and potentially gain some future consumers? The key to this is by using customer experience analytics and charting the customer’s digital journey as they navigate their way through various floral bouquets, jewellery, and gourmet chocolates as they try to procure the perfect gift for that special someone.

Understanding the digital journey

If you’re asking, “Wait, what is a digital journey?” let’s take a step back for a moment.

Firstly, in order to understand how customer experience analytics will benefit your business and maximize revenue, you must understand what a digital journey is and what information it can provide you.

As soon as someone clicks on a link to a product they like via Instagram, Facebook, or an advertisement, their customer journey begins. This journey encompasses the process through which they click through to a business’s website or app, how long they pause on certain pages, what information this page holds that may influence them to purchase the product, how long it takes each subsequent link to load, and if there are any broken links which may impede the purchase process.

Simply put, a digital journey charts the beginning of a person’s relationship with a retailer, fostering the experience until it leads to a sale, and then hopefully leading to a happy customer who makes future purchases. Examining the journey from start to finish digitally gives retailers a leg up as they can quickly see any impediments to purchase, or what products customers purchase the most and why.

How can this be used for Valentine’s Day consumer traffic?

The goal is to create a customer experience strategy prior to the two weeks leading up to Valentine’s Day so that your business can compete with other retailers and catch any technical glitches or areas that require further digital marketing. This way any technical bugs that may impede the customer journey can be taken care of within mobile and desktop apps before the foreseen increase in consumer traffic.

Although we’re now in the middle of that two-week window, don’t feel like it’s too late to capitalise on this year’s Valentine’s Day. This is a big holiday for last-minute purchases, so if you offer overnight shipping, or same-day local delivery (whether you’re a florist offering romantic bouquets or a local restaurant connected to GrubHub or Uber Eats), you’ll likely see a big spike of interest this week.

Next week, you can utilize customer funnel analysis to examine the conversion rates on customer purchases and predict next year’s Valentine’s sales or compare this year’s stats against offseason sales. The average mobile conversion rate predicted for the week leading up to Valentine’s Day is roughly 15-20%. The retailers who offer sales via a desktop platform are expected to see around a 25-30% conversion rate which is 30% higher than the usual conversion rate on a regular non-holiday week. Having access to this kind of data can potentially have a big impact on sales. Make the most of the data you have on offer and employ customer experience analytics to have the most successful Valentine’s Day season yet, and ensure that your mobile and desktop apps are in top working order for future purchases.