In the eCommerce world, and the Retail industry in general, customer satisfaction often depends on the shopping and checkout experience. But what happens when you close your browser and anxiously await your order, only to be met with a series of irritants that frustrate you to the point at which you decide this webstore just isn’t worth your time?   NetSuite understands the unspoken challenges that many etailers are facing, and SuiteCommerce Advanced is here to address these complex issues.

A real-life checkout complication just won’t do.

"Sorry, we cannot sell this salad spinner to you, sir."

Seconds passed as I processed the cashier's words.  I began my convincing argument—a series of sputtering and whimpering “b-b-buts” -- before the stone-cold cashier held up my other prized purchase: a lemon zester.  He had already moved on.  He scanned the zester and tossed it in the store bag...one checkout line down!

And to think, this whole shopping experience started so well.  I usually avoid store clerks, but my eye-contact game was not on-point that day and I was accosted by one.  It turned out to be a great experience, as Agustina guided me through the world of salad spinners.  The moment I gripped THE salad spinner—truly, it was made for me—and tossed it into my shopping cart, I felt like a slow-motion tennis ball landing right on the line.  VICTORY!

As I glided towards the cashier, nothing was going to ruin my day.  Salad was gonna be spun tonight.

"Sorry, we cannot sell this salad spinner to you, sir."

Why bad online checkout experiences occur

It is difficult to imagine the scenario above; but unfortunately,  in the world of Online shopping, this type of irritant occurs fairly often. Why?

• Stock level and status inaccurate
• Order was not fulfilled correctly
• Order was not delivered in the estimated timeframe promised
• Shipping amount was not entirely accurate at the time the order was placed
• Difficulty to get someone to help me out of this situation

And yet, when talking about customer experience, we tend to focus on the actual shopping experience.  Great search and navigation?  Check.  Ease of shopping on my smartphone?  Check.  Color psychology and layout that tug at my puppet strings?  Check check check.

All those good feelings—like the ones that washed over me after Agustina the Store Clerk’s helpful service—quickly dissipate if there are any hiccups between that moment and going home with the perfect  salad spinner.

So why is that portion of the Online customer experience often overlooked?

How NetSuite eCommerce is the perfect solution

NetSuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced (SCA) is competitive when traversing the traditional checklist of “What I Want for My Webstore”.  The platform's rapid evolution in the past few years indicates that the road to the peak of the eCommerce mountain is no longer just a pipedream—the journey has already begun.

Accurate and sync-friendly. Where Netsuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced truly shines though is the idea of”single-source of truth”.  As NetSuite is at its core an ERP/CRM system, its eCommerce offering leverages all that beautiful trove of data and syncs up with them—and there really is little room for mistakes because all the information is accurate, reliable and consistent.

Stock level control. No more surprises with stock level.  What you buy is what you get. Avoid shipping headaches and  over/under-stocking materials.

Ready-made reports and automated emails. That is without talking about the amount of ready-made reports to plan your next eCommerce strategy, thanks to all the aforementioned data that is all synchronized within NetSuite.  Imagine all the personalized emails that can be automated —and yes, I realize the irony of giving your customers that nudge to complete their orders…

Saving costs with NetSuite eCommerce. The other side of poorly fulfilled orders is the cost of fixing it.  Too much support staff?  Or worse, overqualified staff doing menial work?  That is the sound of you drowning in playing catch-up instead of sitting comfortably on your throne, thinking of ways to revolutionize your industry.

NetSuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced offers strong self-service capabilities are tied back to the ERP/CRM system.  Whether it's opening support cases, requesting returns without headaches, or getting information to autonomously solve your own issues, SCA will help organize all these threads so you can run a smooth operation, and still be provided with many big-picture perspectives to identify areas of improvement.

Choose a flexible eCommerce solution

The ride is not without its bumps, but I heard that Agustina the Store Clerk was pretty shaky her first year on the job, too.

Netsuite's SuiteCommerce Advanced has come into its own on some features that other older eCommerce platforms have mastered over the years; yet this whole time, it had always ensured that the end-to-VERY-end customer experience was quick, reliable and accurate throughout.  As our world evolves and our habits change, it is important to choose an eCommerce platform that can be flexible on its browsing, shopping, and marketing perspectives, but that still rests on a solid foundation of information and data that can help you tie it all together.  

Additionally, it is equally as important to find a partner who can make sure that you are not leaving any of SCA's ever-growing capabilities on the table.

Now you'll have to excuse me. My steak is ready.