Forecasts show that U.S. consumers are on track to spend $933.30 billion on ecommerce in 2021, a 17.9% year-over-year increase. And, by 2025, the percentage of ecommerce sales is expected to be 23.6% of total sales. Compared to a mere 11.0% in 2019, it’s fair to say the future is looking bright for ecommerce.

As sales increase, so does the competition as more and more businesses are shifting to an online presence – especially after brick-and-mortar companies took a serious hit during COVID lockdowns.

How are you going to compete?

While there’s not one simple answer (because everyone would be doing it already), one of the best ways to stand apart is to know your brand inside and out – everything from brand awareness, to customer demographics, to product feedback, to website design, and more.

You might have already guessed where we’re going with this. In order to fully understand the strengths and weaknesses of your ecommerce business, you need to collect and respond to feedback from the customers who are buying and using your products.

There are many types of surveys, and each one serves a specific purpose. An employee engagement survey, for example, provides important but very different data than a brand perception survey.

An ecommerce survey, as the name suggests, is used to understand a customer’s experience throughout the entire online purchasing process as they navigated your website.

Ecommerce surveys can help you to:

• Segment your consumer base. By dividing your customers into groups based on demographics and buying behaviors, you’ll be more successful with your targeting methods.
• Tailor your marketing strategies. From reaching new customers to upselling and cross-selling on your website, there’s a lot of potential to boost your marketing efforts based on the data collected in an ecommerce survey.
• Build a customer persona. In addition to knowing how to target future customers, you need to know who you are targeting. Surveys help businesses learn about their customers and the changing market.
• Identify trends. These can be positive trends, such as high demand for a particular product, or negative trends, like complaints about your website’s functionality. You can also follow up with a customer satisfaction survey later to measure the success of any updates you implemented.
• Pinpoint opportunities to improve your customers’ experience. People abandon their cart for a variety of reasons – unexpected shipping charges, being forced to create an account in order to check out, etc. Unless you ask, you probably won’t be aware of problems that may be costing you sales.
• Forecast inventory demands. Needless to say, seeing almost every product on your website showing as out of stock isn’t a good shopping experience. With enough data and the right analytical tools, you can better manage your inventory to make sure you’re well stocked without being overstocked.

As you put together your ecommerce survey, it’s important to think through the various stages of a customer’s purchase cycle.

Below, we’ve put together the top 50 questions you should consider adding to your ecommerce survey.

Not all of your customers will complete a purchase on your website, but it’s still important to get their feedback and learn how you can improve.

• What was your first impression of our website?
• What is the purpose of your website visit?
• How did you learn about our company?
• Did you experience any difficulty navigating our website?
• How do you feel about the website design and layout?
• Who are you shopping for?
• How likely would you be to visit our website again?
• How can we improve your experience in the future?

If your website visitors convert into paying customers, seize this opportunity to learn about what influenced them to convert and how you can boost your sales in the future.

• How satisfied were you with the availability of the products on our website?
• If your preferred product was out of stock, did you receive a notification when it became available again?
• What other products, sizes, and color options would you like to see in the future?
• How would you rate your overall shopping and checkout experience?
• Did you feel secure sharing your card information on our site?
• Did you have a hassle-free checkout?
• Did we offer your preferred payment method? If not, please let us know your preference.
• What factor(s), if any, almost prevented you from completing your checkout?
• How likely are you to make a purchase from our business again?
• How would you rate the speed of our website?
• How likely are you to recommend our brand to others?
• What is your primary reason for choosing our brand over our competitors?

Understand how the product quality compared to expectations and how reviews influenced your customers’ purchase decision.

• How much did you trust the product reviews?
• How helpful are product reviews to you when deciding whether to make a purchase?
• How much does an overall product rating affect your decision to buy?
• How satisfied are you with the quality of the products you received?
• Compared to our competitors, how would you rate the quality of our products?
• Did you find the range of products we offer to be sufficient?
• Did the website include enough product details for you to feel well-informed about your purchase?
• Do you feel the product descriptions on our website were accurate when you received the actual product?
• Do you usually find alternatives of the same product offered on other websites?

90% of Americans rely on customer service as a primary factor when they’re deciding whether or not to do business with a company.

• Did the customer service representative solve your issue?
• How helpful and knowledgeable was the support staff?
• How would you rate your overall experience with your customer service representative?
• Was your issue solved within a single session, or did we have to escalate your case?
• Would you prefer to communicate with customer service via phone, email, or live chat?
• How quickly did a customer service representative respond after you contacted us?
• Did you find your wait time to be reasonable?

A good online experience can be tainted by a bad shipping experience. Make sure the customer’s experience was good from start to finish.

• Did you receive your order within the predicted time frame?
• Would you be interested in receiving products sooner by enrolling in paid services?
• Did the product arrive at the correct address?
• Please rate your overall shipping experience, including any interactions with delivery personnel.
• Was the standard shipping cost reasonable?
• Did you have any difficulty inputting or changing your billing and payment information?
• Did your package arrive undamaged and in good condition?

Don’t miss the chance to discover potential follow-up marketing opportunities.

• Would you be interested in signing up for our email newsletter to receive announcements and special discounts?
• Would you like to learn more about our membership benefits?
• We noticed that you checked out as a guest. Would you like to create an account so you can save your order history and preferences?
• Are you interested in enrolling in a paid subscription membership to receive priority services?
• Why did you make a purchase from our company? Please select all that apply: (Need; Brand preference; Supporting a small business; Product quality; Company values; Recommended by a friend; Saw an advertisement; Social media; Other (please specify)
• What made us stand out from the competition?
• Do you follow our brand on social media?

Now is a good time to establish your ecommerce business. Remember to keep your ears open and always be listening for customer and employee feedback, so you can fine-tune your strategies and create a truly spectacular online experience.