CX Clangers Cost Customers. Here's Proof.

This week I want to talk about customer experience. Not in a fluffy, marketing-deck kind of way, I mean the basics. The nuts and bolts of how easy (or not) it is to shop with your brand.

Because when the online experience is smooth, people come back. When it's not? They don’t.

Case in point: I was recently shopping for some new feminine hygiene products, a category that’s growing fast in DTC, with loads of brands pushing sustainable, design-led alternatives to the usual big names. I had a specific brand in mind. Let’s call them ‘Sway’.

I liked their mission, I liked their product range, and their site was looking pretty slick. I added my chosen items to basket and went to check out. All going well, until I hit a wall. Before I could complete my purchase, I had to confirm my email address via a verification link. Annoying, but fine… if the email actually arrived.

It didn’t.

I refreshed, checked junk, waited, checked again. Nothing. After a while, I gave up. I went back to my original Google search and clicked on a competitor’s ad. Let’s call them ‘Chase & Dream’.

Within a minute, I’d chosen what I needed, added it to my basket and paid. No friction, no faff. Just a well-designed path to purchase that let me buy what I wanted, when I wanted. I even signed up for a monthly subscription. Good for them. Not so good for ‘Sway’.

The kicker? That verification email from ‘Sway’ came through four hours later. In the middle of the night. Too late.

This whole experience could’ve been avoided with better CX thinking. No one should have to jump through hoops just to buy a product. Especially not when there are plenty of competitors who make it quick and easy.

Here’s the big takeaway: Every extra step, every small bit of friction, is a potential exit point. Customers won’t wait around, they’ll shop elsewhere. Your CX is your conversion rate. It’s your retention rate too.

In product categories with lots of choice, brands can’t afford to get this stuff wrong. And yet, so many still do.

So if you're not regularly reviewing your site experience from a customer's point of view…start. Because while you might think it’s working fine, your customers might be having a very different experience.

And if you make it hard for them to buy, they won’t.

Simple as that.