4 benefits of a digital audit to optimize your ecommerce site

Conducting a digital audit ensures your e-commerce business remains competitive, user-friendly, and secure, leading to increased customer satisfaction and business growth. The Digital Audit Program (DAP), a collaborative offering from Salesforce and Acxiom, is designed to help businesses achieve these goals by providing an in-depth review of their digital infrastructure. This no-cost evaluation is tailored to identify areas for improvement, enhance functionality, and ultimately increase revenue and performance for businesses leveraging Salesforce technology.

A Digital Audit is a structured assessment service that reviews a company’s digital platforms and provides a detailed scorecard based on various metrics, offering insights into performance, ease of use, and adherence to industry best practices. Conducting a digital audit involves a comprehensive analysis of your digital presence and helps identify areas for improvement. Acxiom’s Digital Audit includes:

• Platform reviews: Evaluates current platforms including Salesforce B2B and B2C Commerce Cloud, CloudCraze, B2B Lighting (Aura & LWR) CRM, D2C Lightning CRM, Marketing Cloud, Data Cloud, and Pardot.
• Scorecard provision: Offers a detailed scorecard including 30+ Measurements based on Industry best practices, performance, ease of use, UI/UX.
• Strategic guidance: Provides recommendations for enhancing platform functionality and insights on which Salesforce Clouds can help achieve business goals.
• Cost-effective solutions: Initial reviews provided at no cost to the customer. Multiple Clouds, Core Orgs, RLM, CPQ, and Strategic guidance services are available at a low cost based on scope.

A digital audit offers numerous advantages for your ecommerce business, helping you optimize performance and drive growth. Here are some key benefits of Acxiom’s Digital Audit:

1. Comprehensive platform review

The Digital Audit Program (DAP) provides an extensive review of existing digital platforms, focusing on:

• Ease of use: Assesses the platform’s user-friendliness. This involves analyzing navigation, user journey, and interaction points to identify barriers hindering user satisfaction and engagement.
• UI/UX: Reviews the design and user experience of the platform, ensuring it is intuitive, visually appealing, and easy to navigate. A well-designed UI/UX can significantly improve user satisfaction and retention.
• Industry best practices: Ensures the platform adheres to industry standards and practices. It involves comparing your platform with industry benchmarks to ensure it meets or exceeds security, functionality, and performance norms.

2. Digital assessment scorecard

After a comprehensive review, a Digital Assessment Scorecard is provided offering a comprehensive evaluation of your platform, pinpointing key areas for performance enhancement and providing actionable insights including:

• Search and navigation: Optimizing search functionalities and site navigation to improve user experience. This involves assessing the effectiveness of search features, predictive sorting, and filtering options, and ensuring intuitive navigation paths. Enhancements may include implementing advanced search features, refining filtering options, and streamlining navigation for easier access to products and information.
• Mobile and social integration: Enhancing mobile site performance and social media integration to boost engagement and accessibility. The audit evaluates your platform’s mobile optimization and social media connectivity, ensuring a seamless user experience across all devices and channels. This step is critical for expanding reach and maintaining consistent interaction with users.
• Content management: Evaluating content management and personalization to deliver relevant, engaging, and tailored content that meets user needs. The scorecard assesses how content is managed and delivered, emphasizing the importance of personalization in boosting user engagement and conversion rates.
• Cart and checkout processes: Streamlining cart and checkout processes to reduce cart abandonment and improve conversion rates. This includes analyzing the efficiency of current cart features, simplifying purchase steps, enhancing payment options, and providing clear and concise information to guide users through the checkout process. An efficient checkout experience is crucial for converting visitors into customers.

3. Enhancing customer confidence

By leveraging the DAP, businesses will have the opportunity to:

• Increase customer trust and confidence: By obtaining guidance to increase the reliability and performance of their digital platforms, businesses will have the opportunity to foster trust and confidence among customers. A stable and secure platform reassures users that their data and transactions are secure.
• Identify additional Salesforce clouds: Discover additional Salesforce solutions that can help meet business goals and enhance platform capabilities. This can lead to better service integration and more comprehensive solutions for customers.
• Build value and trust: Strengthen confidence in Salesforce through strategic improvements and optimized platform use. By aligning with Salesforce’s best practices, businesses can ensure smoother operations and a stronger partnership.

4. Einstein AI readiness assessment

Another critical component of the DAP is the Einstein AI Readiness Assessment. This assessment reviews data readiness and helps businesses prepare for the integration of advanced AI capabilities within their Salesforce environment. Key areas assessed include:

• Data age and completeness: Ensuring up-to-date and comprehensive data supports AI initiatives. Accurate and complete data is essential for effective AI implementation.
• Data consistency and duplication: Identifying and addressing data inconsistencies and duplicates to ensure data quality. High-quality data is crucial for reliable AI outcomes.
• Data usage and sensitivity: Evaluating data usage patterns and sensitivity issues to comply with data protection regulations. Ensuring data is used appropriately and securely is vital for maintaining user trust and regulatory compliance.

Accessing the DAP is straightforward and available to current and prospective Salesforce customers. The process involves:

• Digital Audit Request form completion: Salesforce account executives can nominate a customer, or customers can request an audit themselves by submitting a Digital Audit Request. This initial step involves providing basic information about the platform and specific areas of concern.
• Scheduling the audit: A brief discussion with the client is expected to help them understand the platform and any known issues. This helps tailor the audit to the business’s specific needs and objectives.
• Audit review: Acxiom performs the review, followed by a detailed results readout session, providing actionable insights and recommendations. This comprehensive review identifies areas of improvement and offers practical solutions to optimize the platform.