Learn about the difference between customer account hub and customer account page.

Considering how customer retention is becoming the major focus for online businesses and marketers out there, it is clear that customer account pages are becoming the new must-haves for eCommerce stores.

With Amazon and the other big players in the eCommerce arena, raising the bar with their account pages, it is no longer a negotiable element for eCommerce businesses to have, if they are to survive.

Customer account pages are default pages set on the Shopify store, where the customer can access details about their orders, track orders using tracking links, edit and save personal information like addresses etc. Personalized Shopify customer account pages provide the customer’s data in one place while effectively maximizing engagement.

Along similar lines, there have been increasing talks revolving around customer account hubs lately. This might bring a few questions to mind, as both of these sound very similar, but in reality, have very different uses and benefits.

This article will try and clearly explain the differences between the two.

What is a Customer Account Page?

The Flits Customer Account page for Shopify lets you create a page where customers can save all their data in an easy-to-access manner. The data includes their profile (name, gender, date of birth, contact number), their orders, addresses for delivery, recently viewed products etc. You can even provide links for order tracking to enhance their experience. In short, all the important customer data can be accessed from one place, while simplifying the whole process for your customers.

You can display the customer’s order history, show their recently viewed products, enable easier reorders and add extra information pages for refunds, exchanges etc. And it doesn’t end there. There are other paid add-ons available like the Wishlist feature, store credits, social login etc. which can greatly improve the customer experience, taking it to a different level. Brands have already started utilizing customer account pages, and many success cases have emerged from this.

One such instance is the case of the famous men’s grooming brand The Man Company. The Man Company is a hugely popular brand trying to formulate the finest skin, hair and body care products. They receive a large number of orders every day and strangely, a large number of order cancellations too. To tackle this the teams at Flits and The Man Company worked together to set up an interactive customer account page with a gamified rewards program offering store credits.

The results were stunning, to say the least. The brand saw a 41% increase in orders using store credits and a 91% increase in average order value with store credits. And during the lockdown, store credit spending increased by a staggering 327%! This is an example of how much of an impact a strategic customer account page can have on a brand.

Ready to set up a Shopify customer account page? Install the Flits app today.

What is The Purpose of a Customer Account Page?

From the above case study, it is pretty evident that a customer account page can have a highly positive effect on your business. But this goes both ways, as it also benefits the customer too as they also stand to gain a lot from having customer account pages.

But what exactly are these benefits that both businesses and customers enjoy from a customer account page?

The benefits that businesses can have by having a customer account page are;

• Different features like quick login, quick access to order history, faster reordering, Wishlist and loyalty programs together result in better retention rates.
• By offering an opportunity to engage customers, customer account pages make them stay longer on your site and visit more often, which can help increase sales.
• Customer account pages will impact the overall store experience, which improves conversion.

Some of the benefits customers can enjoy by having a customer page are:

• Save multiple addresses and easily save personal info like phone numbers etc to make purchases smoother and allow for a personalized experience. All the purchase info, history and recently viewed products will be collected in one place which is easily accessible.
• Allows for faster and simpler reorders, returns, refunds and exchanges improving the overall customer experience.
• Features like social log-in help make registration and login easier on the Shopify store.

Some of these benefits go both ways and are complementary to one another. Personalization to the customer means more relevant products that suit their tastes, for the business, it means that they are providing a better experience and improving retention. This way, the customer account page works on multiple levels while being beneficial to all.

What is a Customer Account Hub/ Customer Data Hub?

A Customer Data Hub or a Customer Data Platform (CDP) is a place where all your customer information is collected. It is connected to all the products, platforms and channels that your customers use, being at the center of your data systems. It collects all the data from these channels and allows you, in real-time, to organize and use this data.

Here is a practical example. If you are trying to provide proactive customer support, or you are planning to send a personalized special offer to customers who reached out to you from the store, you need more info on the customer to react here. Data collected in the customer data hub from all of the channels, devices and pages the customer journeyed through, will be stored as a customer profile. This profile can be made available for your agents, and the data can now be used to personalize special offers or provide support informed with the customer’s purchase history.

By taking a central role in your data ecosystem, your customer data hub ensures that the data is compliant with privacy regulations and that it is standardized across your business.

Having all of the customer information together in one place guarantees that the data is accessible for the whole organization and that it’s always up-to-date. This further ensures that there will not be any sort of compromise when it comes to data quality. With the ability to capture customer behavior in real-time, customer data hubs provide the opportunity for true personalization, where you can use data to personalize ads, offers and other campaigns, all leading to higher ROI and conversion rates.

Customer Account Hub VS Customer Account Page

Customer account page and customer account hub are two terms that give one the impression that they might be interchangeable, but they are not. The recent discussions about the customer account hub have triggered a few questions in the minds of eCommerce marketers. After having looked at the key features and definitions of both these terms, it is now time to summarize how the customer account page and customer accounts hub or customer data hub differs from one another.

The core differences between the two come down to the nature of how the data gets collected. The customer account page lets customers fill out their details themselves while keeping track of other valuable data, and in that way becomes more customer oriented, while still providing the business with all the required info about the buyer. This can be their contact info, addresses, purchase history, recently viewed items, and Wishlist, all together conveying a great deal about the customer. Customers are able to find all of their order histories, create wish lists and further edit and save their personal details, making it an engaging and helpful feature.

The customer data hub, on the other hand, solely focuses on the business end, providing companies with standardized data in a consistent format, acting as a giant collection point for a customer’s data across different channels and platforms. Businesses can use the data to create an accurate view of each customer. By understanding each customer’s needs and interests based on their behavior in the store, you can personalize campaigns, identify trends and adapt your marketing accordingly. But a major drawback here is that customer data hubs only cover the business end, not the customer end.

Which One Do You Need?

After having a clear understanding of the Shopify customer account page and customer data hubs, their features and differences, an obvious question would be “Which of these two does my business need?”

In the highly competitive eCommerce market, profits of an online business, to a large extent, are driven by data. Data has become a valuable resource now, which can determine the success or failure of brands. For this reason, you should cover both the customer and business ends when collecting data. This is where a Shopify account page like Flits comes into play.

Set up engaging, highly customizable account pages by Flits for your Shopify store!