In the U.S. alone, total e-commerce sales for 2019 were estimated at $601.7 billion, an increase of 14.9 percent from 2018. This number certainly implies that retailers know what they’re doing when it comes to online sales.

But in our current climate, with online shopping going through the roof, how can retailers  do even better to attract new customers and how can they keep their current customers coming back for more?

Loyalty programs can help online retailers improve customer retention, increase cross-sell and upsell opportunities, and expand margins and revenues. But poor user experiences can impair customer satisfaction and hamper loyalty programs. Today’s consumers expect fast, friction-free and secure interactions from any device. To unleash the full potential of the company’s loyalty program, retailers need to accelerate website and mobile app performance, streamline digital engagements, and safeguard sensitive data.

A simple and seamless registration process is the first step to engaging a company’s new customer and enrolling them in its official or unofficial loyalty program. Long and drawn-out registration processes frustrate customers and dampen enrollments. Making sign up quick and easy and supporting social sign-on across all properties can improve experiences and curb abandonment. Consider the notion of data minimization and what the data is really being used for.

The less retailers ask for, the quicker the registration process, and the less they have to store. For example, if a retailer is going to send its customers  a coupon on their birthdays, that is fantastic, but do they really need to know the year they were born to do that?

It is well known that shopping on mobile devices continues to rise; our data confirms it year after year. So it isn’t enough to optimize just a retailer’s website; mobile app performance is just as important. Performance of the retailer’s web properties is vital to the user experience. Even the most loyal customer will abandon the site mid-purchase if they are experiencing slow load times. Optimizing web performance and ensuring quality experiences across all devices and locations can improve customer impressions and boost transactions.

For example, if you’re anything like me, I do a lot of online shopping. I live in a rural area and the convenience of shopping online and having items delivered to my door is a luxury I embrace. Therefore, when I shop online, I have to feel as though I’m in the store, and that comes largely from high quality images and videos, and lots of them. Rich media content can help entice shoppers and improve loyalty while sluggish page loads and video streams can turn off customers and impact the bottom line. Retailers can enhance user experiences by using adaptive media management tools to optimize images and video content for mobile devices and web browsers.

Many consumers are dubious about sharing all of their personal and financial information for loyalty programs and they should be; loyalty programs are ripe for fraud and abuse. Hackers and scammers can resell or redeem stolen awards for big payouts. One loyalty-fraud prevention group estimates that $1 billion a year is lost to loyalty programs crime. Retailers can defend against credential theft, stuffing and misuse by implementing advanced customer identity and access management and bot management solutions.

As technology and online retail continue to evolve, the need for strict compliance in handling and protecting personal data becomes a real necessity for online retailers to thrive and perhaps survive. It’s not just a matter of protecting data that is willingly shared; it is also about sharing implied information about consumers based on their past behavior and purchases. The industry has only scratched the service when it comes to protecting the privacy of consumers; we can expect even more regulations in the coming months and years. By instituting strong data security systems and practices now, retailers  can improve regulatory compliance, and avoid steep fines and bad press.

With the convergence of these industries, there’s plenty of technology designed to help online retailers offer an engaging and secure loyalty program that’s mutually beneficial for consumers and sellers. Online retailers need more than just a vendor, but rather a technology partner that can help improve digital engagements and mitigate risk by streamlining customer onboarding, accelerating website and mobile app performance, and protecting confidential data and IT systems. The challenges are complex and require a comprehensive portfolio of performance optimization and intelligent edge security solutions.

Tara Bartley is senior manager, industry marketing, at Akamai, an intelligent edge platform for securing and delivering digital experiences.