There may only be one letter between these two words but there is a huge difference in that one letter to your bottom line - are you distressing your customer and de-stressing the customer?
There is huge profit just waiting for anyone who can de-stress the purchase process. There is huge customer loyalty just waiting for brands that put as much effort into de-stressing the purchase process as making the website look 'pretty'.
In this 24 hour world of hustle and bustle, all customers will pay for easy, simple purchases - just look at the streams on social media about call waiting times, customer service issues, long complicated form filling out, people not getting back to them etc etc
Stress is untapped potential in any marketplace because brands tend to fit products and services into their process rather than making sure the customer service process fits the customer experience.
One area that always makes me smile is webinar registration by social media experts - often on some element of customer experience! They ask for so many sign up details and bombard you with emails that the experience stops you from actually buying their service.
Yes, you need details BUT more than that you want to create an experience of your brand. Too many times people think if we get 5% of our email subscribers to sign up that will be great, when they should be aiming for a 90% conversion based on the brand experience.
It is a great example of turning a de-stressing customer experience - teaching them something to make them feel more knowledgeable - to a distressing customer experience by bombarding them for information.
All businesses in the digital age crave data to pump through their databases but don't let the database drive the customer experience.