If you run or manage an online business then you’ll be constantly engaged in trying to increase the percentage of your website visitors that make a purchase. Unless you’re converting 100% of visitors into buyers (if you are then call me NOW – we need to talk!) then this is a job that’s never finished – it’s an ongoing mission.
If you run or manage an online business then you’ll be constantly engaged in trying to increase the percentage of your website visitors that make a purchase. Unless you’re converting 100% of visitors into buyers (if you are then call me NOW – we need to talk!) then this is a job that’s never finished – it’s an ongoing mission.
What I want to reveal today is five simple steps that so many ecommerce site owners fail to implement. They’re those annoying, seemingly obvious little things that sometimes are easy to forget about, but are really important fundamentals in building an effective, trusted online business. So check the list and if you’re missing any of these five options then implement them now to see an instantaneous and marked improvement in online conversions.
1. Products, Products, ProductsAre your products the first thing a user sees when they hit your site? If not then make sure they are. It’s amazing how often ecommerce websites have products hidden within the navigation. Think of your online store as if it were a physical shop on the high street. Your homepage is your shop window so showing off your best products to entice customers into the shop further is an absolute must. If you’ve got no products in the window then you probably look like one of those shops with white paint and ‘closing down sale’ over the windows… not good!2. A Picture Paints a Thousand SalesGood product images add a huge amount of value to ecommerce sites and the big online players are continually improving the way they use imagery to increase online conversions. If you run an online store then it’s difficult to give the customer the same demonstration of the product as you could if they were in a physical store actually looking at it! That’s why it’s so important to give as good a reflection of the product as possible through the use of great images.
ASOS film a catwalk video for every new product they add to the site and you can imagine how much time and money is involved in doing this for an online store the size of ASOS. Hopefully this highlights how important a factor this is in generating online sales!
If your images are lacking then begin investing the time now in capturing better ones. Depending on your budget there are specialised companies out there that charge a fixed cost to take professional studio shots of each of your products. If that’s not possible then you should take new images in-house making sure you have a good quality camera, tripod and a consistent background to shoot your images. Make sure you have shot each product at a number of different angles. 3. The Humble Search BoxSuch a simple piece of functionality but something I’m beginning to notice more and more ecommerce sites are failing to include (even some of the large online players). It doesn’t matter how great your navigation is, it’s difficult to categorise every product you have in a way that customers can easily find and some people just prefer to search first before exploring categories (especially if they’re searching for something specific). The search box is a pretty simple piece of functionality to include – you can even use Google site search if you’re looking to quickly implement search functionality.4. Shout About ReturnsThis is a quick change we implemented for a client about a year ago and we saw conversion rates increase instantly and quite dramatically. All we did was create a content holder on each page template that advertised the efficient and simple returns policy. We highlighted the returns policy even more at the checkout stage and the decrease in the cart abandon rate was quite astonishing. I don’t for a second think that potential customers were leaving because they didn’t think the shop had a returns policy, but by simply highlighting it just added the extra little bit of, almost subconscious, trust and credibility to get the user to take the desired action. 5. Clear Customer ServiceThis is similar to highlighting the returns policy but is another highly effective method to increase online conversions. Does your online shop have a clear customer service area? If a user were to purchase a product then have an issue then would they be able to easily resolve it? Can a user ask a question about a product before purchasing it and get an instant answer?Whether you include a section in your main navigation, have a live chat facility available from each page or predominantly display a customer service phone number on your site, all of these actions build trust and credibility and remove barriers to a user making a purchase. Again, it’s on an almost sub-conscious level, but if a user gets the impression when on your online shop that you are a ‘real’ company that they could contact directly and resolve any issue with, then they are much more likely to make a purchase.
What else can you be doing to increase online conversions? A huge amount if truth be told but implement these steps first and you’ll be on the right track. Let me know how you get on.
