10 Tips for e-commerce
These 10 useful tips are common characteristics of many successful online stores. If you are a budding ecommerce entrepreneur, we hope you take from this article an understanding of the best practices, and how these can impact on sales.
Tip #1: Have personality
Often businesses are so focused on appearing professional and credible that they end up looking generic and sounding dry.
To make a site stand out and be memorable, you need to add personality - the unique flavor that only your brand can express. This can be done through the overall style of the website (e.g. minimal or vintage); the website copy and language used (e.g. using humour, or techy speak); and in the choice and treatment of photos and other visual content.
Tip #2: Be user friendly
For customers to purchase your product, they must be able to find it. To make this process intuitive for customers, ensure your navigation is in a prominent location, is organised, and has self-explanatory titles for categories and subcategories.
Not every customer is happy to browse - some will know what they want and would like to find it quickly and conveniently. Every ecommerce store should have a search bar for these customers.
For those customers that want to browse, you can save them time and effort by giving them options to filter the products they see, by price or size for example.
Tip #3: Showcase your products
Once a shopper finds a product, you need to make them want it. Showcasing your products in a visually appealing and interesting way is key to retaining the customer’s interest and getting them to commit to a purchase.
Make sure product photos are high quality – humans are visual creatures, and we make assumptions about products based on how they look.
Videos are a good way to give customers an in-depth view of a product or a demonstration, helping build trust and making them less hesitant about purchasing online.
For many online stores, the bulk of their sales can typically come from a small number of products. Showcasing these ‘hot items’ can be a simple way to boost sales.
Tip #4: Provide enough detail
Good product information is critical to purchase decision-making. Customers want to know the price, how the product was made, how it will be shipped, and what others are saying about it.
Prices should be displayed boldly and clearly, and if you are giving a discount then show how much so customers know they are getting a deal.
Customer reviews help confirm your product is a great deal. If you get negative reviews, then these should be seen as opportunities to either make product changes or respond to customer concerns publicly.
Make sure shipping costs are communicated before final checkout. The earlier your customers know about additional charges, the less likely they are to abandon their cart.
Tip #5: Keep checkout simple
Research suggests that nearly 60% of potential customers abandon their shopping cart before making any payment. This is the harsh reality of ecommerce – customers can be pretty fickle. Therefore, it’s crucial to keep the checkout process simple and straightforward. Keeping it linear, from start to finish. Having steps within steps, or making customers go back a step (e.g. to sign up) to then go forward again only confuses and intimidates them. A progress bar can be great for customers to see where they are in the process.
Avoid advertisements or promoting additional deals, this only makes the pathway less clear (and less appealing).
Lastly, if you wish for people to register try not to make them - this is a number one turnoff for online shoppers. Alternatively, give them the choice the either ‘register’ or ‘checkout as a guest’.
Tip #6: Honesty is the best policy
Nobody likes feeling deceived after making a purchase. Make sure that your shop policies are easy to find and in plain language so customers know exactly what they are in for should they wish, for example, to exchange or return products.
Tip #7: Be Human
Having your products available online can make it a faster and more convenient process for customers to buy them in comparison to visiting a store. What gains you make through convenience however can also be lost from not having the human element, so try to add this in where you can.
A lot of potential customers are still nervous about buying online, so if possible give them the option to interact with people by providing phone numbers and other contact info. Having a Live Chat option is another way to tackle client questions or provide helpful detail just like a salesman would in a retail store.
Complementary services such as gift-wrapping and personalised notes are a great way to give that ‘extra touch’ that will make your customers purchase experience positive and memorable.
Tip #8: Be Device & Browser friendly
There is no doubt that mobile ecommerce will play a big part in the future of online shopping. Smartphones are said to replace even our car keys by 2015, so if your website isn’t mobile responsive or you don’t have a separate mobile ecommerce site (or app) then you will likely miss out on sales.
There is an umpteen number of Internet browsers, and browser versions now. Depending on how your website is built some will display it differently from others. Potential customers aren’t going to hang around if your site appears broken, so ensuring your site performs on the most popular of these is pretty crucial. It’s not an easy feat to have your website perform on the most modern browsers as well as the ancient ones. Your best bet is to make sure your site is working on modern Internet browsers – thankfully some companies such as Internet Explorer have started making users update to later versions.
Tip #9: Perform in search engines
You could tick all the boxes for the tips above and still be missing out on sales if potential customers aren’t finding you. To perform in search engines your site must be technically sound, and have high quality, unique content.
SEO isn’t all a mysterious science, as some SEO companies may pitch it. There are some technical things ‘under the hood’ that your website developers can optimise to help improve your placement in Google. More than ever however, it is about your website content and making this relevant to your targeted users. Google have stated that this is their goal – to match its searches with the most relevant content, so this should be your goal also.
Make sure you write content that is useful, and that customers want to share. For example, an ecommerce website selling health products shouldn’t just have copy about the benefits of those products. This isn’t the type of content that people share. Rather, they should think about the wider subject ‘health’ and consider writing articles such as ‘Tips for a healthy lifestyle’ that people might actually want to share.
Tip #10: Get social
Some companies have a fear of putting their brand on social media, where it is open for discussion amongst millions of people with varying opinions. Sometimes this isn’t the only case, often we have heard clients say ‘it simply isn’t them’, which may be true for some. If you run an ecommerce website however, the benefits far outweigh the negatives when it comes to social media.
As suggested earlier, Social media can play a big part in search engine performance. Having users share your content and providing links to your website not only help send potential customers your way, but it reinforces in Google’s eyes the usefulness and popularity of your website content.
Facebook, twitter and Pinterest in particular have proven to be great tools for many online stores. Facebook is considered the most popular social media platform, and its benefit to ecommerce is really centered around making customer connections. Brand development, relationship building, customer service, real time feedback, and word of mouth are all benefits that Facebook can offer.
Twitter is great as an announcement tool, and ecommerce stores have been using it successfully to let their keen followers know about new products or special deals before anyone else.
Pinterest is great for attracting more sales. Of its 10 million + users, more than 70% have claimed they use it for shopping inspiration and keeping up with trends. Enabling your online customers to share a (great) photo of your product on Pinterest can potentially give you exposure to thousands of new customers.
In conclusion, it’s important to note that different ecommerce businesses will face different challenges and for that reason the 10 tips above are by no means definitive. We welcome anyone interested in starting an e-commerce business to come in for a chat about your unique requirements.