If you're selling your products or services online using an eCommerce solution then here are the Top 5 things to ensure you're doing to optimise your online business:
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
I recently did a blog on the customer experience and once again this is just critical. Your eCommerce solution needs to be clear, provide the client with the details necessary to make the buying decision, offer a way to get more information if necessary (via contact or FAQs) and provide added security.
MOBILE & RESPONSIVE
If you haven't yet realised that the majority of people are accessing the internet via mobile devices then you've been sleeping behind the wheel and likely to crash! Not only is it important to have a responsive or mobile friendly website but it is also important to test your site on different devices to ensure that it does in fact work. Also test that Google likes it on https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/.
DESCRIPTIONS AND SEO
When the customer comes to your website, they come to buy but they also come for information. If they don't receive the information that they're looking for they're more likely to just leave. BANG one potential sale lost. I see this all the time with people spending lots of time and money to bring customers to the website and yet the simplest thing has been overlooked.
Your shop needs to provide the customer with as much detail as possible, about the product (top, bottom, inside, outside, materials, quality), then clear pricing details especially if your pricing has options, shipping information and returns. It is important to remember that the purchasing decision is usually an impulse decision and one where the person doesn't want to send you emails (conversion rates drop dramatically when they have to do this). The language you use should be emotive, enticing and lively rather than dull descriptions which are less likely to turn your visitor into a buyer.
Finally great, long term descriptions are also good for SEO searches. Think about what your customer may search for and be sure to answer those questions within your text.
SOCIAL SHARING
Social sharing is a must on everything, in my experience I don't see it used as often as one hopes, but it doesn't take anything to add this and there is nothing more annoying than wanting to share a new purchase or great product and there is no way to do so except by copying the url, make it easy and accessible. Social sharing buttons also do their bit in terms of helping with your customer experience and rankings.
DELIVERY, RETURNS AND GUARANTEES
Ever look at a product on a site and think, hey I'd really like that, but I don't know the company, I can't see what the delivery costs are, what happens if it isn't the right size and what kind of quality is it ... then when your thoughts aren't answered you leave the site to look for something that may be a better bet? Well your clients are going to do the same thing.
Be sure to provide clear
- delivery information - costs, timings, tracking, etc.
- returns - how long to return, full or part refunds, administration costs, shipping costs, etc
- guarantees - if you guarantee something then you're saying to your customer that you're confident that they will love what you send them and they're unlikely to send it back and if they do there isn't much to lose if anything at all. This one thing alone provides a great lift in buying decisions and buyer confidence.
These are my top tips, you can see that it doesn't take a lot to make some significant improvements to your eCommerce but these tips are the most important ones to improve your buyer confidence and encourage that buying decision.
