9 simple tips to transform your online sales 1. Make the site fast Adobe has said that when selling online, “improving speed can reduce abandonment rates by up to 41%”. Google also reports that a 30% increase in page load speed results in a 30% increase in business. They have also categorically stated that a speedy site will rank better and, obviously, buyers like fast sites too. In my experience, moving customers to faster hosting packages has seen traffic to the sites grow by up to 50%. It’s simple. If you want a successful web business it’s a false economy to cut corners on hosting costs. Your ecommerce cart needs to be fast too. Load times can also be optimised by reducing the size of images and pages. You can use Google Analytics to see which pages need attention and make changes accordingly. 2. Think Google When you provide a lot of information on your products, this has major search engine benefits. Search engines love content and if the content is constantly evolving, they will rank you even better. People do see SEO as a bit of a black art, and they are partly right. SEO is a big topic, but some of the simple basics are well worth saying more than once. When people search, they type a “keyword” or “key phrase” (collectively referred to as “keywords”) into the search box. Identifying the most popular keywords for your product range is the most important step. You can find this out by taking a free trial with Wordtracker. You can also identify keywords that are well-used, but have fewer than average relevant pages on the web. These are your best opportunities — they represent niches where there are plenty of potential customers, but not too much competition. As a simple example that illustrates the benefit of careful keyword analysis, there are numerous pages on Google listing content and adverts for “Flowers”, but only three ads for “Bunch of roses”. Tools such as Google Search Analyser (part of AdWords) can help identify unique search terms. Even if you’re not planning to use a pay-per-click (PPC) scheme, it’s worth signing up as it will save a lot of time. Once you know your keywords, you should make sure these appear regularly on your site. The keywords should appear in text, product names, page names and titles, and even image names. 3. Answer questions It seems incredible to me how some online retailers miss sales by simply not providing enough information about products. Don’t just have one small image, but allow visitors to zoom in. Include instructions and practical tips on every aspect of using the product. The more information that you provide, the easier it is for people to buy, and it’s also a way to encourage them to return. The best online retailers have spent huge amounts of time on their descriptions and pictures of their products. It really works. 4. Accept PayPal Some online shoppers have a balance in their PayPal account, especially if they have sold some items on eBay, and it may be burning a hole in their pockets. That’s why it’s quite common for online stores that start accepting PayPal payments to see their sales increase by around 10%. This may vary depending on the typical demographic of your buyer, but if you don’t already accept PayPal it’s well worth the minimal effort to do so. 5. Make sure people trust you There are a number of ways of gaining that trust, and you may be able to come up with your own ideas. As a starter for ten though, here are some thoughts. Provide your contact details throughout the site, including a telephone number and physical address (it’s a legal requirement anyway). Promote confidence by responding fast to emails, and answering the telephone quickly and professionally. Display logos showing your membership of trade bodies such as the IMRG or FSB, and join at least one of the merchant accreditation schemes like ISIS or SafeBuy. A photograph of your staff or premises can also do wonders. 6. Simplify address input Asking customers to just type in their postcode when checking out and then using software to look up the full address automatically not only streamlines the process, but also reduces the risk of cart abandonment. Because delivery addresses will be more accurate you will definitely reduce costs by having fewer failed deliveries. Your follow up mailshots will receive a similar benefit. Check out postcode lookup services from Postcode Anywhere who work on a pay-as-you-go basis. 7. Give a break on customer registration Sometimes obvious points can be missed. We all know how annoying it is to have to remember lots of passwords and I resent being made to create another account on a site I’ll use once. In fact I won’t buy from a store that takes this tack, and I am sure I’m not alone. People don’t know if they’ll return to buy again before they complete their first order so why force them to register? Give them the option to sign up later. 8. Understand that “free” can backfire Trying different changes to your site and measuring the results may be dull, but massive and unexpected gains can result from small changes. In one documented case sales doubled simply by removing the discount code field from the checkout. The verdict was that buyers without discount codes felt ripped off if they didn’t have a code. In another case, sign-ups increased by 200% after “Free trial” was changed to “See plans and pricing”. 9. Use multiple niche sites You can use multiple sites each addressing a segment of your overall market. This enables you to make the site more relevant to your audience and can also improve search engine rankings.
Posted on: Wed, 31 Dec 2014 15:36:37 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015