Table of Contents
1. It is wise to Invest in Website Design
What happens when you visit a brick and mortar store to purchase a certain product? Before you reach out to the item of your choice, the design and upkeep of the store catch your attention.
Selection and purchase of products are difficult if the store does not meticulously showcase the items.
Even worse, a shabby dirty surrounding makes you run away. You want to go somewhere else to buy.
In eCommerce, this “run-away” time is 15 seconds.
If you are unable to create a good user experience in those 15 seconds, people will move to your competitors.
An attractive, modern, engaging design makes your prospects stay on your website for a longer duration as compared to a plain, simple website design.
2. Create more traffic with SEO
Search Engine Optimization is a tool that helps your website to rank high in search results.
Search engines work with algorithms. These algorithms create the list of website links that is visible when you search for something specific.
Google Page 1 results account for 92% of the entire traffic from the search results. Your website should appear among the top few results when people search for the certain products that you sell.
Here, SEO comes into the picture.
Your online store will attract buyers if your brand is visible to them. SEO makes your online store more visible on the internet.
It helps your website to get organic traffic that comes to a website without any payment. You can go for a paid advertisement, but it adds cost to your business.
For a successful online store, you need more traffic. Relevant, quality traffic.
If you sell software solutions, consumers with software requirements are the quality traffic for your store. Traffic created by those who click on your website for any reason is irrelevant.
So, the main focus of your marketing strategy is to attract quality traffic.
SEO creates good quality, organic traffic for your online store
3. Do not ignore the Checkout Page
You have a great front end website design. The SEO strategy is working well for your store. The product description on your website compels the prospects to buy. The customers go through a smooth journey through the purchase funnel.
It’s time for action and finalizes the purchase. But sometimes things go wrong here.
The average cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57%
This is a big loss for businesses and we cannot let this happen to ours.
The checkout page converts the prospects to customers. Unfortunately, a lot of online stores ignore the importance of this page. Here are a few points to focus on when you design the checkout page of your online store.
- Secure and Popular Payment Options
- Multiple Payment Methods
- Quick, Simple, and Clear Checkout process
- Uniformity in design with the rest of the website
- Display Security Credentials
- Include Shipping Charges Information
To create a successful online store, provide trustworthy and convenient checkout solutions to your customers.
4. Compelling Product Description and Pictures
A good product description convinces the customers to buy. It creates an impression of your product in the mind of the target audience. If that impression appeals to them, they buy.
Create an impressive product description that informs the customers about the product features and highlights its benefits without being pushy.
Include good quality product pictures that capture attention. Product pictures create a strong visual impact on buyers. Product pictures should be visible from all angles with the right choice of colors. It should be the closest match with the actual product.
You want to sell your product but do you want to deal with big amounts of returns too? If the answer is “No”, your product description and pictures should be true and clear.
In present times, when returns are easy for eCommerce customers, anything that does not match the consumers’ need and imagination gets returned to the seller.
Product descriptions and pictures have a direct impact on sales.
5. Make your store mobile-friendly
These days customers make purchases on the go, thanks to smartphones.
If your online store is not designed to be mobile-friendly, you will lose out a lot of customers to your competition.
“To keep your finger on the current market pulse, a mobile responsive site is a must.”
With more than 2.71 billion smartphone users worldwide and the number is increasing as we read this article, mobile-friendly websites get a massive audience.
As a result, they have higher conversion rates as compared to ‘desktop only’ eCommerce stores.
6. Reviews
Positive customer reviews are business boosters. Consumers look at online reviews before they buy any product or service through eCommerce. The better the reviews, the higher are the chances of the purchase.
“A customer talking about their experience with you is worth ten times that which you write or say about yourself.” – David J. Greer, WInd In Your Sales.
Think of reviews as an online reputation management program for your eCommerce store and start working on it.
Ask your customer for reviews. You will come across stories that will motivate you to provide a good customer experience and they will push your sales higher as well.
92%-97% of customers read online reviews before they visit a business.
Apart from the customer feedback program, invest your time on social media to know what your customer talk about your brand. Encourage them to provide good ratings with incentives like a discount on the next purchase, coupons, etc.
Negative reviews too, give you a chance to connect with the customers and take redressal action to their complaints. This acts as social proof that you take care of your dissatisfied customers and builds a good reputation for your business.
7. Craft your Return and Refund Policy with care
We have discussed some tips to increase the site traffic, rise in sales, positive reviews, happy customers, etc. What disturbs a business owner is “returns”. In eCommerce, returns are a reality.
Customers look for the return policy before they decide to buy. Even for established brands, customers like to ensure if their money is secured in case of returns.
“A fair, precise, and clear return policy builds trust in customers”.
Your customers need to know what is going to happen to their money if they decide to return the product.
92% of the customers said that they will buy again if the product return process is easy.
Another question that customers ask is how will they get their refunds. The time-frame and mode of refund are common issues.
If your business is clear in its return and refund policies, the customers trust your brand. The trust brings in more purchases and an increase in sales numbers.
8. Ready-to-use Platform
Last, but not the least is an overall ready-to-use platform does wonders for your business. Instead of going for customized options that create a big hole in your pocket at the initial stage only, it’s better to go for a good eCommerce platform.
If you choose the right platform while you are starting your eCommerce business, it saves a lot of your time and money. You can utilize this time, money, and energy to expand your business, experiment with new ideas, and market your brand.
How does an eCommerce platform help you create an online store?
An eCommerce platform helps you design your store with ready templates. The themes give a professional look to your online store.
The platform can deal with the type of products you want to sell. The product can be physical or digital, your eCommerce platform should be able to handle both. It should be integrated with multiple payment options for the ease of your customers.
It should give you space to scale up your business anytime you want.
In case your business goes global, the platform should be well versed with international tax requirements.
A good platform takes care of your store’s marketing too.
The platform manages the back end for your store like inventory tracking, shipping, and order management. It should be able to integrate your store with other systems or apps like ERP, CRM, etc.
These and a lot of other benefits are covered by VARStreet that help you manage, sell, and grow your business with ease.
