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5 Tips To Optimize Online Sales

Looking to drive traffic to your e-commerce site? Who isn’t?! Now if you want to drive traffic AND get some sales, here are a few ideas to help optimize your e-commerce sell thru.

1. Offer comprehensive product information without a lot of junk in the middle. In other words, be concise but don’t waste your audience’s time with too many fancy words that just take up space. Give a clear understandinng of what the product is, including (if necessary) it’s purpose.

2. Cross sell products whenever possible. Include small photos of complimentary products that your customer may be interested in based on what they are currently viewing or at the very least, what they have already just purchased.

3. Provide multiple e-communication offers. Don’t have a 1-800 number? That’s okay. But give your customers options to get a hold of you in case they have questions about a product or placing an order. Email, phone number, online chat, Q&A list for frequently asked questions – include at least two.

4. Give the sense of touch even when they can’t touch anything. Selling apparel? List the product contents, such as 97% cotton and 3% spandex. Is there texture to a product? Include a snapshot and describe the touch of this. Review your inventory to see what can be described and shown in words and photos that may help your audience in their purchasing decisions.

5. Don’t ignore your SEO options. SEO – Search Engine Optimization – drives consumers to your site that don’t already know about your site. Make this matter for you!

Finally, make sure your check out process is easy for your customers. Include all necessary details of purchasing policies, return policies and payment options. Adding a coupon for a return purchase is a great way to get returning customers, as well!


Comments

  • tazmlw
    April 25, 2009

    cant stress enough how important it is to make the shopping cart, checkout process easy. Too onerous and the shopper will abandon their shopping cart. I have left the “cart” whenever the checkout process became too burdensome. Really how much information do they really need.

    Not sure how many shoppers use it, but I am a big fan of PayPal, skip the entire process of credit card information and shipping details.

    Customers also want very detailed shipping information. It isn’t enough to offer multiple shipping options, it is important to let the customer know when to expect the order to be pulled/filled. Nothing upsets a customer more than paying for next day service only to find out the product won’t be pulled for three days.

  • topseekrit
    April 27, 2009

    What e-commerce platforms would you recommend? Do you think that people prefer paypal rather than shopping cart platforms?

    • Nicole Reyhle
      April 28, 2009

      There are many e-commerce platforms to choose from. I can’t reccomend any without knowing more about your products and sales objective. It’s very important that no matter what platform you go with, though, to ensure safety in the checkout process for security purposes (credit card information, etc). This said, PayPal is an option but best when you are only selling one or maybe two total products. More than that and you will want to give your customers options for payment choices. Hope this helps a bit. Thanks.

  • Robert Cyr
    April 27, 2009

    Number 4 is very important, create a a picture/feeling in the readers mind.

    I really like they layout and look of your blog. I am going to follow your updates by adding your feed!

  • Katy
    April 29, 2009

    SEO has been one of the most vital aspects of our marketing strategy. Search for the popular keywords that apply to your business and integrate them into your copy. Provide solid content regarding your industry on another page (product care, product history, buying guides, ect). If the content is of high quality, it can also elevate you to an authority within your industry giving the consumer added security when buying from you. Streamline your page’s code to ensure that it can be easily crawled by spiders.

  • Dan Cooley
    May 18, 2009

    I aggree with Katy. Search Engine Optimization is more of an art than a science. Your site content has to comply with SEO best practices, but also be unique and interesting. A good web design firm will ensure an organic process of search engine optimization, where your content is highly optimized but also woven into a natural presentation for your web visitor.

    Beware of “Web Optimization Specialists” who promise to “Make your site #1 in Google instantly!” Unfortunately, the methods employed usually violate search engine rules and can lead to you getting banned.

  • Barbara
    June 13, 2009

    One huge key re shopping cart checkout process; if you require your users to login before paying; you will see abandoned carts. I want to see the shipping fees, doggone it, without giving you my contact info. If I have to login just to see my total…bye bye!

    And I second another reply; PayPal okay for a couple of things, but really professional shops have their own e-commerce solution; look for one with built in SEO features. I’ve got a cart with items that list ahead of the mfg in Google rankings all because of fields for basic SEO; Title, Description and Keywords.

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