How To Make Your Ecommerce Site Sell More

The goal of any webshop or ecommerce site is to sell more, that’s a given. Owners, webmasters and developers are constantly trying to improve their conversions in an effort to make more and sell more. Constant testing and tracking will, over time yield results, but here are some quick and easy additions you can make to help your webshop sell more. Most of what you will see in this list is no more than common sense but hopefully it will be enough to spur you into action and get you thinking about how you can improve your sales.

Free Shipping

It’s been done to death and every site offers it, but this is why I want to talk about it. If your competition offers free shipping you need to think of a way to differentiate your store. Offering free overnight and next day shipping is something that is becoming more popular because it’s working, soon this will also become the norm. To get ahead of the pack why not offer an extra incentive like free gift wrapping or a personalized message with every gift order. Another option that I really like is instead of offering free overnight shipping why not make a donation to a charity on behalf of the buyer, I have found that this works especially in the run of the holiday season.

Check Out Process

Keep the checkout process quick and simple, having potential customers drop off half way through checkout is not an option. What you should aim for is to collect all the necessary details and check out in as few clicks as possible. Request only the info you really need to fulfill the order, Name, address, email and of course credit card details.

Images

Depending on what you are selling having detailed images can make or break the sale. Many people are tactile and they may prefer to see and feel something before they buy it. This will never happen with a webshop so you need to get as close to this as possible, offer as many images as possible in the highest resolution possible allow them to see every detail of the product. Many online clothes retailers do a great job here, by offering a 360 degree view and close ups of the material used, some even offer videos of models wearing the clothes. This not only increases sales but can help to decrease returns as the customer has a better idea of just how the item may look and feel when it arrives.

Sales Copy

The object of every product page is to help sell that item, copying the description from the manufacturers page may not cut it. Many manufactures just describe the products features and uses. What they miss is how to entice people to buy. The aim of the copy is to portray an emotion of how the customer will feel if they own this product, how it can enrich their life and what they may be missing if they don’t have this product.

Up Selling and Cross Selling

Now that you have potential customers on your site, the first task is to get them to buy; the next thing is to get them to spend more. Having a “customers also bought” will help but most sites have this. To move things on, why not offer and extra incentive to add something else to their cart. So when they click the add to cart button use a pop up to highlight the “customers who also bought” section. Test conversions by offering a free gift or the donation we talked about earlier.

Reviews And Testimonials

Product reviews and testimonials can be a great deciding factor in whether prospecting customers clicks the add to cart button. In the internet age we all read reviews of product before we buy, having reviews on your site can not only helps get the sale but they can also drive traffic that converts. Writing your own reviews is not something I can recommend, why not incentivize customers who bought the product to write frank and candid reviews and reward them for doing so. This is another good way to get repeat customers returning to your site.

Repeat Customers

It’s easier to increase conversions than it is to increase traffic and it’s easier to get old customers to buy again than it is to get new customers. Keep connected with your customer base, through newsletters social media and any other outlets that are available. Segment your customer base by their buying habits and make them aware of any new product lines when they become available. Loyalty schemes work well but constantly offering discounts and money off can back fire as some customers may choose to wait for a discount before they buy from you again and in a sense many of us who excessively offer discounts are training our customer base to wait for a discount before they visit again. Use discounts and vouchers sparingly.