If you’ve opened your ecommerce store and are ready to sell online, one of the biggest
challenges is trying to convince site visitors to become customers. The internet is a browsing
medium, allowing potential customers to flit from online store to online store, looking for the
cheapest price or best bargain, until they decide to make a purchase. Therefore, it is important
to provide an online store that recognises this.
Unlike the real world, where the presence of a helpful sales assistant can sometimes close a
sale on a wavering store visitor, the internet has a back button that makes it far easier for your
visitors to leave your store quickly and anonymously. So how do you close those sales?
Keep it simple
Most people shop online for convenience, so it is imperative that your online store has an
easy purchasing process. Don’t overcomplicate your online store by using forms, requiring
registration or using complex navigation if you don’t have to. Always ensure a customer can
click a button at any time to go straight to a purchase.
Secure and easy payments
One of the biggest worries to internet shoppers is the security of their credit card details when
buying their online bargains.
By ordering a dedicated or shared SSL certificate from Netregistry, you can show your
customers their payment transactions are safely encrypted to protect their valuable information.
Landing pages that sell
Visitors may arrive at your online store through a variety of routes, meaning they may land
on different pages of your website.
Because of this, ensure each relevant landing page is focussed on closing that particular
sale. The internet is about instant gratification, so reward a visitor searching for your
bargains with a quick response to their needs. Each landing page should be designed
to provide a simple ‘one click sale’ if at all possible, providing an instant solution to the
visitor’s request, whilst removing clutter. Take the visitor by the hand and lead them where
you want them to go.
Make them an offer they can’t refuse
That’s what Domino Pizza did when they entered the competitive pizza home delivery
market with their “30 minutes or it’s free” campaign. What can your online store offer to
encourage customers to buy from you instead of any of the other online stores fighting for
their attention; cheap deals on fast delivery, a money-back guarantee, free upgrades?
The online shopping world is different to the high street, where your shop is only
competing with sellers in the local area. Online, a customer can visit numerous stores in
minutes to compare prices and deals, increasing competition dramatically. Ensure your
offer stands out from the rest.
Have postage and shipping alternatives advertised up front
It is common for customers to abandon a purchase at the very last page of the payment
process once the postage is factored into the overall price, catching them by surprise. By
offering fair postage rates up front, you allow a customer to effectively assess the value of
buying through your store.
Offer alternative methods of postage, where possible. Some online stores offer delivery only by
courier, or other expensive methods, which can turn customers away. Courier costs can more
than double the price of an item in some cases, immediately short-circuiting a sale. Ensure
every product on your website has a cost-effective postage solution that makes the whole
package attractive to the buyer.
