Ecommerce sites offer an easy way for the product owners to sell their merchandise. But there are various things that need to be taken care of to convert the visitors into actual customers. Many ecommerce owners spend considerable time to promote their site using SEO/SEM but miss the mark owing to proper usability which is more important to convert leads into sales. Typically, the conversion rate is 1%-2% which can be increased with proper usability. I have compiled a list of things which shall boost the conversion rates on most commercial sites.
- Clutter free homepage: The landing page of the site should be clutter free with clearly defined categories and products menu. Some featured or best selling products can be highlighted.
- One Page Checkout: Keep the shopping process simple and quick with one page checkout. This will reduce the cart abandonment rate as the lengthy checkout process may irritate the customer and prevent from completing the buy.
- Display the contact info prominently: Display the contact info like Phone no, toll free no and email id prominently on all the pages as this will generate trust in the customer and also provide an easy way for the customer to contact you if he is facing any issue with the online shopping process.
- Checkout process bar: Its important to have a checkout process bar so that the customer knows all the steps he need to complete before the buy is complete and also where he is at any step.
- Thankyou and payment confirmation page: A customer needs to be clear that the order is complete and the payment has been successfully paid. So, its necessary to have a thankyou page with order number and payment receipt confirmation. Also an email with order information and payment receipt should be sent to the customer.
- Early shipping calculation: Its now very important to display the shipping charges at the start of the checkout process as its very annoying to the customer if the shipping charges come out to be more than the product cost itself.
- Stock Update and Display: The stock situation of all the products on the site should be correctly displayed to the user. Ideally, the customer should not be allowed to add a product to the cart if the product is not available in stock. Rather an option to either contact the seller or add to wish list should be there to the customer so that an email can be sent to the customer when the product is replenished in the stock.
- Product details: Provide as much details of the product as possible like title, description, available attributes like color, size, styles etc, multiple images, related products. This helps the customer to get a proper touch and feel of the product.
- Product Reviews: Displaying product reviews submitted by real customers also help the new customer to make a quick decision.
- Multiple payment options: Its quite helpful to have multiple payment options to the customer as some customer may be comfortable with credit card payment but some may not. Also add the accepted payment options on all the pages of the site, so that the customer can know beforehand whether he has the possibility to pay using the available options.
- Shopping Cart: Use the product pictures in the shopping cart with each item. Also, link back the product with the product detail page in a new window so that the customer can view the details and compare with other products.
- Terms of Use: Its very important to provide all the terms in simple and clear text description. Its recommended to cover Guarantee policy, Return policy, Privacy policy and general terms of use.
- Discounts and Offers: Special offers from time to time attract visitors and prompt the visitor to purchase. For example. Free shipping with a purchase of over $75 will prompt the customer to purchase more to save on shipping price.
- Product Reviews: The customer love to read reviews and this aid in their decision to make a purchase. Provide customer reviews for the products on the site and also allow the customer to submit a review.
- Currency converter: The customers always feel comfortable buying in their own country’s currency. So, if you are selling to international customers also, its much advisable to have a currency converter on the site and allow the customers to view the products price in their preferred currency.
- Confidence building and trust logos: The SSL certificate seal, security seal, business bureau seal are some of the seals that generate trust and confidence to purchase in the customers. If you are offering credit card gateway as the payment option, security seal and SSL certificate are very important. The business bureau seals provide trust in your organization and validate that you are a legal entity.
- Customer testimonials: The potential buyers always find testimonials from other customers useful in making the purchase decision. The testimonials should be with proper customer’s details.
- Newsletter: A newsletter signup facility with regular newsletters to the subscribers is a good way to keep in touch with the customers. You can send new products, product offers and other promotional information using the newsletter.
- Articles and resources on the products/services: Apart from the product information, any article or resource providing details about the processes, know how, and tutorials on uses or advantages helps the customer to make an informed decision. The customers also perceive that you are specialists for that product.
- Support and Helpdesk: The support contact information along with the response time is very helpful to the customers. If a support helpdesk or ticketing system can be added, it would be great addition.
The Ecommerce SEO is very important to achieve high traffic but once the traffic has been attained, the priority is to convert it into sales. We specialize in ecommerce consulting and conversion optimization.
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One Response
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Amit Sati Says:
really nice quick check list for e-commerce websites.
However I still advice webmasters to do some tests for landing pages, like it could be a 1 page or may be 2 page conversion process, colors, text, images and every possible thing. the best thing will be to track the progress as well with analytics. I have done a post similar and related to landing page design and Web analytics
