To build a successful online business you need to do more than just choose an ecommerce platform and then sit back and watch the revenues pour in. With growing competition from global vendors, savvy online entrepreneurs know they need to do everything in their power to increase profits. One excellent way to boost sales is to analyze where shoppers are abandoning your site and then tweak your online business to improve those conversion opportunities. If you want to increase your revenues this year, following are six easy tweaks you can consider making.
1) Add product reviews to your site (no, this isn’t the time to buy favourable reviews). Potential buyers want to know they can trust the quality of reviews on your site.
2) Speaking of trust, customers want to know they are safe shopping on your website. If your business is PayPal certified, TRUSTe certified, or even approved by the Better Business Bureau, proudly display those certifications on your site. This goes for your payment encryptions options too. Let consumers know they can trust your business to safeguard their data.
3) Online businesses that clearly display their contact info are more credible than those that only offer an email address as a means of contact. Include a business phone number and physical address/PO Box to help consumers feel comfortable doing business with your company.
4) Offering multiple payment options is crucial if you want to boost your conversion rates. Today’s customers don’t just want to pay by Visa or MasterCard. Offering anything from ApplePay to PayPal can reduce your shopping cart abandonment rates and increase sales.
5) Site search is absolutely crucial for online business owners hoping to improve sales. If a customer can’t easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll go someplace else where they can. Consider using an instant search tool like Algolia to improve the quality of product search on your ecommerce site.
6) Making live chat available to shoppers on your site can have a huge impact on your conversion rates. Try a tool like Zopim to help customers chat with a representative from your team in real-time. The better your product support, the more likely you are to close a sale.
As an online business owner, it is imperative you maximize your customer success opportunities. With multiple retailers to choose from, customers will often do business with the company who best serves their needs. This doesn’t necessarily mean offering the lowest price; trustworthiness and overall site satisfaction play an important role. Creating an online interface where consumers feel comfortable giving you their credit card can increase not only your sales rate but your customer satisfaction rating too.
