September 26, 2007 at 3:43 pm
· Filed under Online Marketing
- Page load time is a major factor. you lose 10% of your visitors for every second over 3 seconds it takes your site to load
- Inconsistent advertising is worse than no advertising. if you are submitting feeds to the shopping engines, current, accurate pricing is paramount
- Ugly design = ugly numbers
- Keep the site simple to navigate. the navigation must be intuitive, logical, easy to read, easy to find.
- Checkout process must look professional. The cart, add to cart buttons. Present the user with images showing what each step of the checkout process is and which step their one.
- Add the following information in highprofile positions on the product pages:
- tax
- shipping
- availability
- expected delivery time
- product price
- Have your text edited by either a professional editor, or your peers - typos reduce the likelyhood of a sale
- Add to cart button must be clear, and easy to spot. likewise with the checkout image - review the checkout processes at amazon.com and overstock.com for ideas
- Show the site’s phone number within the design. add an 800 number, with "ORDER NOW - TOLL FREE…"
- Minimize the checkout process. automate data entry wherever possible. make the default behavior of the billing address a replication of the shipping address.
- Tie to fed-ex/ups’s address verification modules
- Make the buy now button stand out
- Make the price big and bold
- Remove all clutter from the store and especially from the checkout process
- Develop a good succinct list of FAQs from the inquiries you get from your new #800 and otherwise. No matter how hard you try, customers will be puzzled about certain things. Cover those things in your FAQs. Keep the FAQs short or no one will read them.
- Make sure your site doesn’t have ANY POPUP WINDOW ERRORS! during the checkout process, or other places - check this in various browsers
- Find a net newbie and watch him/her navigate and make a purchase.
- Provide shopping instructions in an empty cart. Don’t just say “your cart is empty”
- Don’t make the user specify a choice when there is only 1 “choice”.
- Use a custom 404 page to link people to the important areas of your site
- Provide a way for customers to compare details of similar items
- Attract quality traffic - advertize/target specifics not general categories
- Use an ssl cert with a nice logo, place the logo in very noticable spot at the begining of the checkout process, or even on the cart
- Include your physical address on your site.
- Offer a 100% Money Back Guarantee,
- Clearly define your return policy
- Don’t make people type their e-mail address twice.
- Feature a functional search box on your site and review what users are looking for, finding, not finding
- No purchase should be more than two clicks away
- Offer free shipping
- Advertise that you have free shipping on everything
- Avg conversion rates of the big sites is about 1.8%, aim to match this
- Remove all unneeded data collection - customer fax #, etc
- Keep your copy compact. make sure it reads fresh
- Find your top entry pages and work hard at improving them. make the design strong, confidence inspiring, and traversable\
- If you don’t carry an item, remove it from your site
- Make checkout available from any page
- Don’t stand between the user and the sale - i.e. don’t clutter their mind with alternative, cheap items. keep their eyes on the prize
- Include an ‘enlarge image’ javascript which pops up a high resolution img. if the user clicks anywhere on the popup box, it should close
- Put all the important info about a product above the fold
- Don’t make them Scroll
- Put all important ‘checkout’ info above the fold
- Include clear, immediatly discernable, category headings in site’s navigation
- Respond quickly to customer emails
- Use forms, phone or live chat, for customer communications - not a link to a mailto: email address
- Craft the page load sequence and watch this on a slow (modem) connection - 10-15% of my users are still using modems
- Offer a simple, intelligable buying process from every page
- Write in an active voice. Aviod long or complicated sentences.
- Include product names and model numbers in your page titles - this makes your site show up better in the search engines for these ultra-specific, high-conversion, terms.
- Having never before been to your site, if the user can figure out what to do, where to go, how to shop around; if the prices are right, if the shipping is free, if there is no tax, if you give them an extra little something with the product; they’ll buy more often.
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