Ecommerce is the fastest growing business in Europe. According to data, this industry brought in £132.05 billion in UK, Germany, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Italy, Poland and Spain in 2014.
The desired action could differ depending on your objectives. Here we talk about the desired action being to get your visitors to buy your products or services on your ecommerce website. There is a lot of competition in the ecommerce market; with customers becoming meticulous about the products and services they want. If your business is not careful, you might end up losing customers to your competitors.
In this article, we will look at how you can optimise your ecommerce website to cater to your clients’ needs and ensure you are competitive enough to take advantage of this lucrative industry. We will provide you with a few tips on how your business can turn this online traffic to sales.
Basic information
Your ecommerce site must have all the basic information such as your address, name of your business, products or services you offer and your contact information. Your potential clients have to be able to find this information with ease on your website.
Use “my” instead of “your”
This might seem innocuous, but your wording plays a pivotal role in how your potential clients think. “Click to view the delivery price of my product” will have a bigger impact than “click to view the delivery of your product”. The word “my” emphasises on ownership. A potential client will feel a sense of owning the product before they buy it. People are more likely to select the product when they feel the sense of ownership.
If the product is free, highlight it to your customers
Customers usually do not spend a lot of time on a single ecommerce website. It is crucial to make sure when you have a free offer, your customers will see it. Words like “100% free”, “get started for free”, and “own it for free” will go a long way to boosting your sales.
Insist to your clients on privacy
Your business has to insist on its website that any information a client gives is confidential. This gives customers peace of mind knowing that their information is safe with you.
Use orange buttons
However strange this might seem, customers respond to colour orange. Experts at CNN credit the popularity of colour orange to online stores such as eBay and Amazon. Many people seem to respond to orange colour on buttons. Your business should use such buttons to boost its sales.
Placement of content
Most of your customers read from left to right. It is important to make sure when your client is going through your webpage, they see appropriate information. Your ecommerce website design should have images and videos on the left, and the call to action on the right. This tweak could have a huge impact on your business sales.
Long videos are unwanted
Videos are a very good tool as they visualise to your clients what your product or service is about. However, just as how videos can be used to attract customers, it can also be a deterrent to your ecommerce sales. If you have to use a video, make sure it is short enough. Customers tend to get bored after 90 seconds and if you have not made it clear by then, you may lose them.
Build trust with your clients
Customers will feel comfortable buying your product or service from your ecommerce site if they trust your business. One way to build this trust and credibility is by including genuine customer testimonials on your website. Make sure you include how the product or service you offer benefited this customer.
Another method of enhancing credibility is including your experience or expertise in the industry your business is involved. This will make your client confident that you have what it takes to solve their problem or cater to their needs.
Your headline should include benefits
Often, the first thing your ecommerce site visitors see is the headline. If it does not impress them, chances are your visitors will just shift to another site. Therefore, it is important that your headline grabs their attention with all the necessary information.
A good headline will have the problem your potential client is facing, and show how the product or service being offered is the solution. A client has to know what the product is and what it does for them.
Use images
If you are selling tangible products on your ecommerce site, you should use images. They will make the product seem tangible and your clients can envision themselves using it. If you offer a service that cannot be reduced to a picture, a video can be used as an alternative.
Format and change appearance of your business website
Most visitors will not read every word on your website. Usually, the human eye will scan as you scroll down the page, reading words or phrases that stand out. It is imperative for your business to make sure “scanners” will get the most from your website. You can do this by changing the format and appearance. You can catch the attention of scanners by doing the following:
- ine You can use bold and italics to emphasise the most important benefits of your service or product.
- for for For the paragraphs not to look like a block of uniformly formatted text, you should vary their lengths.
- use use Use sub-headings to emphasise your key message. This will tempt the scanner to look at the bottom paragraphs
- use Use bullet lists (like this) to stress on key points or benefits.
Follow up strategy
Depending on the product or service you offer, customers may not necessarily buy from you the first time they visit your website. It may take several contacts between your business and consumers before they eventually buy. It is crucial to set up automated email (auto responders) for your subscribers.
In the follow up emails, state your offer to new subscribers, letting them know the benefits of what you sell. Digital marketing experts recommend at least a month’s worth of emails, sent every three to five days. This strategy could also be used on your existing customers. It will allow you to build relationships and give you the opportunity to sell backend products.
In summary, ecommerce is a thriving business with huge revenues all across Europe and globally. It is very important for your business to optimise its website in order to improve the ecommerce sales. This article has provided a lot of tips that could be useful in turning your online traffic to sales.
As technology becomes available in almost every household in the world, your business has to position itself, ahead of your competitors, as the number one ecommerce site for products or services in your industry.
Test each one of the tips we have given you and see how it might work for your website in relation to improving sales. Lastly, ecommerce sales in Europe are expected to grow by 18.2% in 2015. Optimising your website will enable your business to be part of this growth.
