As an ecommerce store owner, your goal is to make more sales. Like you, hundreds and possibly thousands of people are hoping to do the same thing, and they also promote similar (if not identical) products like you.
How can you differentiate your ecommerce website so that you win that sale? What can you do so people trust your company and give you their money?
There are a lot of ways to improve your ecommerce performance, but it’s impossible to cover everything in a single post, so what you will read below are the 5 most important ecommerce tips that can actually lead to more sales and satisfied users.
1. Help people to trust you
The most important step in the ‘online sale’ process is to make people trust your business and website, and trust can be built by:
Using an SSL – most ecommerce websites use an SSL for the shop part only; instead, you should use an extended SSL throughout your website. An extended SSL, besides providing a secure connection between your users and website, is also a way for users to verify your business identity. To get an extended SSL, you must prove you are a real business entity.
Also, do not forget that HTTPS is a ranking signal (a low one), so you will also have the added advantage of ranking higher in Google.
Show your Business Accreditation – Any details you can give to users proving that your business is legal will increase trust. If you are a US business, for example, registering with the Better Business Bureau (BBB) is a great way to show users that you are legal.
Reviews from a third-party system – Another way to establish trust is to showcase your customers' reviews (or testimonials). It is better if these reviews are in a third-party system like (TripAdvisor, Yelp, etc.) so that they look more convincing.
If you decide to keep these reviews on your website, make sure that you write the customer's name and details on how users can contact them to confirm the review or ask questions.
2. Original Content
Besides trust, another important factor that will make people purchase from your ecommerce shop is your content. If your content is original and unique, this will give you an additional boost in SEO and rankings and convince users to make the next step and proceed to checkout.
By original content, I mean unique and accurate product titles, useful and appealing product descriptions, real high-quality images of the products from different angles, short videos (if applicable), and anything else that can make your product presentations more professional.
3. You need to go mobile even if you don’t make sales from mobile
A mobile-friendly website is not an option nowadays, but it’s necessary. Recently, Shopify announced that 50.3% of all ecommerce traffic comes from mobile, which indicates the importance of mobile for ecommerce stores.
Even if you don’t expect to make any sales directly from mobile because of the nature of your products or services, you still need to have a proper and professional mobile presence.
People are using their mobiles to search while on the go and may continue their search on their tablets or desktops. If you don’t have a mobile-friendly website, you will lose customers to competitors that have mobile-optimized websites.
Depending on how your ecommerce store is developed, you have several options for going mobile, but what is the most important is to make sure that the user experience on mobile is optimized (fast loading websites, big buttons, no left, and right scrolling, not too much information on screen etc).
4. Clear Policies and FAQ
Before making a purchase, users may want to view your returns policy, privacy policy, and shipping policy, so make sure that your policies are not only easy to find but also clear and easy to understand.
Besides the policies, you also need to have an FAQ page to answer clients' questions about the purchasing process and your company in general. Try to think about what kind of questions clients may ask, and use data you have from emails and other support cases.
5. Do not forget about the ‘call to action’ buttons
The last ecommerce tip is not forgetting the ‘call to action’ buttons. When people browse your ecommerce store, make sure that the buttons ‘ADD TO CART’ or ‘BUY IT NOW’ are on a prominent place and easy to spot.
Make your buttons look like buttons and use colors that differentiate them from the rest of the content. Have a look at eBay and notice how the ‘Buy it Now’ and ‘Add to Basket’ buttons are located in a prominent position next to the items for sale.
Conclusion
Many ecommerce tips can help you increase sales, but in my opinion, the 5 tips explained above are the ‘must have’ for a decent online presence. Ecommerce success depends on trust, quality of products, and customer service, and this should be your main concern.
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