Four tips to improve your online store

Despite a flat year in consumer spending, 2008 saw a 14% increase in online purchases. Your online store is facing more competition and more challenges. There’s never been a better time to sell your services and products on the Internet. But there are a few basic rules to follow to improve your online store and sales.

1. Let people know you’re selling something.
   If you’re going to have a yard sale, what’s the first thing you do? Make a sign and nail it to nearest telephone pole. If you don’t let your customers know you’re selling something, they can’t buy it. Some online stores are too fancy or too complicated and fail to show their product to the traffic streaming into their website. Does your website make this mistake? Do you have products on the home page of your website or online store? Do you have buy buttons next to the product? Buy buttons (or add to cart buttons) are visual cues to the user that you have something they can purchase. If you don’t tell folks that you have something for sale, they can’t spend money with you.
2. Anticipate shopper confusion.
   Do you have several product categories that may prove difficult to navigate? Or maybe your products are categorized in a confusing manner. If you have a brick-and-mortar store, pay attention to the shopping patterns of your visitors, do they look for products in different areas of your store? What are the most common questions they pose to your sales staff? Which products seem to always be hard to find? Consider placing your products in multiple categories so they can be found no matter how the customer is looking for them. For example, “ties” can be placed in men’s accessories as well as men’s clothing. A robust eCommerce solution should allow you to place your products into multiple categories without doing extra work.
3. Upsell
   The old school retail rule of upselling (sell the shoe cleaner with the sneakers, or the belt with the pants) applies online as well. To accomplish this, use an eCommerce tool that allows you to associate products or product categories with each other, or build your product pages so they can include a handful of products that naturally go with that product (feature the Red Sox jersey on the Red Sox cap page). A good webmaster should be on top of product management.
4. Look like you know what you’re doing
   If your online store looks messy, confusing, unattractive and amateurish, your shoppers will not have confidence in you or your product. Make sure your online store and the shopping cart process are professional and easy-to-use. Use attractive product images, write engaging product descriptions, allow customer feedback, clearly communicate shipping and handling charges, allow customers to save their shipping and billing details for easy purchase, etc. All of these actions inspire confidence and make visitors want to shop online at your website.

To speak with Boone Digital about online store and eCommerce strategies and solutions, use our Contact Form or phone 1-989-600-5392.

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