How to Get More eCommerce Sales with Fewer Visitors

“It’s much easier to double your business by doubling your conversion rate than by doubling your traffic” – Jeffrey Eisenberg, 2x NY Times best selling author

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By combining different optimization techniques, you can double or even triple your sales without new traffic. That calculates to $210K in sales instead of $70K.

This article is about sales and how to get more of them – by making people trust you, by removing frictions from your landing page, by engaging with potential customers.

This post continues with the Oberlo blog eCommerce blueprint series on ‘How to Succeed in eCommerce’.

No Trust = No Sales

You don’t buy from someone you don’t trust, right? Most of the visitors will see your website for the first time and will be hesitant to buy from someone they have never heard of.

Making people trust your store is a crucial step to getting a customer. CyberSource reports that 85% of UK online shoppers will look for signs to confirm that site they are buying from is secure (CyberSource, 2010).

Clearing the air and building a sense of trust is of paramount significance in conversion optimization – and it’s the very first step in making your site sell.

Before diving into a list of trust building elements, we must mention the way you should interpret them. The right approach is perfectly explained by B. J. Fogg, a persuasion and captology expert who led the Stanford Web Credibility Project:

To increase the credibility impact of a website, find what elements your target audience interprets most favorably and make those elements most prominent. B. J. Fogg – Persuasion & Captology Expert

Show Who’s Behind Your Store

Eventually, people buy from you and your brand. Showing yourself or your company behind the store will boost your site’s credibility.

Share your story on your About Us page, even if you’re a family-based business or a solo-preneur. People like stories, and honest stories build trust. Prove that you’re a legitimate business by including your physical address and your phone number. Use images of yourself, your team or your office. Or even better, include videos. Tell your visitors why they should buy from you.

Never over promote. The About Us page is never about selling.

At Velasca.com, Italian shoemakers welcome you personally.

Make it Easy to Contact You

Among the top factors that enhance customers’ trust is Customer Support and specifically Human Interactions.

The best solution for providing customer support is debatable. Forrester research shows that 63% of online consumers were more likely to return to a website that offers live chat. While a best-selling author on Customer Relationships, Steven Van Belleghem, reports that 40% of consumers said they prefer self-service to human contact.

It’s best to combine both. The focus here should be on easiness. If you don’t have the resources to provide live chat support, include contact information on your site header and set clear expectations of when you’ll respond.

Follow the Zappos example. Instead of hiding their contact information or requiring customers to ask 10 questions before actually submitting their question, they put their phone number on every web page. They not only make it easy to contact them, they encourage customers to contact them.

Dune London makes their Live Chat prominent on all pages.

Make Relevant Information Visible

46% of online shoppers said they always check return policies before making a purchase online. Another study shows that over 50% of potential customers leave without paying because they are presented with hidden charges, such as the delivery price.

Not showing this information will result in lost sales. Show this and other relevant information where customers are likely to read it: on a product page, on footer pages, and on every page header.

A great way to present all information in one place is the FAQs page. It’s so common that, trust me, almost all your visitors will look for their answers there.

Watchshop organizes important information on a product page tabs.

Earn Trust with Reviews & Customers Photos

Customers reviews are a sensitive topic. More than 2/3 of customers read online reviews before making a purchase, while 7 out of 10 have questioned their trustworthiness.

We suggest displaying reviews from a neutral and credible 3rd party. Integrate your site with sites like TrustPilot or SiteJabber. This way you’ll make sure your reviews aren’t censored or fake.

3rd party review sites overview your company in general and provide social proof and feedback on products with customers photos next to it. Apps like SocialPhotos make it easy to display user generated content.

Quick tip: As for customer photos, if you don’t have your customer base yet, just showcase the content of users using that product, even though it’s not bought from you. Caption the pictures generically: Great Pics of People Using This Product.

Milanoo puts their customers photos next to standard product photos.

Earn Trust with Security Badges

Accreditations, certifications, better business bureaus, security badges, and trust marks aren’t just fancy elements. These brands carry credibility, and you can use it to your benefit.

Privacy and security will always be a top priority for consumers. Trust badges increase some companies conversion rates by 40%. That’s $11,000 in sales instead of $7,300 just because of the trust badge.

If you’re using Shopify, the solutions I like are McAfee Secure trustmark and eTrusted. They are super easy to use and definitely worth checking.

Choxi includes prominent security badge below their product photos.

Optimize Your Product Page

The Product Page is the place where the actual purchase is initiated. Being the most visited page on your store, it can increase your conversion rates significantly.

It should have a very clear focus: to sell, as it’s literally one click away from getting your customers to the checkout.

Make sure it keeps that clear focus, is easy to use, and answers all your customers’ questions. A well-built product page will make your customer stay and buy, while on a bad product page, customers will bounce.

Ecommerce conversion optimization is about optimizing product pages. One of the largest mistakes that ecommerce optimizers make is trying to jigger generic elements for more conversions. Neil Patel – Co-founder of Crazy Egg and KISSmetrics

Use Numerous High Quality Images

IRCE 2012 report shows that over 60% of consumers name quality of images and ability to see products from different angles as the most important and critical feature of an eCommerce website.

Make sure you have high quality images that can be enlarged. Showcase your products from different angles and always display images of all variations of the product. Include detailed photos. Nobody’s going to buy a yellow t-shirt if they can only see a black one. And the final touch: include photos of people using the product, because people sell.

To dropshippers: I know this is a sensitive subject. The majority of suppliers don’t provide good quality images and you usually can’t take photos yourself. You’re dropshipping! Try googling that image and finding the exact same image in high resolution on Google. (This trick usually works for me).

Dropdead engages visitors with multiple big & high quality images.

Create a Custom & Engaging Description

Compelling product descriptions can transform eCommerce conversion rates — it’s common to see increases of 30%-100%.

A good product description is emotional, descriptive, talks to the customer, and shows benefits instead of features. Use descriptions to give your customers what they want – confirmation that this is the product they’ve been looking for. This is what makes it unique.

Product specifications are equally important, but they serve a different purpose so you should separate them. Besides sales, a more informed customer is less likely to return the purchase.

If you are not comfortable with copywriting, look for help from someone else or try apps like Crowd Content.

FaucetFace tells a story of what makes their bottles great and why you need one.

Offer Free Shipping

Everyone expects free shipping. Free shipping is everywhere, and it will dramatically reduce the friction of buying at your store.

According to Accent, 88% of consumers would be more likely to shop at a site online if they were promised free shipping. Another study, shows that more than half of your customers will leave your site without paying because they were presented with unexpected costs like delivery charges. Shopify actually names it as one of the top four conversions killers.

If you can’t do free shipping on all of your items, try creating other promotions like free shipping on some specific product category or free shipping on orders over a certain amount.

Another extremely important thing: show the expected date of delivery, even if it is a long time period. People want to know this and if they don’t, 21% will abandon the sale.

BookDepository.com Signature – Free Delivery Worldwide

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by Tomas Šlimas via SitePoint