- Include Calls to Action. Positioning unmissable calls to action is a good way of converting site visitors into customers. If a site visitor sees a product they want, ordering it should just be a click away. Adding prominent call to action buttons on your home page and in sidebars is a good place to start. You can also add these to your blog posts, which will lead potential customers to products that they may be looking for, which are available in your store.
- Checkout process optimization. Make your checkout process as simple as possible for your purchasers. Having long forms that your customer has to fill out before they can complete the order can be frustrating and will lead to customers abandoning the purchase before they complete the process. This has a major impact in your successful online sales.
- Highlight Reviews. Display good reviews prominently on your site. These days customers are heavily influenced by reviews from other buyers. Testimonials and reviews reassure the potential customer that they will receive quality service and value for their money. This will lead to improved sales for your online store.
- Video Marketing. A growing trend is that before customers make a purchase, they search for product reviews on Google or YouTube. You may have done this yourself before buying a phone or laptop. This is a great way of having a feel of the product before actually purchasing it. Having a product review video on your website gives your customer the chance to review the product they want to purchase on site, and will incentivize them to click the buy now button straight after viewing the video. This can drastically improve sales of electronics such as phones and laptops, and also hardware tools.
- Crisp product images. Make sure your products have clear and beautiful images that allow the products to shine. giving your customer the option to zoom in is a huge plus too. Visually stimulating images will make the customer want the product even more. An example is when you walk into a fast food restaurant, you see the big billboard showing images of the food available. The images look delicious and appetizing and usually the product you get after you purchase is not as good as the image you will have seen, but, at the end of the day, the sale will have been made, and the image would have done its job.
- Optimize Loading Speeds. Customers don’t want to wait around for a page to load. Having a website that loads quickly eliminates this barrier to completing a sale. Making use of Ajax features that allow customers to add products to the cart without having to reload the page can greatly improve the shopping experience on your online store and improve sales.
- Mobile sales. Do not overlook your mobile site. Most people browse online stores on mobile these days, and having a good responsive mobile site will enable you to tap into the growing number of mobile shoppers. Test your site’s mobile version constantly and streamline the ordering process by eliminating any bottlenecks that customers may encounter.
- Email Marketing. Make sure you generate traffic to your site. The more visitors your site has, the more chances of you making sales. Having a solid marketing strategy is crucial to the success of your online store. Email marketing using tools like Mail chimp can be a great way of keeping your customers engaged and up to date with your latest promotions.
- Social Media. Most people are on social media most of the time. Having a solid social media presence is key to generating online sales. Platforms like Facebook and Instagram are great ways of reaching your target audience. The added benefit of using paid ads cannot be understated. This is also true for paid adds on Google and YouTube. You have to represent your brand wherever the target market is.
Running an online store is a fine art that can be profitable if done correctly. As more and more people opt to shop for goods online, there has never been a better time to optimize your online store. Making a few simple changes to your site design and layout can improve your sales dramatically.
Here are a few tips on how to optimize your online shop: