Give your online sales a boost - Online news from MSO.net's Net.Matters - February 2007

Christmas is but a distant memory and we are still eagerly awaiting signs of lambs and daffodils.  Sales in this period are traditionally slow so what can you do to pep things up?  Here are a few ideas to help…

• Fundamentally, encourage easy navigation to your checkout page - customers do not like disjointed and confusing websites - they will get fed up and move on to the next website in their search. 
• Invest in a Search Engine - research shows that by including an internal product search facility you could boost your sales by up to 30%. 

The search facility should allow the customer to:
- search by price range, product code
- look at a results page that can be sorted by a variable such as price or manufacturer
- view an image and description of the product
- to purchase via the results page

• Promote other means of purchase - don't rely solely on your online shop.  Ensure consistency across all means of purchase (i.e. customers are able to purchase the same product by phone, mail, catalogue or in-store) and promote your website's URL on all company signage and documentation.
• Personalise the online experience.  Customers who are more relaxed are more likely to buy.  Enable customers to track the order process on line; use email acknowledgements to communicate with the shopper; email customers with details of new promotions.
• Manage subscribers to your site efficiently.  Think about where customers can opt in - most visitors are drawn to the top left of the screen.  Perhaps give customers the option on every page.  The key point here is that by managing how customers subscribe will enable you to communicate with existing and potential customers with new products and promotions in a direct way.
• Ensure your headline is attention-grabbing and a problem solver - what does your product do for a potential customer?  Asking what solution is your target audience looking for and how you can help gives a clear message.
• Use hover ads in your pages - pop-ups can and are blocked.  Hover ads grab attention in the same way but cannot be blocked. 
• Use images of your product as the shopping experience then becomes more “real”.  Where the images are placed within the website may need to be explored to gauge the impact on sales.  Be prepared to be flexible and experiment.  The images must be of a high quality. 
• Emphasise the security measures your online shop is protected by.  Online sales can increase by up to 33% (source: ScanAlert) when shoppers are confident that credit card details are stringently protected.  The greater the value of the product, the greater the impact on online sales.
• Less is more - don't offer too many products on your home page as research would suggest that offering just one or two products or services (along with sufficient detail) yield greater sales than a flood of products on the home page.  Your other products can be sold on pages elsewhere but minimise the number of products on the first page your customer is likely to see. 
• Include glowing reports from other customers - browsers are seduced by favourable testimonials.  Establishing your credibility is important.
• Give good customer service.  This includes a fast response to queries; perhaps a loyalty scheme for customers revisiting the site.  Invest in free sample offers (if applicable to your market) or offer discounts for further visits to your site.
• Finally, test the changes made to the website (taking some or all of the above suggestions on board) by split testing your customers.  Enable some users to see the new changes and some to see the original design to gauge the potential benefit to sales - before you get carried away and redesign the entire site.