How To Solve The Problem of Poor Online Sales
For any eCommerce business owner the issue of poor online sales is a serious one. After all you are in business to make sales (and increase your annual turnover) so anything which prevents that has to be addressed. Fortunately, this is something a reputable full service internet marketing agency can advise you about as they will have knowledge and experience in this area.
• Poor or inadequate product descriptions
• Badly written content, full of typos and grammatical errors.
• Confusing navigation which prevents visitors from finding what they are looking for.
• Badly designed, clunky site
• Complicated or confusing checkout process
• No information about delivery methods, refunds etc
• No secure server
One of the goals of your website is to develop a long term relationship with your customers, based on loyalty and trust. But if customers feel that your website does none of these or has the signs of being a less than professional outfit (for that read: scammer) then don’t expect them to buy from you.
What’s even worse is that they can discuss your business in a negative manner on various social networking sites which will harm your overall reputation. Your reputation may have taken years to develop but that can be ruined in an instant via social media.
• Have several contact methods, e.g. email, phone, address etc on your site. Make it easy for customers to contact you.
• Have your products placed in logical categories and with filters to aid with easier searching.
• Have good quality photos of your products and from different angles.
• Have up to date, information about your products which is both accurate and interesting.
• Have an easy to use checkout funnel which enables customers to complete their purchases with the minimum of fuss.
And remember: you are selling benefits not features so ensure that your website content emphasises these. Your customers want to know what your products (or services) will do for them before they make a decision whether to buy or not.
Reasons for poor online sales
First of all you need to find out why your sales are poor. What is behind this downturn and how can you reverse this? The problem is that of visitors not staying on your site long enough to take action, e.g. buy something which means that there are one or several things which are putting them off from doing so.Common factors for a lack of sales are:
• Inadequate contact methods for your company• Poor or inadequate product descriptions
• Badly written content, full of typos and grammatical errors.
• Confusing navigation which prevents visitors from finding what they are looking for.
• Badly designed, clunky site
• Complicated or confusing checkout process
• No information about delivery methods, refunds etc
• No secure server
One of the goals of your website is to develop a long term relationship with your customers, based on loyalty and trust. But if customers feel that your website does none of these or has the signs of being a less than professional outfit (for that read: scammer) then don’t expect them to buy from you.
What’s even worse is that they can discuss your business in a negative manner on various social networking sites which will harm your overall reputation. Your reputation may have taken years to develop but that can be ruined in an instant via social media.
Turning bad sales into good sales
The good news is that this problem can be solved by making a few improvements to your website which will encourage customers to buy from you. These include:• Have several contact methods, e.g. email, phone, address etc on your site. Make it easy for customers to contact you.
• Have your products placed in logical categories and with filters to aid with easier searching.
• Have good quality photos of your products and from different angles.
• Have up to date, information about your products which is both accurate and interesting.
• Have an easy to use checkout funnel which enables customers to complete their purchases with the minimum of fuss.
And remember: you are selling benefits not features so ensure that your website content emphasises these. Your customers want to know what your products (or services) will do for them before they make a decision whether to buy or not.