In the highly competitive world of eCommerce, little things can make a big difference in attracting new customers and increasing revenue. Here we look at a range of small but important features, common to many websites, which have been proven to boost sales.
- Discount code tools
Shoppers love a bargain, even more so when the world is in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis and prices are going through the roof. Adding a discount code tool means that you can provide discounts to the customers you want to incentivise and for the products whose sales you want to drive.You can also use discount codes to incentive other actions, such as signing up for emails or setting up an account. Many stores also provide codes after shoppers have checked out in a bid to tempt them back again.
- Speedy checkout
It’s a matter of fact that the longer it takes customers to check out, the more of them will abandon their shopping cart and take their money elsewhere. While a slow-loading website can be one of the reasons for this, more often the delay is caused by the store forcing customers to jump through a series of hoops to buy a product.If they have to pass through pages trying to sell them additional products or they are required to register and fill in lots of personal information, they are less likely to complete the purchase. The easier you make it and the fewer steps they have to take, the more sales you can achieve. This includes making the actual payment quicker too – so remember to offer a range of payment options
- A blog
A blog is an important part of an eCommerce website for several reasons. The posts you write can help potential customers see the value of the products you are selling and lead them directly to the product pages. In this way, they are a subtle but persuasive form of content marketing. What’s more, the posts are searchable on the internet, helping to drive new visitors to your site, some of whom will become followers and share your posts on social media. Indeed, if your posts are well written, they help establish your brand as a leader in its field too, increasing your brand’s kudos. - Email subscription
Email marketing has the highest ROI of any type of marketing but to do it successfully you need to get more visitors to subscribe. An email subscription tool enables customers to do this via popups or sign-up forms. Using the discount code tool above, you can also give people a good reason to subscribe.Once they’ve signed up, you’re then able to send them emails promoting your products, sales, blog posts, news and events. If you can personalise those emails, the chances of conversion are even higher.
- Related items
Adding a related items tool that appears on product pages can help boost sales in several ways. Firstly, if visitors are not too sure about the product they have clicked on, the related product tool could offer them an alternative that is exactly what they are looking for.Additionally, instead of showing similar and alternative items in related products, you could, instead, show matching items, e.g., if someone is looking at trousers, the tool could display footwear that goes with them. This way you increase the potential of selling both.
- Customer reviews
Social proof has become increasingly important in purchasing decisions as customers seek the opinions of other shoppers – often valuing their comments more than the product descriptions. Ratings and reviews are so common today that if you don’t have them, many will question why not.Putting them on your site gives customers increased confidence to buy and increases trust in your brand too. Of course, not all your products are going to get high ratings, but that helps you understand which items will sell and which to avoid.
- SSL certificate
An SSL certificate protects your customers by encrypting information sent between their browser and your server. This means that personal and banking details are kept secure. While this is important in itself, the advantage from a sales point of view is that if you install an SSL certificate, then browsers will label your website as secure using the padlock icon.If you don’t have an SSL certificate today, your site is labelled as not secure and users are advised not to submit information, like credit card numbers. This means that most visitors refuse to buy from a store without an SSL certificate. If you want to boost sales, installing an SSL certificate is one of the most important things you should do.
Conclusion
To beat the competition and sell more products, online stores have to do everything they can to make their websites more effective. The suggestions mentioned here are not only proven to work; they are also simple fixes that can be implemented quite quickly, though, of course, it might take time to build your blog content, grow your subscriber list or get those important product ratings.
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