Now more than ever, there are a ton of online stores. As the digital world is constantly expanding, so does the number of eCommerce websites and sellers. Today, there are more digital stores than there are physical ones, which is quite understandable.
Online stores are not only cheaper to maintain due to the fact that sellers do not have to pay rent for a physical store, it is also easier, as everything can be done through a laptop screen, from purchase and transactions, to imports and inventory checking.
It is also more preferable for the buyer as well, especially since making purchases online generally costs less than going to the physical store in terms of the product itself, and also for hidden costs such as time it takes to travel and the cost for gas.
However, it is not all just benefits. With how lucrative the online shopping industry is, it is highly competitive, and not easy to get into. Plus with new shops opening everyday, the competition only gets more difficult. An online seller’s biggest challenge is to keep people in their stores. Here are some tips and tricks that industry pros have been using to keep customers interested.
Less forms
The experience should be convenient and not annoying, which means you should make the experience as convenient as possible. If you give them a ton of forms, before even doing anything, they would see how much effort is needed to make a small purchase, and then they will leave.
These forms are important though, so the process should be painless as the information gained from them is valuable for not only email marketing, but for pop up notifications too. There are services available like Socital that provide popups for many different things, such as cart abandonments which actually cost online stores thousands in revenue monthly. To ensure a quick sale, there should be as few forms as possible. The less the better. Even when commenting on items, it should be fast and straight to the point. Most importantly, these forms must be easy to sign and can be done in less than 20 seconds.
Have good visuals
One of the biggest factors of people staying or going in your website is the visuals that you offer. Depending on how enticing your product pictures are, how well your website layout is and how easy it is to navigate, you can either gain a lot of customers or turn all of them away.
A website that has a great interface and attractive pictures will do much better at not only keeping attention, but lead to a better sales generation than a website that is hard to maneuver and looks bland or shady.
Thus, layouts should be simple and very easy to maneuver, and your visuals must be enticing enough for customers to want to stay and find out more.
Have the answer on the homepage
When people visit a website, they usually have a problem in mind, or a product they are looking to buy. The solution to their problems, and the product they have been searching for all along should not only be easy to find, but literally right in front of their eyes.
With millions of other shops to compete with, customers have a very short attention span and time to give you. Within a glance, you must have them hooked into your website already. That means presenting something they want, right off the bat. If you put your product and services on the bottom of your page or some difficult to navigate directory, not many of the people who visit your website will be inclined to even go to the purchase page.
The more to the point you are, the better at getting your message across to your customers. This saves not only time, but potential confusion or miscommunication between the both of you.
Easy to navigate
The store itself should be easy to navigate. Similar to previous examples, with a store that is confusing, you will lose the attention of your customers very fast and will not make any sale at all.
The rule of thumb is that they can purchase your service or product within 4 clicks. Plus your content must be easily consumable, something that can be glanced at and fully understood.
