‘‘80% of the online population has made a purchase using the internet, 50% of the online population have purchased more than once through an online sales’.
With such a high percentage using the world-wide web to purchase, it is important your eCommerce site caters for everyone, whilst also utilising online sales optimisation techniques.
Cater for everyone
Hunters are customers who know exactly what product they want. They have started their journey on Google, from typing into the adored search engine the name of the product they are looking to buy. These customers are on a mission and know exactly what they are after. They are merely looking for somewhere to purchase the product and aren’t particularly worried about where.
The secret to targeting these customers is to have good SEO (making Google happy) content. Ensure your content is thorough whilst specific, involving and emphasising key product words. This way, when customers are at the beginning of their journey and are searching for the product they wish to purchase into Google, your website is more likely to appear due to Google recognising your tagged keywords. From this, hunters will be more exposed to your site, increasing the likelihood of a purchase.
Explorers however are the opposite. These customers have created their journey knowing they have an upcoming occasion and so are looking for inspiration. These customers are new to the purchase and are open to ideas. Your website must have clear signage and product guidance, to express to the customer what the product is about and how it can or should be used. Clear details on the products target audience should also be apparent, ensuring the customer is aware of how suitable the product will be.
These customers are relying on you for inspiration. The trick to this? It’s simple – know your stuff! Be innovative and thorough with your product descriptions and make your website both attractive and easy to use, and be sure to stay up to date with upcoming holidays! You are aiming to receive a purchase from these customers – so make their online experience clear, easy and efficient.
Speed
An important element to increasing online sales is ensuring customers can purchase products quickly. Customers who choose to purchase online are using the platform for efficiency – so make it efficient. The customers online journey is an important element to master. Get this right and you are well on your way to increasing your online sales.
Minimise the number of clicks it takes for your users to reach the payment stage. Customers don’t want to be spending more than time than necessary on your website if they are looking to purchase rather than browse. Make it possible for users to purchase a product from your site within 2 clicks. Any more than this is unnecessary and could potentially be turning away repeat custom.
Don’t do things half-hearted. If you have worked hard on minimalizing clicks for efficiency, partner this with ensuring your website itself works efficiently too. Maintain your websites by having your website tested for bugs and missing patches. If bugs exist, make sure these are either cleared or fixed as this will make the site easy to use. The response time of your website has a large impact on Google and your Google reputation and not to mention your user’s patience! At the end of the day, the faster your website, the better your conversion, so bare this in mind.
Increase average order value
Make the most out of two effective marketing techniques – up-selling and cross-selling. The Difference? Up-selling is used to advertise higher valued products in relation to the product a customer has viewed. Take advantage of having the customer’s attention and add links and previews of similar products which hold a higher price value to the checkout page to encourage an increase in order value. Ever bought more than you originally aimed for on a website? This may be down to a cross-selling technique. Don’t miss out on this easy and effective marketing method! Again, take advantage of having access to seeing what product your customer is interested in or is likely to be purchasing. Create methods which aim to increase basket value by advertising suggestion products they may be interested in to accompany their current purchase.
In conclusion, there’s never too many ways to optimise your online sales, don’t forget to apply these techniques too:
- Be available – apply a live chat to your website
- Mobile responsive
- Keep your eye on statistics and analytics
- Remove unwanted clutter
- Be social – Twitter, Facebook & Intsagram
