Seven steps to increase conversion of online sales

2018-07-12

Strategy of competition, scaling and development of a company, planning of expenses and logistic chains, automation – all of these components are, undoubtedly, important for an online store’s success. But the practical side is often much easier. Just don’t make mistakes – that’s all you need! Bilderlings Pay has examined the most common blunders that online store owners make, which cause losses of up to 14% of their customers on average.

Friendly and functional design

If “Buy Now” button of your website is located somewhere on the periphery of the field of vision, just think: whether a visitor will be looking for this button at all? All important icons encouraging potential customers to make a purchase must be clearly visible. You might need to update the interface of your website or change the colour and shape of its key icons.

Of course, this solution must be a multi-platform one: users need to feel comfortable when communicating with your website via any device – office or home computer, their tablet or smartphone.

Finally, as Bilderlings Pay has previously written, the optimal way is to create an UX-based  (User Experience) online store interface that is able to adapt itself to the clients’ requests and purchases, their solvency and preferred payment models.

Ensure your clients’ security

Simple explanatory and encouraging messages are to be present at the website, such as: “Money return within two weeks”, “100% secure purchases,” etc. They increase the loyalty of potential buyers. Make sure that these or similar messages are located in the section of your website which is in just one click from the product selection button.

In addition, your processing partner that processes Visa and Mastercard card payments must have valid PCI DSS card payment certification. Bilderlings Pay has the highest level (Lev.1) certificate. So, are you OK now? As it was previously reported by Bilderlings Pay, it’s not that simple.

Help customers enter their data

Discreetness and unobtrusiveness are among the main criteria for increasing conversion in trade. So, the best purchases are the so-called “seamless” ones. Clients make them easily, almost imperceptibly for themselves. We already wrote about the seamless payments in detail. Inversely, when customers have to fill multiple forms with information about themselves at an online store, this lowers business performance.

Why do you ask a customer to provide data beyond the required information: the number of the payment card, its CVC2 and the expiration date? If such additional information is needed anyway, make the time of its entry as short as possible.

If clients made purchases at your website in the past, let them avoid typing their address, phone number, etc. each time they visit your store. Finally, start using “payments in one click”. The main advantage is not just the faster transactions, but also the increased loyalty of customers.

Registration at the site: what to think over

Your client should have a choice: to buy with or without registration. Although priority should be given to the purchases made with registration. These encourage a buyer to consider himself as one of the ”fellows” of your website and, consequently, return there again and again. It would be logical to grant these buyers an opportunity to receive various bonuses (sales, hot prices, discounts), if they buy after having registered. They can also continue to buy as guests. The second option is convenient in case of one-time or urgent purchases.

However, people generally don’t like to bother their heads with new logins, passwords and secret words. So if you can omit this stage, this will give you great advantage.

Avoid redirection

A person wants to pay for a product, but instead the system of an online store sends him to another resource. As a result of it, loyalty of potential buyers drops sharply. Numerous opened windows and tabs disorient buyers. To put it simply: the more links – the less sales’ volumes.

Offer related products

The principle of direct marketing: protective screen films, headphones and other accessories are sold along with smartphones; baby clothes, shoes and toys are sold along with baby food. A client may not buy all or some of the related items this time, but he will examine what’s on offer, remember it and purchase something when visiting the website next time. This strategy is an effective way to increase conversion.

Don’t miss the opportunity to sell more, using the “Most often bought with this are…”, “Featured products” and similar markers. Of course, it’s should not be too obtrusive as such sort of marketing psychologically repels buyers.

24/7 support service

Finally, both an average user’s level of online competence and likely errors of clients should encourage e-tailers to provide the fastest and high-quality advice on all possible issues.

Ideally, consultations should be conducted through three channels: via email, via messengers, including social networks, as well as via instant telephone communication. The best option would be if such online technical support of an e-tailer is available 24/7.

Read the most topical articles on the e-commerce world on the blog of Bilderlings Pay – https://bilderlingspay.com/blog/en/

Visit the Fintech Conference at “RIGA COMM 2018” on 11 October to find out more.

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