If you have an existing e-commerce site and you’re working with 10-20 orders per day there are steps in this guide you can take today to increase your sales without spending more on advertising or any other marketing practices. If you’re averaging 100-200 orders per day now can be the time to do an analysis of your site and see how profitable your online business is.
There ARE incremental changes that you can make to your web site, merchandising or marketing strategy that will result in a higher conversion, better average order value, increased traffic or possibly all three.
· Utilizing Flash Product Displays – Using flash technology to enhance customer experience is a rather new idea. However, the more a potential customer can interact with a product the more likely they are to establish an emotional connection. In the store, you can pick up a product, turn it over and look at it in detail. You can feel the texture and interact with the product. Obviously, online shopping lacks this three dimensional experience. The good news is that using a flash product displays offers online shoppers a more three-dimensional experience and our analytics prove a direct link to use of a flash product display and a higher conversion rate.
· Product Reviews – Product reviews always help online shoppers make an educated decision about the product they are purchasing. However, there are other benefits as well. Posted reviews that are both good and bad increase company transparency and the perception that a company is honest and unbiased. Reviews also give a company the unique opportunity to address any customer service or product related issues directly with the customers who post negative reviews. In effect, they have the chance to turn a negative experience into an exceptional one.
· Adding Cross-sell and/or Up-sell items to the Checkout Page – up selling and cross-selling products invariably increases the average order value which in turn helps with conversion. One of the biggest mistakes any web site owner can make is to skip any up-sell or cross-sell items.
· Increased Filtering Options – Often adding filtering options by style, price, brand or color can drive customers straight to products of interest thus giving them what they want when they want it. Our philosophy is make it easy for the customer. Don’t make them wade through mounds of products that aren’t of interest just to find the one they want.
· Offer a Free Guide, eBook or Whitepaper – These are all tools you can use to establish your company as an expert in your field and collect email addresses to build your list of leads. Creation of these informational resources is inexpensive and can lead to tangible results in web site traffic and your email marketing efforts.
· Create a Blog for Your Business – Business blogging is in. To increase legitimacy and accessibility, blogging by CEOs, company presidents and vice-presidents has increased dramatically over the last several years. Business blogs are no longer the exception, they are very quickly becoming the rule in a new more “social” web sphere.
· Add New Content in the Form of Informative Articles and Syndicate the Content on Your Site (RSS Feed) – Adding an RSS (Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary) subscription link so web users can download any and all new content directly is an exciting new way to keep the conversation going between you and your customer.
Planning for Success
Remember Success is a Science. When you set up the conditions, you get results. An important part of being successful in an online retail environment is the creation of your strategy. It’s your plan detailing the conditions that will ultimately lead to your success. It involves marketing, merchandising, technology and business planning.
“Begin with the end in mind.” - Dr. Stephen Covey
Besides advising presidents of the United States and countless numbers of businessmen and women, this one habit of Covey’s “Seven Habits” can directly apply to the planning of an e-commerce site. When you begin, have a goal in mind of what you want to achieve with your web site. Is it one million in sales by the end of the year, a long list of subscribers, or an increase in orders of a certain product? Whatever your end goal is, with planning and implementation your odds of reaching it increase exponentially.
Once you get your strategy outlined and implemented you should revisit it at least once a month to check yourself and make sure you are still on track and haven’t deviated from the end goal.
If you need help with market or business planning, Business Plan Pro provides all the tools, sample plans and wizards that cover every aspect of business and market planning.
http://www.paloalto.com/
Create a Migration Strategy – don’t want sales flying south for the winter!
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