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Here are some interesting eCommerce statistics: The average UK consumer spends £1,174 online (more than in any other major country).
Our eCommerce retail spending is set to reach £52.25 billion in 2015 (15% of all retail sales). Currently, there are over 32 million people spending their hard-earned cash online in the UK accounting for £1 of every £10 that is spent!
Figures like that certainly bring home the value both of eCommerce itself and the commercial importance of websites to businesses. So, if you’re considering building or updating your eCommerce site you couldn’t be doing it at a better time. To help you towards online success here are five ways to improve your eCommerce website and keep it in tip-top condition.
These approaches are deceptively simple but, we believe, are absolutely vital to success. (You can even apply them to many non-eCommerce websites since often a service page can be similar to a product page in its layout.)
#1 Three Clicks Please
The most important part of your eCommerce site is your products and they need to be easily and quickly accessible. So, keep your products at the ‘surface’ and no more than three clicks from your home page (or ideally, any page). Organise your navigation to get people to the point where they can buy as quickly as possible and cut out any unnecessary clicks on the way. Don’t forget to always use your homepage to showcase your top-selling products giving your visitor the fastest route to purchase.
#2 Get Information Rich
A major reason why people ‘bounce’ off eCommerce websites is that they don’t get enough information about the product/service to be convinced to buy. So, give them everything you can; features, benefits, specifications, manuals, testimonials, case studies, pictures, and so on. The more you give upfront the more potential objections you knock out in the buyer’s mind which helps them towards making a decision to buy from you.
#3 Picture Perfect
A great photo can make the sale so make sure all your product photography looks the same and is of high quality. Also, make it clickable so you can see a larger version and put up several photos showing the back, front, sides and detail (especially if it’s a luxury item).
#4 Price
In a recent Gartner survey price was identified as the most important information visitors looked for. So, don’t hide your price – be proud of it! (Check out our article, Price Elasticity for eCommerce Stores.) Tell them how much they’ll get for their money, why it’s worth every penny and, if you can offer a guarantee to back up the sale. (Don’t forget you can use ‘strike-through’ prices to show how much cheaper your price is against RRP. If you do use this method always show the amount in pounds and pence that you have discounted.)
#5 Delivery
Guess what came second in the survey as the next most important piece of information visitors want to see? The delivery price! Making it difficult for the visitor to calculate the delivery charge can cause a lot of frustration and be the difference between winning or losing a sale. A better approach is to show the P&P on the product page or at least show the range of delivery prices. If that’s not possible have a dedicated page accessible from the main navigation clearly explaining your charges. Of course, the best alternative, from your customer’s perspective, is to offer free delivery.
These may only be small tweaks to your website but in combination, they can produce powerful effects.