Own an e-commerce site but not getting any sales? The online
buyer is becoming more educated and more selective about what
web sites they use. If you are getting high amounts of traffic
but not enough sales, here are a few ideas to help your site
increase your conversions.
Is It Easy? Because there are so many e-commerce web
sites out there, making sure your web site is easy to use is the
number one goal. If it's not, people will not use it. The first
step is taking a look at your navigation. Keep your navigation
simple so that visitors will not have to guess how to get
through your site. It might seem cool to have a java based or
flash animated navigation scheme, but is it necessary?
Is the navigation on your site consistent? Navigation should
look the same on all pages so that visitors do not become
confused while moving through the site. Use breadcrumbs.
Breadcrumbs are the links that show how deep the user is into
your site. An example would be if the user is looking at Ipods,
the breadcrumb link could be Home > Electronics > MP3 Players.
Giving the user a "sense of place" in the site can make the
difference between a sale and a bounce.
How many steps does it take the user to buy from you? The rule
of thumb is that it shouldn't take more than three steps to buy
online. Find the item, enter payment information, and complete
the sale. It also helps to provide a graphic of the check out
process and where they are currently in the process. Again,
here's the sense of place issue.
Presentation It's all about presentation! If you have a
bad web site, you will be lucky if you make any sales. Dr. Gitte
Lindgaard and colleagues from Carleton University's
Human-Oriented Technology Lab in Ottawa have determined that it
takes a user's mind one twentieth of a second to decide whether
they like your site or not. That's not a lot of time. Use colors
that work well together and make a good impression. If you are
running advertisements on your site, keep them to a minimum so
that your items are not lost in the clutter. Make sure all of
your product graphics are clear and large enough to look at. If
you have a search feature on your site (you should), make sure
it produces the items the user is looking for. If you're not
sure how to do this, Google has free code you can use.
It you are serious about having an e-commerce site and
sustaining it, hire a web developer with e-commerce experience
to help out with your project. If you hire the right person, it
will be well worth the money!
About the author:
Eric Friese owns
custom-ecommerce.com
and is President of
Tiger Web Solutions.
Eric Friese has been in the web development industry for 10
years. Eric can be reached through the Tiger Web Solutions web
site.
