Websites come in all shapes and sizes, and I’ve looked at millions of them, both casually and professionally. Some of them are great, some almost have it, and others just outright suck. There’s no clear purpose for the site, buying is difficult for the customer, and navigation is a nightmare. Don’t do that!
You understand how precious time is these days, right? I mean, some people are at work when they get to your site and they have to hide it from the boss. Or, they’re ADD and just need to see things FAST. That’s me. I have to see what’s going on really fast and be able to take action, and guess what? If I can’t do it quickly and easily, I’m gone.
I don’t like to yell, but DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH BUSINESS YOU’RE LOSING?
Here are some tips to help you make your website a place where people can visit and easily get what they want, no matter what product you’re selling:
- Keep it simple
Websites don’t need lots of fancy crawling text, flashing banners or widgets or too many pictures sliding through. People are confused when you try to do too much on the page, and your site starts looking like a carnival. Stop trying to be the coolest kid on the block and just be like: here’s what I have to sell, here’s why you should buy it, and here’s how to do that. BOOM!
- Don’t give people too many choices
Again, too many choices confuses people. You should give them only one: to buy or not to buy. That’s it. Ecommerce stores are a bit different. People come to see your selection, so you should have category pages, like shoes, boots, casual shoes, sneakers, etc. But each of your products should have its primary sales page and it should be no more than three clicks from the homepage.
It’s OK to suggest other products on your shopping cart page or in a pop-up after they buy, but keep your sales pages clean with information about the product they’re interested in buying along with a buy now button. No floating “maybe you’d like this” stuff, unless it’s way down the page, under your buy now. Don’t do anything to disrupt their process. Get them to say, “Yes,” before showing them anything else.
- Provide clear prices
This is if you’re selling a product and not a service. For example, this site sells my digital marketing services, like SEO, web design & development, copywriting, content, etc. I can’t price a job until I know what the job entails — at all. But you can bet that if I did have an online shoe store, every product’s page would be clearly priced with NO surprises. That’s just good business.
- Put your higher priced items first
Have you ever gone to Amazon, for example, and searched for a product? What’s at the top of the list? Usually the high-priced items, right? Well, that’s because people usually respond better to the first things they see. They may end up not buying the best, but it may help them to buy better rather than least expensive. You can, of course, give them a sorting option, like Amazon and other big retailers do, but lead with your best and let your customers decide.
- Speak to the people in your niche
Who’s your perfect customer? If you don’t have an idea about who that is, you’ll never be able to sell them a thing. So, sit down, figure out who that is and then, cater to them. Write your copy for them. Speak to THEM. It’s important in getting people to relate and to trust you.
- Ask them what they want
Surveys are helpful tools as they give you an insight into just what your customers are thinking. Run regular polls and find out if you’re serving them well. If not, you may want to rethink your site, your inventory, or who YOU think your target customer is. Free sites like Survey Monkey or MicroPolls work well for this.
Customer experience is everything when it comes to making money online. You need to create an audience that will know, like & trust you or you won’t be very successful. Follow these suggestions to make those things happen naturally. You’ll see they work!
