Do you have lots of visitors but not a great deal of sales? In other words, are you having trouble converting customers?
It’s a condition that affects many online stores. But don’t worry: It can be fixed.
There are lots of reasons for people being hesitant to buy from you after they visit your online store. In this post, we diagnose the most common issues for why someone would fail to make a purchase after they visit.
Problem: Your Photographs Are Low-Quality
Say you sell apparel, like t-shirts or scarves.
In a retail store, your customers have the opportunity to examine your products from every angle, and also to try them on for fit and style. They know then and there whether it’s a fit and whether it’s a good buy.
You should approximate that experience as closely as you can. The single best thing that you can do is to have good photographs of the product in different angles. Better yet, have not only photographs of your product, but also people modeling your product.
You can’t expect people to feel compelled to buy if you snap just any picture at all. Your photo shouldn’t be poorly-lit; there shouldn’t be weird shadows; and it should be displayed clearly, perhaps on a stand. It just feels shady if your products aren’t crisp and compelling. Without good product photography, not only do people miss out on what it's like to feel the real thing, but they have a sense that you're less than professional.
So go ahead, take better photographs and put your products in the best light possible.
Problem: Weak Product Descriptions
It’s not just improving the quality of your pictures. Your copy matters too.
Product descriptions are incredibly important. A study has shown that merely touching a product increases a person’s desire to own it. The closest thing to replicating online touching an object? Describing it in such detail that a prospective customer feels like he’s holding it.
Writing weak copy is a huge lost opportunity to entice the customer to buy. You lose the chance to tell a story, as well as the ability to differentiate your product along yet another dimension.
But it’s not just the case that not having good copy will hurt you. You’ll be hurt much more if your copy is bad.
The only thing worse than an inadequate and unsatisfying product description is one that’s rife with spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, or inept ways of describing the product.
If a customer sees a product description that’s less than fully-professional, then he may start to wonder whether anything else is going to be sloppy. Is the product going to be less than promised, perhaps? Will you make a spelling mistake in the shipping process and deliver a package to the wrong house? Is it totally safe to trust you with my credit card?
Don’t turn your customer off. Clean up copy mistakes and use your product descriptions to sell.
Problem: Your Online Store is Badly-Designed
Walking into a store and finding products totally disorganized is more than just a hassle. It can be so frustrating that you choose not to make a purchase at all.
Think that experience can happen online? You bet.
There are two main issues around website design that could be turning people away: First, you may be making it difficult for customers to find the product that they’re looking for; second, you may be arranging your products in such a way that discourages people from making a purchase.
Here are some common ways that an online store obscures its products:
• Your homepage doesn’t prominently link to your storefront.
• Your product categories aren’t all displayed in a single place.
• Some of your products are hidden deep beneath collections.
Simplify the navigation, create the website to be intuitive and easily viewable.
Problem: You Haven’t Established Trust
You can count on a certain degree of trust when you’re buying from a physical location. You get your goods immediately, and can probably count on the store to stay around at least for a little while if you have complaints. And at the very least before you make a purchase you’ll have chatted with the owner and will have gotten to know her a little.
On the internet not all of that is going to apply.
What will you think when you go to an online store with none of the following?:
• An “About Us” page that presents no actual details about the company, only a few intangible value propositions.
• No testimonials or product reviews.
• No name, phone number, or email anywhere on the website.
• No general guarantee that your payments information is safe.
Would you feel very secure making a purchase of any size from a site like that?
In order to build up the trust you need to create a good and informative „About us“ page, have all the necessary contact informations on your website and to enable product reviews.
Conclusion
This post is about more than getting new visitors to your online store. It’s about converting them and overcoming their objections to buy once they’re there.