This topic must have been talked about by a lot of people but it never goes out of fashion. So here are my 2 cents on what I feel from my experience of 15 years in this industry is a sure shot way of increasing your sales. However, today I will only be talking about things that you can control on your website. I will be talking about the initiatives you can take off your site to boost sales in a separate post.
Tip # 1 – Optimize your Checkout Experience
A great starting point is a point where your customers end. Yeah, you have got to look at your checkout page design more closely. You will find many experts advocating for a single page checkout vis-à-vis a stepped approach. Yes, a single page checkout is important however, different business has different needs and you must analyze what your business really needs. Read my detailed blog on when not to use a single page checkout.
Tip # 2 – Optimize For Mobile
With more and more users now using multiple devices to browse Internet, it is imperative that your website not only looks good on mobile devices but is extremely easy to navigate. Researches show that several users do there research on traditional devices like desktops and laptops, make up their mind on what to buy and then buy when on the move using their mobile phones or tablets. If your website sucks on these devices, there is every chance that you will end up with a lost sale.
Tip # 3 – Use Product Videos
Having product videos alongside your products massively increase your chances of closing the sale. It gives a reason to the customer to stick around and bookmark your website. Since most consumers do not make their purchase decision in the first visit, it’s a great achievement to stay in their good books (I mean bookmarks) 🙂
Tip # 4 – Social Sharing and Incentive
There is no better sales tool than word of mouth. Offer your visitors discounts, but hey! Hang on make them work for it a little bit, pick up a strategy that will force them to share the offer to their network of friends on facebook, twitter or other social networks. There are many tools available to do that. I have been using AddShoppers that does the job pretty well. You can checkout the implementation on one of the website www.toygully.com that my company Elixir Web Solutions created.
Tip # 5 – Use Product Reviews
Having product reviews on the website helps users makes an instant decision to buy the product. The more a user would search for reviews on the Internet, more competitors he might find selling the same product. Your best bet is to provide reviews and cut down his exuberance to do a research elsewhere. Amazon does a very good job on showing a great depth of reviews on almost every product they have.
If you have more techniques that you would like to share, please leave them in comments below.
The author is the CEO of a leading Web Design and Internet Marketing Company
