I recently have undertaken an E-Commerce website, and begun to research effective strategies I would like to share . . .
1. Image accounts for a lot, and when your potential customer is checking out your products or services online, they want to do what they would normally do in the store (or as close to it as possible), online: For your business, this means taking excellent photography that shows your product in different contexts, or environments, and at different angles.
2. Let your customers know they are secure before they get to the 'Pay Now' purchase page. You can do this by signing up for a $2 a month SiteLock badge (the site conducts security constantly monitors your site to ensure your information is not being compromised), or if your website has another method, make sure it is posted on the homepage of your website somewhere along with subsequent order pages.
3. Your website: Clean + Professional = Trustworthy. Simple as that.
4. Link to your businesses contact information from every page, and make that link easy to be found.
5. Streamline your checkout process: Don't ask for someone's information before they have agreed to make a purchase. Then have options to 'Log In' for a repeat customer, or is a new customer, check a box if they want your site to retain their information for future purchases. Then have another check box to be added to a mailing list.
6. Offer some form of guarantee or a discount. Be sure to make this pronounced on the product page.
7. If the word 'FREE' is ANYWHERE pertaining to a product, make it bold or easy to point out to a page onlooker.
8. Give your customers more than one payment method to 'checkout' with.
9. Don't confuse your buyers: Place a limited amount of information on each subsequent page leading up to checkout, so they will be focused on what they set out to do: Purchase your product! If they see an advertisement and click on it, or a link to a news article of interest, they may not return!
10. Lastly, give your customers navigation tools when checking out and a 'progress bar' on each checkout page to let buyers be aware of where they are at in the checkout process.
Any suggestions would be of aid, as a website viewer.
