It can be easy, when we’re looking over sparkling new layouts or an ambitious web marketing plan, to forget that things aren’t always as easy and natural for our buyers as they are for us. That’s because, no matter how great we know our company is, and how many reasons we give them to buy, we can’t take away all the fears in their mind. Most online shoppers have heard too many horror stories about stolen credit cards and other scams to feel completely confident if they haven’t bought from you before. And that’s to say nothing of the risk that they’re paying too much, or that your business won’t do what it promised.
How can you help them to make the right choice? By giving them some clues that you are a reputable company and making it easy. Here are six simple ways to tweak your business website and turn more visitors into buyers:
Promise a money-back, 100% satisfaction guarantee. One study after another has shown that few people have the ambition to return a product even if they are dissatisfied, but everyone feels better knowing the option is available. Put it in writing that you’ll fix any customer problem, even if you don’t expect you’ll have to do it very often.
Include a free gift at checkout. Few things tip buyers over the edge like the prospect of receiving an instant free gift with their purchase. Surprisingly, it doesn’t take anything all that large to convince them to go ahead and complete their purchase, so consider adding a little gift or premium with each order.
Try free shipping. Likewise, having shipping be free or included in the purchase price makes it easier for people to buy, since they don’t have to mentally add those costs in (which can make the decision seem bigger than it was before). You might not be able to throw in overnight premium shipping, but why not try including standard ground with every completed order?
Reduce the number of steps to finish a sale. It’s amazing how many online retailers require customers to click through page after page of forms, registrations, and sometimes e-mail confirmations just to set up an account and complete an order. All those steps might seem necessary to you, but to the buyer they might just seem like extra hoops to jump through until they decide the purchase just isn’t worth it anymore. Try to streamline the ordering process so that it can be completed in just a couple of minutes or less – it gives the customer one less reason to give up and shop elsewhere.
Offer fewer choices. One of the great mysteries of life, or at least psychology, is the way having too many choices can actually make it harder to find what we’re looking for. Why? Because all those extra options make us stop and wonder if we’re really doing the right thing… and sometimes convince us to put the decision off until later, or not make it at all. Any experienced online business owner can tell you that the odds of recovering a sale that was abandoned aren’t very good; people just don’t decide to come back a second time and finish their purchase very often. With that in mind, try to set up your site in a way that it’s easy for shoppers to find what they’re looking for without an overwhelming number of choices or distractions. It might seem like you’re taking away potential sales, but you’re probably making it easier for them to end up with what they want.
Put quotes from happy customers all over your site. This is a marketing trick that’s as old as time, and for good reason: We are all a lot more comfortable trading away our money when we see that it has worked out for someone else in the past. Do whatever you can to encourage people to write in with their kudos, because you can’t beat them for marketing effect. Having nice quotes from happy buyers all over your site is a great way to turn one sale into dozens.
Make Buying Online Easy
Remember, just because it’s easy for you to sell something online doesn’t mean that it’s easy for others to make the decision to buy it. Take some of the guesswork out of the process for them by following these tips – it will seem like the natural choice to them, and a great bottom-line move for you.