Online sales set a new record in July!
According to a BBC news report today, online sales have rocketed! They rose to £4.2bn in July, up from £2.34bn in the same month a year ago. This is probably partly due to the terrible weather we have been having; people just don’t want to struggle round the shops in their wellies. But it can also be attributed to better ecommerce website design.
Online shoppers now expect the very best from the retailers’ websites. You only have a very limited time to grab their attention and hold it till the ordering process is complete. If you are an ecommerce business and you are not getting the results you had hoped for, have a think about the following points. They will help you to reduce your bounce rates and boost your sales:
1. If potential customers can’t find the product they are looking for quickly they will move on and probably not return to your website again. Have clear, simple navigation to guide them through your products. Use quality product photography so they can see what they are ordering.
2. If you market your website using a PPC (pay per click) campaign remember to point the customers straight to the product or service they are looking for. Design a specific landing page which correlates to the consumers search term. Otherwise the customer is forced to dig and search again for the very thing they thought they had just found – very frustrating!
3. Online consumers will also become very frustrated if the ordering process is very complex or slow. Keep it simple; use an easy and secure payment method. Don’t give them a thousand boxes to fill in before they complete the order or they will get bored.
4. Make it easy for your customer to find related products this will boost your sales. Let me give you an example – last week I ordered a ‘Hetty’ vacuum cleaner online. After I had added it to my shopping basket, I then thought I should probably buy some of the bags to go with it…try as I might, I couldn’t find them. Whatever I did, I was taken to a page which had all the vacuum bags listed in weird product codes that made no sense to me at all. I gave up and they missed out on a sale. (I am very pleased with my pink Hetty though!)
5. Remember too, that you will be competing with numerous other companies selling the same products as you. It is not enough to simply compete on price and you may find it hard to undercut a larger business anyway. Make sure your website looks attractive and enticing to ensure they pick you out from the crowd. Be sure to research your target market and know what will appeal to them. Use images and language that are directed specifically at them.
If you need help or advice about your existing ecommerce website or you are interested in setting one up, then give us a call at Deckchair, professional web designers in Bristol. We provide full ecommerce services including design, development, marketing and analysis. We have a lot of experience in this area and would be delighted to talk to you. 0117 9299150
Toni
