Every feature that your eCommerce platform has is a medium for you to increase online sales. E-commerce features are not longer just pretty trinkets that are “good-to-haves”. They are now “must haves” and answers to that all-important question, “How to increase online sales?”
Features you can use as strategies to increase online sales
Rich search results:
Nothing is more frustrating than going through page after page of products to look for exactly the thing you are looking for. It might be worth your effort to build/use search functionalities that can match the search keywords to results as well as possible. A self-learning search tool that tracks keywords and products that are clicked on might prove useful too.
Related products:
Invariably, when you buy a phone, you want a cover and some or the accessory to go with it. When you buy a stationary item, it is relatively easy to get tempted into buying something besides the said item. That is exactly what the “related products” or “people who bought this also bought” section should do. Remind the customer of what they might need, lure them into buying a little more.
Wishlist:
Allow visitors to sleep over it. Not all customers are impulsive shoppers, respect that. Have a “Save for later” or a “wish list” that a visitor can come back to having to give the purchase a second thought. Many visitors, window shop online, add items to their wishlist and reward themselves with the items on their wish-list over months or on a special occasion. These sales might seem few and far between, but as an annual number they could end up as a significant percentage of your total sales.
Multimedia:
Use clear picture and videos to showcase your products. A 360-degree view of your product is more likely to convince your visitor to buy. The buyer gets a better idea of what the product looks and give a better idea of size when showcased in such a manner. Using different multimedia options has a very functional solution to the “how to increase conversion rate” problem.
Work on Abandoned Carts:
A surprisingly large number of visitors are all set to make a purchase but abort the cart at the end point. Try to analyse why that maybe so. Sometimes the answer might not be obvious. However, most likely you will realise that it is something like they couldn’t make changes to the quantity or found it too difficult to change the shipping address. Of course, you want to work on finding from shopping cart analytics. Also, you have an opportunity to approach the shopper who left their shopping cart unattended in the aisle. You could send a follow-up e-mail asking them why they left the cart and if you could help them troubleshoot any issue.
Customer Reviews:
Customers bring more customers. Make sure you incorporate and prominently display product ratings and reviews by actual customers. Do all you can to encourage users to rate and review their purchases. This will go a long way to increasing eCommerce conversions.
“How to increase eCommerce sales”, does not have one answer and neither is it a one-time thing. It is a trial and error process. It is a process that requires various permutations and combinations. It is a dynamic activity – what works now might need to be tweaked next month. There is no quick fix; you need to be diligent and quick to take action when you spot a problem.
Is there anything you changed in your site that led to more conversions or was there a negative learning that you would like to share?
