Get more conversions: How to close the online sale

Ecommerce and Closing the On-Line Sale

Website Hosting Ecommerce

You have worked hard making your web site attractive. Your shopping cart is setup and your products are displaying with catchy images. It took a long time to get here. To the point of sale (POS). The visitor has browsed, added several items to her shopping cart and is ready to make a purchase. Are you ready to capture that sale? Does your site instill confidence and deliver benefits visitors won’t find at the local mall? No?

Well, here’s an eye-opener for you. A large percentage of web users use their computers to:

comparison shop for the lowest prices
learn more about product features and benefits
locate the local brick-and-mortar stores
read product reviews from journals and buyers
make buying decisions – plural. Web users decide what to purchase and where to purchase – two critical decisions that affect your site’s commercial success.

If you’re wondering why you’re seeing great traffic analytics to your web site but not converting as many sales as you anticipate, part of the problem might be your closing strategies.

How can you keep visitors from using your site for information, and then later make their purchase from a real-world store? Well, after all, a real world purchase is faster with instant gratification. The shopper can feel the product in their hands, ask questions, and decide for real if they want to own the product.

So what can you do to close more sales?

You need to close the deal. Your ecommerce store is a serious investment, both of your time and your money. You NEED to close more deals... after all, you need to make a living and your counting on your business income and, if your only given the chance, you know you can make your clients happy.

The allure of on-line shopping

To close the deal and and make a sale, consider the reasons why people use the web for browsing (instead of shopping). You can turn each of those reasons into a sales closing strategy, if you consider the buying process on your site in the mind of the buyer. Think like an online shopper. Test your shopping cart and really see what it is your online visitors see. What is it that can be changed? What can you do to improve the buying process? What can you do to close more sales? Because, after all, it is important.

Okay, let's assume that your visitors use your site to gather information and that once they have collected the information that they need, they jump in the car and go to the local brick-and-mortar store to make the purchase. Don't forget that you are asking the potential buyer to make a few sacrifices such as:

Purchase from an unknown vendor
Wait three to five business days before receiving their purchase in the mail
Risk the additional hassle of returning the items, if they don't work out.

Buying on line can be a hassle, unless your ecommerce web site is positioned so that the shopping experience is defined well, and there is not one single doubt left in the mind of your potential shopper.

Strategies to close more online sales:

Make it more convenient. Make the deal more attractive to your visitors. Outline the deal on your web site so that the visitor wants to click "Add to cart" in order to save time, hassle of battling the traffic at the local mall, and miss the crowds. Make life easier for your online shoppers. Buying from your online store should be convenient, a time-saver which results in the buyer becoming more productive with their time.
Offer shipping options. Overnight delivery is an option that might just close the deal for you. Many shoppers need the items–fast! Offer overnight delivery for those emergency items that absolutely, positively must be there in the morning. This scenario is especially true of companies who sell to other businesses where room for error is non-existent. People will gladly pay extra to get their new item the next day. They won't think twice about paying an extra $20 to get their laptop tomorrow rather than by the end of the week. Keep in mind, however, that some buyers are more cost conscious so, always offer either free or low-cost shipping. Free shipping on orders over a certain amount is useful in getting the buyer to add one more item in their cart.
Offer personalized service. Many companies have outsourced this responsibility, but the companies that handle this in-house have the opportunity to "Wow" their shoppers. If your company must outsource this task, make sure your phone representatives know your products, policies and company's terms and conditions. If they don't, it will cost you time and money in lost sales. You, the business site owner, will need to prepare scripts for the representatives who answer telephones or emails for hundreds of different companies to provide customer services. So, whenever possible, be sure that all products are immediately accessible to the representative with product specifications for callers with questions. Your representatives should always be set up to take the order and close the deal. They should always offer to process the order as part of their script. Think it through... if a potential buyer has taken the time and trouble to call your company, you are very near to closing the deal. A salesperson has not actually been asked to be a sales person unless the customer says "No Thanks" and, in that case, the sales person should be well-trained in the strategy of changing the caller's mind and closing the deal.
Offer guarantees. Guarantees are real trust builders. There are many different types of guarantees that you can offer: product guarantees, shipping guarantees, satisfaction guarantees. And don’t hide these benefits in the fine print. Display your guarantees in a very visible location on both your web site and the back-end shopping cart.
Keep your checkout process simple and re-assure your customer along the way. Your buyers, most notably your repeat buyers with whom you already have a relationship, should be able to make a purchase with a click or two. At every single step of the checkout process: (1) assure your buyer that he/she is on the right page and that everything is in order to this point; (2) provide a visible "back" button; (3) give buyers the means of which to change items and quantities without having to back out of the check-out and start over; (4) assure buyers that they are on a secure site in both your site text and through the use of trust-building logos from the BBB, Authorize.net, McAfee and other security-focused companies.
Provide an immediate email invoice with order number. These invoices are generated automatically by reputable shopping carts and then sent to the buyer’s in box. Detail all order information, including anticipated ship and arrival dates and be sure to provide a telephone contact, in case the buyer has any questions.
Offer additional incentives. Why? Because more than any other single factor, these incentives differentiate your company from the Wal-Mart across town. Wal-Mart may have their greeters at the main entrance, but your company can deliver a lot more in terms of personalized service and convenience.

Gift certificates - This is the easiest way to send a gift, especially if your buyer doesn't know what to purchase. A gift certificate is always appreciated by the recipient.
Personalized greeting cards - If the purchase is a gift, the option of sending a personalized note is a great strategy that can help close the deal. Many on-line shoppers, especially around the holidays, want to send along a personalized note with the gift.
Gift wrapping - Offer unique gift wrapping options that are personalized for the recipient: grandparents and parents, kids, the corporate world, and others. A smart selling feature is to display the different wrapping options on the page during the check-out sequence. Remember, a well-designed image is worth a thousand words.
Personal shoppers - A lot of men are not sure when it comes to things like jewelry and other gifts. Many buyers could use some help.
Email reminders - Email reminders are excellent tools for online companies to increase sales. Buyers who tend to forget birthdays, anniversaries and holidays will appreciate the personalized email you send two weeks before the big day. And where are these buyers going to make their online purchases? From the nice web site that reminded them that now was the time to buy the gift for that special someone.
Host your online store with a green hosting provider. Your buyers will appreciate the fact that your web site is powered by green energy. Many online shoppers look for "Powered by Green Hosting" banners on a web site and will leave a web site if they can't find one. Choose a green hosting provider that specializes in providing web hosting powered by Wind Energy.

These are the special services that differentiate your web site apart from the local chain stores. You may not be able to compete on price, but personalized services make your business different from all the rest, and many times, are the reasons buyers will wait a day or two and purchase from an unknown web site that is obviously focused on customer service.

Top 10 Tips - How to Convert Visitors into Loyal Customers

Posted in Ecommerce

Converting web site visitors

Top 10 Tips - How to Convert Visitors into Loyal Customers

Website Hosting Conversion Tips

Every business needs a web site in order to compete, but in order to be successful with your web site, you need to not only build up web site traffic, but convert that traffic into leads. Many webmasters report that they are able to build up a strong following of daily visitors, but converting those visitors into sales is a whole different matter. The competition for attention on the Internet is relentless. If a web site doesn't convert, it can cost your company valuable leads—not good.

In any on-line endeavor, whether your selling products, services, or just getting out a message to the world, your conversion rate is the lifeblood of the success of your web site.

Tips for converting visitors into leads:

1. Keep critical information above the fold.

Above the fold is an old newspaper term that described the newspaper’s front page “above the fold.” This is where your most popular products or highly sensational news topics should appear. In web site terms, above the fold is everything seen by the visitor without the visitor having to scroll – prime site space. Your most important information should appear here. A recent study on how different groups of people use the web showed that the 50 and older crowd don’t scroll as much as their web-wise grand kids so if you want it read, keep it above the fold.

2. Create compelling headlines.

“Who else wants to make a million dollars before bedtime” and other web cliches do not compel visitors to stick around to read your long-form, Dan Kennedy template sales letter. Headlines create interest among human readers and search engine spiders who recognize headlines as important text. So make your point in and add keywords to headlines.

3. A picture is worth a thousand words.

A visual image (not just text) above the fold naturally draws the eye and the attention of visitors so a small image or an image banner is helpful in breaking up blocks of text, and starts off the visitor slowly. A walloping pile of text, no matter how compelling, isn't going to appeal to those “on-the-fence” visitors looking for a specific service, product or message.

If you’re using an image, make it an image worth seeing – an photo that instantly delivers your site’s message. When naming your images, include keywords in the filename, but do not over do it. Remember, google image search is a powerful source of traffic to your webs site and by using quality images that are named something consistent with your web site "theme" you are benefiting your search engine factors. So don’t waste pixels. Maximize every one.

Charts and graphs are a terrific way to transmit a lot of information in the blink of an eye. You can write pages of text testifying that your stock picking formula is the best, or you can create a chart showing your online portfolio delivering gains of 150% a year. A chart showing rising value (whatever the product or service) makes a strong statement very quickly. Charts and graphs are also useful in making complex information more accessible to the reader. Your typical visitor won’t read through pages and pages of company financial statements but s/he will make a buying decision based on proof in image form.

4. Engage visitor trust and build your brand.

Is your web site trustworthy? When visitors land on your web site, you want them to do something. You want them to opt-in in exchange for your ethical bribe eBook download, you want them to sign up for your weekly newsletter, buy something, complete a form or pick up the telephone and call you. And given the number of web sites a visitor has to choose from, you better do well in advancing your brand and building trust. So how does a webmaster enable a trust factor on their web site? The answer is simple. Add trust-building elements to your web site – elements that not only encourage the performance of an action, but make the site visitor comfortable in the performance of that action. Join the Better Business Bureau, Sing up with McAfee Secure, use the highest quality EV Secure Certificates (the ones that make the address bar of a browser turn green when a secure page is accessed), post contact information for your firm or organization in a very visible location on your web site, and most of all–provide rock solid guarantees and stand by them!

5. Real information. Not sales hype.

If site visitors discover useful information that will directly benefit them on each search engine accessible page of your site, they’re much more likely to stick around and learn a little something. Sure, if you’re operating on razor-thin margins and “Low Cost” is your prime selling point (WE BEAT ANY PRICE ON THE WEB) then that needs prominent, “can’t-be-missed” display on the home page – somewhere. But to lower your bounce rate, add a little informational content or a big link to your site’s information bank, blog or archives. There’s plenty of opportunity to make a sale once the visitor has begun to explore your site for additional, useful information.

6. Don’t follow the herd.

6,000 new web sites hit the W3 each and every day. There are over one billion active web sites worldwide. And if your social media marketing site looks like every other social media marketing site you'll continue to see a higher than acceptable bounce rate. You'll never get your bounce rate to zero. All you can hope for is to lower it.

7. Don’t assume the visitor lands on the home page.

A visitor can enter from a number of access points. For instance, by conducting a search for a web design firms, the visitor might land on the product page for said converter. This means that many different pages may be the doorway to your site so treat each page as a home page. Make sure you post important "how to" videos or "getting started tips" on each page of your blog so that visitors that access your site through the back door have plenty of information available to them in order to make the valuable decision to buy your product or sign up for your newsletter.

8. Emphasize calls to action.

A great way to help convince visitors to sign up and fill out contact info is through effectively designed buttons and similar small design elements. Something that stands out somewhere above the fold of the web page layout ( a great designer can really mean the difference here). Perhaps have a contact/lead generation form as part of that call-to-action. Highlight some kind of featured promotion if possible, if you give a discount on closing costs, great. Highlight it and post it in a visible location on every page of your site.

9. Create an interactive experience for site visitors.

Although web sites built entirely in flash animation can suffer from poor SEO, bugs, slow loading times, etc, selective flash animation and programming does provide great interactivity. Flash sideshows, interactive maps, interactive forms, are all great design elements that position your web site as a cutting edge place to look for homes and real estate information. Many designers are shying away from flash and instead utilizing highly-effective graphics in order to grab visitors' attention. Color scheme, web site navigation, and load time are all important factors to remember when designing a web site.

10. Choose a green web hosting provider.

Did you know that the energy consumed by data centers has more than doubled since 2000 resulting in higher carbon emissions released into the environment? A leading web hosting firm located in Austin, Texas, Green Host It, offers carbon neutral web hosting. Green Host It leads the way with the newest technologies, the highest degree of client care and dedication to both the environment and the success of new, web-based businesses. And by choosing a green web hosting provider, you are able to display an emblem on your web site that shows your web site visitors that your company is environmentally conscious and responsible.

You want a web host that’s interested in your web-based success. These companies deliver lots of free goodies, security, customization and free and easy access. You want a knowledgeable human being with endless patience to answer the telephone – someone who will work through your questions, provide answers and solutions when you need them, which is like yesterday.

Take your time. Choosing the right web hosting company is probably the most important decision you'll make in the early stages of business growth. Research your web host's corporate culture. And go with a green web hosting provider that works hard for your success. After all, isn't that what you want in an on-line business partner.