Let's
be honest, there is more to Ecommerce than building an
online
store
and expecting sales. It takes time, effort and a whole bunch of tools
to ensure that those visitors turn into customers.
Problem
is, with the online global conversion rate coming in at a measly
4.2%,
it's critical to the success of your store that you don't make a
single mistake.
But
are
you
making any of these 5 common Ecommerce mistakes?
Mistake
1: Your site isn’t mobile responsive
Did
you know that over
1.2
billion
people access the web from their mobile devices?
Now
that's a lot of people – and a lot of conversion potential.
But
if you are one of the
45%
of marketers who doesn’t have a mobile-optimized site, then you're
gonna miss out - big time!
How
to fix it:
You
don't need to be an expert coder to create a responsive site. You
just need to find an Ecommerce platform that supports mobile. The
good news is that with our
Ecommerce
solution
,
you can easily create a mobile responsive site – and we offer
plenty of themes to suit your brand!
Because
mobile is a lot smaller than desktop, we'd also suggest getting rid
of any features that are not necessary. For example, bakery store,
King
Arthur Flour
,
doesn’t show the navigation bar on their mobile site, but if you
click on the menu, the user can still navigate to the same places.
As
you can see below, they've included the main features with the focus
on product images, the CTA and a contact number:
Mistake
2: You aren’t addressing objections
As
frustrating as it is to know that so many people will jump onto your
site and not buy, it's important to know the reasons why.
What
are their objections? Once you start listening to your visitors,
you'll be well on your way to making more sales.
How
to fix it:
One
of the biggest objections will be how much your product costs. If
it's too high people may think the product is too advanced, if it's
too low, they may think it's low quality. The key to overcoming these
problems is to focus on the
value
of your product.
Show
the customer why it is worth buying and feature all of the benefits
below your product images.
Another
great way to overcoming objections is to offer a way for your
customers to give you reviews. There is nothing more convincing than
reviews that show other people bought your products – and they were
pretty darn happy with them.
Check
out our video to find out more about why you should supercharge your
store with product reviews...
Mistake
3: Your product descriptions aren’t compelling
When
it comes to writing product descriptions, there is a lot to get
across. Most Ecommerce sites will simply bullet point the features of
the product – size, weight, color etc, and display the price.
The
problem with this is that no thought has gone into creating
compelling copy that will persuade that visitor to buy.
How
to fix it:
It
all comes down to features vs benefits. In order to convince people
that your product is worth buying, you need to show the customer what
it can do for them.
We
understand that you know your products better than anyone, which is
possibly why it's harder to get across the benefits because you're
too focused on what the product is.
Write
down on a sheet of paper your product features, then next to each
feature, describe how that will benefit the customer. This will
really help you get in the right headspace so you can apply those
benefits to your product descriptions.
We'd
also recommend focusing on emotional benefits – as it's true what
they say - people buy with their hearts.
Think
about what drives people to want
that product. How does your product make people feel? Many successful
Ecommerce owners will use the awesome method of storytelling to help
capture the emotions of the reader.
For
example, Man Crates below does a fantastic job of including features,
benefits, while telling a compelling story:
Mistake
4: You haven’t defined your target audience
Alright
we get it, you want to make tons of money. But that doesn’t mean
that the way to do that is to target everyone.
In
fact, this can have the opposite effect. The more undefined your
target audience is, the more your promotions, brand voice and all
over message will suffer.
How
to fix it:
What
you need to do is create a buyer persona as this will help you
identify your single, target market. A buyer persona is a
semi-fictional representation of your customers that is based on
market research.
When
it comes to creating a buyer persona you'll want to be as detailed as
possible. It's important to learn the basics such as name, age,
gender etc, but it's equally important to understand their buying
motivations, so you can build a full picture of your customers.
See
for example this buyer person from Munro's as the perfect example:
Remember,
you'll probably have more than one buyer persona, so it's a smart
idea to segregate your audience for better results.
Mistake
5: Your product images don't stand out
When
it comes to your online store, 67%
of consumers say that the quality of a product image is very
important, in purchasing a product.
Naturally
we're drawn to an image on a page ahead of the text, so it's
important that you get it right as this can really make or break your
conversions.
How
to fix it:
First
we'd suggest taking awesome photos that will really highlight the
best bits about your products. And making them look great on a budget
isn't that difficult. Go check out our photography
cheat sheet
for plenty of tips and then come right back.
Next,
it's time to get creative. Think about the different angles that your
visitors will want to see to help them make an informative purchase
decision.
Take
SteelCase below for the perfect example. They let you change the
color of the chair, you can zoom in to see it up close, and view
eight more high quality images that show the chair in different
angles and settings:
Make
sure your images look great, stand out, and give your visitors plenty
of angles so that they can get a full picture.
Grab
a copy of our free eBook – 13 conversion mistakes!
See
those 5 mistakes above? Well they are just a few of the ones that can
be made when running an Ecommerce store!
But
fear not, we've created an eBook that has 13
conversion mistakes that smart Ecommerce owners make
– and it's completely free to download! You're welcome.