Starting an e-commerce business is easy. Sustaining it is not. Research has it that more than 50% businesses spend only a miniscule portion of their budget on optimizing conversions. They spend a good proportion of this budget on attracting visitors to their websites, but lack the initiative to convert these visitors. The fact is that most of these businesses have a conversion rate of below 1%. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that conversion rate forms the least important part of budgeting and is near bottom on the priority list.
In order to make a significant impact on the market and compete with the big sharks, e-commerce businesses have to come out top on many fronts from service ratings to material management and inventory. E-commerce tools help businesses gain and maintain the competitive edge. We have put together the best tools to help you optimize your conversion rates.
WebbyClips
Online shopping offers a convenient way to purchase products. However, customers still crave the experience of physically viewing a product and experiencing its impact on the psyche. This desire often acts as a deterrent to the decision of actually adding the product to the cart. By providing what may be termed as a “Webby Clip”, websites can encourage customers to make purchases. A Webby Clip is a video or multidimensional image that gives the customer an experience similar to that of viewing the product in a brick and mortar store. When the mouse hovers over the product or its description, the website offers the visitor the chance to “view a clip”. Webby clip code can also recognize the product on other sites and suggest visits to the e-commerce site to make a purchase.
Rejoiners
Customers often abandon their carts when they see the final bill and they are required to enter their credit card details. This behaviour is the result of an unwillingness to part with cash coupled with privacy concerns when giving up their personal data such as credit card details and addresses. At this crucial, decisive moment, a gentle reminder of the attractive offers available with the products they have selected can help clinch the deal. Statistics show that reminders at the time of payment can reduce abandonment by up to 15%. You can also “store the cart” and send the customer an email reminder with a direct link to the cart. The Rejoiner tool offers these benefits and more.
Receiptful
Rather than providing a receipt of the purchase at the Point of Sale (POS), it is a good idea to ask the customer to leave his email address where you may email the receipt. Emailing the receipt serves as a reminder of the experience your customer had on your website. You can also make new offers to your customers based on his purchases and thus forge a long-term relationship with the customer. The Receiptful tool can help you automate receipt generation and make suggestions based on the customer’s purchases. The receipt can then be used as a marketing tool to offer the customer products he may like to purchase.
Social Media Influence
The power of social media is well known. Social media not only helps you to advertise your products, it also helps you interact with your customers in an informal way. Investing in strategic planning for use of social media can help you better utilize this avenue of communication to effect sales. Topsy is an effective tool for social media analytics, which help you identify social media influencers, as well as followers. The tool also provides options for keyword analysis and analysis of competition.
Understanding Consumer Behaviour
Understanding what your customer needs is important if you want to stay ahead of the competition. You must be able to understand the customers’ needs and anticipate his actions so that you can present him with what he wants without his having to take too much effort. Tracking your customers’ actions and selections involves storing data about the choices a visitor makes on your website. Adroll is a tool that can help you do just that! The details about the choices made, the products selected, discarded, and purchased and the mode of payment selected can help you categorize your customers. You can provide different experiences for different types of customers.
Make Room to Stroll
People visit malls and departmental stores not merely to make purchases but also to experience the luxury of strolling through wide aisles and picking up stuff at their whim. Provide a similar experience to your customer on your website. De-clutter your shopping site by categorizing your products and guiding your customer to the product. Beware though of having too many choices!
Watch the Competition
Social media sites are a great source of information. People talk freely and express their feelings and opinions on sites like Facebook and Twitter. By identifying following leading influencers on these sites, you can gather a wealth of information about what your competition is doing to sell its products. These sites also offer great insights into consumer behaviour, likes & dislikes, and buying patterns.
Adapt
Make your website uniform across devices. Of course there will be some subtle differences but strive to give your customers familiarity across devices. Seeing the same screen and navigation options whenever your customer visits your site, will give him a sense of confidence and comfort. At the same time, do not expect your customer to squint at a mobile screen that is cluttered with a display of a large number of products. Maintain different versions of your apps for different screen resolutions.
Analyse! Analyse! Analyse!
All these tools also help you store your customer’s actions and choices. The Online Conversion Tool helps you analyse the stored data. You can then use this information to predict your customers’ actions. Next time that particular customer visits your site, you can be prepared to greet him with exactly what he desires. This can be the start of a long and fulfilling relationship. Analysing customer behaviour by monitoring his a
ctions on your website, his choice of products, and his responses to emails and on chat can help you identify what each customer needs. You can then personalize his experience by presenting to him exactly what he is looking for saving him the trouble of navigating through your website.
Customer is King!!!
Finally, do not forget that customer is king. Serve him at every step by adding gentle reminders at every step. Offer chats, toll free calling, availability information for products, estimated delivery time, and multiple payment options. Be available for your customer. Be open to change and accept their comments both good and bad. Make their check out as smooth as possible. Make sure your apps and programs are functioning, as they should. Above all, make sure your customer has a comforting and satisfying visit to your site.
