Turbo-Boost Ecommerce in 7 Steps

Ecommerce is big business in the U.S. According to online think tank, Statistica, in 2012, online stores generated over $255 billion in business. They project that these ecommerce sales will soar, ballooning to over $434 billion by the year 2017.

If your ecommerce store is not prepared to best compete with your rivals, and to offer your shoppers the experience they desire, you could very well see your sales shrink and your efforts wasted. Use these seven tips to supercharge your ecommerce store the smart way.

How you write your product descriptions will matter greatly because customers want something that is informational-rich, enticing, educational (about the product), and easy and fast to read. CEO of Southern Web Group, Drew Barton, advises that the most effective product descriptions are about 75 words in length, and that you should try to keep them under 200 words total. Be sure to include details like size, dimensions, weight, shipping costs and clothing sizes when applicable.

How you represent your products in your online store is very important. Since customers are unable to actually see the product in person with their own eyes, a high-resolution image is imperative. According to Barton, your product photos should consist of ultra-high quality images, the best that are attainable.

Larger photos, he infers, will help reduce your returns and will also work to reduce shopping cart abandonment rates, because people can actually see what they get, and what they get is what they saw. In addition, offer photos that show numerous angles of the product, which helps to also reduce returns.

Always be transparent and upfront with your shoppers. Disclose all policies and offer helpful FAQs that they can reference as resources to increase online sales. Provide information like shipping times and delivery windows, your returns policies, service hours and support options. Also, make sure you respond to any comments and inquiries in a timely manner.

By allowing your customers to know what your shipping and returns policies are, including rates and delivery windows in advance, they’ll be well apprised in advance of your policies and procedures, which will serve to avoid letdown later on, and to ultimately enhance the customer’s shopping experience.

Running an effective ecommerce store also involves you understanding what your analytics means and where your website traffic is streaming in from. Users that visit your website, but that do not make a purchase, will be flagged as a “bounced” visitor. The lower your bounce rate is, the better that your online store is doing.

Start tracking the patterns and trends that customers leave when they enter and exit your website to make key changes to landing pages and checkout pages, and to help increase sales and improve upon growth while decreasing bounce rates overall. Also, make sure your checkout process is fast, easy and user-friendly with few steps involved, and be certain to feature a guest checkout, too.

Your customers want to feel safe and welcomed when they are shopping at your online store. In the wake of some unscrupulous bad-apple scammers out there, offering clear contact information on each page is critical, explains Barton.

People want to be able to find your phone number, email address and a contact form with ease. This helps them reach out and contact you with any issues when shopping, and also assures them that you’re transparent and accessible to them in the future, should any issues or concerns arise.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find the items that they are looking for when they are spending their precious time on your website. A nested product search bar and a well-organized and labeled database will innately improve searchable functions for shoppers who are browsing, and can mean the difference between strong conversion rates or high bounce rates.

Consider using a fully integrated shopping cart solution for your ongoing efforts. Both Shopify and 3dcart are two immensely popular and effective, feature-rich ecommerce shopping cart solutions to consider using for expediting these efforts. They take a lot of the legwork out for you, so you can focus on making sales.

You want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to find the items that they are looking for when they are spending their precious time on your website. A nested product search bar and a well-organized and labeled database will innately improve searchable functions for shoppers who are browsing, and can mean the difference between strong conversion rates or high bounce rates.

Consider using a fully integrated shopping cart solution for your ongoing efforts. Both Shopify and 3dcart are two immensely popular and effective, feature-rich ecommerce shopping cart solutions to consider using for expediting these efforts. They take a lot of the legwork out for you, so you can focus on making sales.

You want your call-to-action buttons to be strong, colorful, reinforcing, attractive and engaging. These buttons should be in plain view on each page that you offer products and services. Buttons like your “Buy Now,” “Shop Here,” “Free Download,” and so on, should be large, user-friendly and easy to find.

What’s more, each page and product should lead shoppers, ultimately, to your call-to-action buttons. The goal is to encourage your shoppers to click that button and add the products to the shopping cart, or to sign-up for your services or purchase your downloads.