Basics of the Buyer to Conversion Ratio

The success of an online business is directly related to the website’s ability to convert web surfers into online shoppers. It with a typical click-through ratio of 1%, and Google doubling their adWord campaign, optimizing conversion has become as important as optimizing for the web.

Once a website attracts that coveted 1% click through, retailers learn the truth about online sales. Most web surfers take three visits before they make the decision to buy. There are very few impulse buyers on the web. However, before you quit, I have some statistics to share:

It took the:

1. Telephone 38 years to reach 50 million users
2. Television 13 years to reach 50 million users
3. Internet 4 years to reach 50 million users

This behavior didn’t start on the Internet. It started with the creation of malls and the lure of ‘something better’ down the hall. In today’s eMarketing consumer, the consumer has a value. Regular customers in the system cost less money to convert than new visitors.

How Online Buyers Convert

The typical eCommerce merchant will see the same visitor return two or three times, hovering around the same items each time. Ultimately, someone will get the sale. Some of the customers you pre-sold will go to other vendors. Their pre-sold visitors will come to yours.

The gurus will tell you that a website can increase their chances of retaining the conversion. Statistics claim that 87% of publishers are unsatisfied with their conversion rates. However, 60% do nothing about it. The rest believe that, if their first effort at e-tailing fails, it is the fault of the web designer, SEO pro, or web host.

Three Stages of Shopping online:

1. Flitting Around the Internet looking for free information and tools.
2. Realizing that DIY costs, or realizing they need a product.
3. Prowling the web looking for the ‘right’ product.

This is why many e-tailers create newsletters, mailing lists, forums, podcasts, free downloads, and chats to give visitors a reason to return.

Do not give up. UK shoppers spent 26 million on the Internet in the six weeks before

Tips to Improve Your Conversion

One way to improve your conversion is to mimic the colors, ad design, and ad styles that mimic those seen on television and print media. Familiarity breeds credibility.

A DIY website will not increase conversions. Many eCommerce businesses need to start with the DIY, but the first purchase should be a website made by a professional in advertising or marketing. They know the colors and text that will convert buyers. A SEO may be able to design a site that ‘speaks’ to the search engines, but it takes an advertiser who understands ‘buyer behavior trends’ to create a website which focuses on conversions.

Another way is to take part in a community frequented by shoppers, not other sellers. This is the #1 mistake most eCommerce business owners make, preaching to the crowd. These communities decrease start-up and increase conversions by keeping you in front of your consumer, no matter how many times they surf the net.

In the end, conversions are just a numbers game. Even the worst designed website can generate sales if they receive enough traffic.

Overcoming Abandoned Shopping Cart Problems

Ecommerce business owners have several options when it comes to generating traffic. They don’t have many options to help them reduce the number of people who leave their shopping cart half way through the ‘buy now’ process. It can be difficult to understand why a person would start the shopping process, add 2 or 3 things to their shopping cart, and then leave without buying.

Here are some tips to streamline a shopping cart and improve sales.

Shopping Cart Platform

Most mistakes are made with the selection of the software. Cost does not imply that the shopping cart will perform as expected. Some free, open source shopping carts are more ‘user friendly’ and easier to navigate than hosted ones that cost several hundred dollars a month. However, buying a shopping cart without service and maintenance is dangerous.

Structure

There are several stages to a shopping cart. The most common reported reason for abandoned shopping cart is not letting a consumer know how long the process is, how many pages are involved, and where they are in the process. Many people leave the shopping cart because they are frustrated with all the pages involved.

Make sure there is a step-by-step tool that lets shoppers know when they are nearing the end of the buy-now process.

Up Selling and Cross Selling

The shopping cart is not the place to tell people they are only buying half the product. Many people are new to shopping online. Even with the amount spent online reaching the trillions a year, a large number of internet users have not started shopping online.

They abandon their shopping cart feeling confusion, feeling they have somehow ‘lost’ the shopping cart and returned to the catalogue section of the website, and feeling frustration at being told they must buy more to receive full value.

Collecting Personal Information

The fear of phishing websites has forced the issue of privacy. Most people do not feel comfortable filling out long pages of personal information just so they can make a purchase. There is no reason for a website to collect a person’s address, their income level, or whether they own their house.

Keep the shopping cart focused. It has one purpose to create a quick and easy method for people to buy a product. If you need to know where people live for marketing purposes, then retrieve the information form the shipping section of the website.

“Add To Cart”

The Add-To-Cart button is vital to a successful shopping cart experience. A good shopping cart will focus on one purpose, making the sale. It will not ask people to join a newsletter or become members.

The Add-to-Cart button must stand out, a bright color, and placed on the catalogue page, all review pages, and any other page associated with the product.

A “Buy Now” button should be on every page of the website. It should give shoppers the opportunity to jump straight to the payment gateway so shoppers can escape the whole process and complete their transaction.

Credibility

There are several ways to build credibility. The most common is the use of SEALS. These are the small icons at the bottom of the shopping cart that promise the shopper their private information is safe, that the shopping cart is SLL safe, and others that verify the shopping cart’s legitimate status.

Fixing these elements will set the stage to decrease the number of abandoned shopping carts on your website and help to increase sales.

 

Behavioral Targeting: Web 3.0

The conversation has shifted away from the hackneyed Web 2.0 term, to what will most likely be the next overused meeting phrase, Web 3.0. In this next iteration - users will be able to create a platform of widgets on their computer that will control the content they view. It will (in a perfect world) let users stay with their favorites sites and eliminate the clutter. Read more

Virtual business

Brent Arslaner, VP of marketing at Unisfair, explains how virtual environments can
increase productivity in marketing, sales and human resources departments within a company.

How to Read an Arts CV

The current growth in outsourcing has Public Relations departments scrambling to understand this alternative type of resume. The common complaint from small business owners is ‘why can’t they just use a resume?’  When you understand the purpose of a CV, you’ll have more respect for it as a b2b tool. 

Read more