Your product is so good that if it appeared on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” they’d pronounce you the winner after the first episode. Your website is so beautifully designed that your screen caps could hang in an art gallery. Your employees? They’ve got more ability than the Justice League and the Avengers combined. So why isn’t your product selling? If you’re adding up your profits and scratching your head, there’s hope that your conversion conundrum might not require a complete business overhaul. Perhaps you just need to pull a few more tricks out of your e-commerce sleeve. That’s where this guide comes in. Through it, you’ll discover three unique ways to boost your sales, and you’ll make some waves in the process. Time for some ideas…
1. Conduct a Q&A. When it comes to online shopping, something as small as a lingering question can stop a customer in their tracks. Questions like “Will these pants shrink in the wash?” or “How long do these ink cartridges last?” might seem relatively inconsequential, but unanswered concerns like these can kill your conversion rate. So what can you do? Use tools that help shoppers interact with past buyers so that they can get the info they need, and fast. Social Q&A tools do just that.
When added to your website, these tools allow consumers to ask and answer questions. That promotes confidence, and confidence leads straight to the checkout. When Inkjet Superstore began using a social Q&A tool, they discovered that customers who asked or answered questions had a conversion rate 80% higher than those who didn’t. You don’t have to be a business guru to know that’s no small difference.
2. Check Up on the Checkout. Did you know that for most online businesses, 60% of carts never make it to the checkout? Customers get distracted or decide they’ll shop around for sales – or they simply forget to return to your site to complete their orders. So if you’re a business owner, what do you do with all those abandoned carts? If you want to boost your conversion rate, you follow up with the would-be customer via email.
This would be nearly impossible to do manually, so online commerce experts have created tools to help. These programs can automatically track abandoned carts and email the shoppers after a certain period of time has elapsed. They can also offer special discounts or rewards for shoppers who commit to checking out. The result? An increased e-commerce conversion rate of up to 15%.
3. Follow the Code. QR codes can be used so many ways that it’s hard to grasp their full conversion potential. When placed in-store, these newfangled, scannable bar codes can connect mobile users to your website. This provides people with more information, including customer reviews, additional size and color options – you name it. QR codes don’t have to be placed in the store, either. You can attach them to products, advertisements and receipts. Technically, you could even attach one to yourself, just to see what happens.
When you connect your codes to your social media profiles and let consumers do things like scan the code to “like” your product on Facebook, you’ll be boosting boost brand awareness, connecting shoppers to the tools and information they need and boosting your conversion rates, all in one shot. Need one more reason to go the QR- code route? Experts believe that 60 million Americans will own iPads or other tablets by the end of the year, so if you put QR codes to work for you now, a growth in sales will be the likely result.
Running a business is a bit like being a fisherman: no matter how skilled you are at reeling them in, a few of your customers are always going to get away. But just as award-winning anglers have tricks to help get them out of their rut, there are plenty of tools out there that will help you capture consumer attention and convert it into sales. If your product is perfect and your sales team is stellar but your checkout is seeing more tumbleweeds than carts lately, give one of these conversion-boosting tools a try. Then sit back and smile, and watch those numbers change.
Cathie O’Callaghan is the Director of Marketing for TurnTo, the leader in Social Q&A. She is fascinated all things ecommerce – whether it’s the front-end or back-end of the store.
