In recent years, millions of e-commerce businesses have taken off and, with no-code platforms easily accessible, getting started isn't as difficult as it used to be. It's keeping afloat and growing sales that have become the real challenge. In this blog, we will take a look at 5 top tips to increase sales for your e-commerce store.
1. Make a good first impression 👀
Everything starts with that first impression. According to a study undertaken by Google and published in The International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, it only takes people roughly 50 milliseconds to decide if they like your website or not. This is such a tiny fraction of time that it's difficult to fully get your head around it. For reference, a typical human blink lasts around 1/3 of a second or 333.33 milliseconds!
So, you have 50 milliseconds to make a good impression. Not a lot of time by any stretch of the imagination. What makes a good impression in such a small amount of time? As it turns out, there are two key elements:
Low visual complexity
High prototypicality
Low visual complexity essentially means simplicity. Meanwhile, high prototypicality refers to how well a design represents a certain category - familiarity, in other words. So, you want your site to be simple with a familiar design that adheres to the conventions of the category.
💡 Pro tip
The design and layout of your website should draw the viewer's eye to your Call to Action (CTA) - the button that says "Add to cart" or "Buy now" for instance. If your website is too busy, this may detract from the purpose of the page - to turn viewers into buyers.
In summary: The better the impression you make, the longer visitors will stay on your page and the more likely they will be to convert into paying customers.
2. Build credibility 🤓
Typically, customers need to feel that you are trustworthy before they decide to buy anything from you. However, building trust is a lot easier in person than it is online. When you're face-to-face with customers, they can see your body language and hear your tone of voice. Tone is notoriously tricky to communicate in a realm that is devoid of intonation and physicality - but it's not impossible.
Here are a few things you can do to build credibility and trust with consumers:
Use a reliable e-commerce platform: such as Shopify or Square.
Use a business email address: Separate your work email from your personal email and leave GMAIL, YAHOO, and HOTMAIL behind.
Ensure accessibility: Follow the Americans with Disabilities ActNew Window (ADA) requirements for website accessibility
Make your site secure: Use an SSL connection, include a logo of secure payment processes, and add extra security to your website
Leverage social proofing: Add logos of your partners and quotes from happy customers to prove your legitimacy
Include FAQs: This helps customers find important information quickly, such as the details of your exchanges and returns policy
While building a rapport with consumers online is tricky, it's not impossible, and many e-commerce stores have been able to build credibility through the authentic representation of their stores, themselves, and their client base.
3. Put your customers first 🥇
How do you revolve your business around customers who you seldom - or perhaps never - see in the flesh? They can't touch, feel, or try on your fabulous garments before purchasing, so how do you reach out to them and make them feel present in your process? Here are a few ideas:
Make up for the lack of human-touch with a super easy-to-use site
Offer free shipping
Make your checkout process quick and painless
The easier it is to go from "Add to cart" to delivery, the more likely someone is to go through with their purchase.
Moreover, to make sure your customers are front and center, we recommend monitoring their behavior by tracking:
Newly acquired customers
Repeat customers
Once-off customers
The trend of your net margin over time
The segments that contribute the most towards your net margin
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) - how much you expect to get from a newly acquired customer, the typical customer lifespan, etc
Net Promoter Score (NPS) - how happy your customers are
Customer retention in terms of purchase frequency, orders per customer, and average days between transactions
By giving customers a top-notch experience of your store and analyzing their behavior, you will be able to create a customer-centric environment that promotes growth.
4. Make your business mobile friendly 📱
Just about everyone has a mobile phone and uses it for everything from online banking to ordering groceries and browsing social media. If your website isn't optimized for mobile viewing, you're missing out on a huge market.
We've known since 2015 that mobile searches have overtaken desktop searches. Beyond the realm of search, mobile has also become the chief purchasing medium, which means that what your site looks like on a mobile phone is critical. So, if ever there were a time to optimize your e-commerce site for mobile viewing, now would be that time!
💡 Pro tip
Google has a free mobile-friendly test tool you can use
A few elements you may wish to consider in this process include the following:
Loading time - the faster the better given that 53% of mobile shoppers will abandon a website if it doesn’t load in 3 seconds
Removing pop-ups from the mobile version of your site as these are tricky to close on a phone
Keeping important elements above the fold - the first section of the website before you scroll
Using large, clear buttons for improved visibility
Having a responsive site
There's nothing more disruptive for a potential buyer than a glitchy, slow-loading mobile site, especially if it's formatted in such a way as to force you to scroll uncomfortably just to see what's going on. The easier it is to navigate a site on your mobile, the more likely you are to go through with your sale, rather than abandoning your cart - as so many people do.
5. Use pictures 📸
Human beings process visuals 60,000 times faster than text. Scientific investigations have actually found that half of the human brain is directly or indirectly devoted to processing visual information. The brain can identify images that it has only seen for 13 milliseconds!
Plus, studies have found that at least 65% of people are visual learners and people can recall more than 2 000 pictures with at least 90% accuracy in recognition tests over a period of several days. Using visual elements on your website is, therefore, a no-brainer.
You can make the most of the human proclivity for visuals by using imagery to the max on your landing pages. Here are our top tips for image usage on landing pages:
Make your hero shot - the image above the fold - the star of the show. Consider the kind of emotions it elicits in the viewer and what it suggests about how customers feel about your products or services. If there's only one thing you want prospects to take away about your product from your landing page, what would it be?
Try to find unique images for your pages, even if these are stock images. Scroll past the first page of results of stock photos before settling just to make sure that this isn't an image consumers are likely to have seen in blog articles and sites all over the web. You want to have something unique and memorable on your page.
When possible, make use of authentic, real-life photos. Unnatural poses, overly formal clothes and forced smiles can make stock photos look fake and absurd. Try instead to use photographs with natural facial expressions and poses, regular clothing, and diverse styles, whether these be stock images or professional photographs of yourself and your team.
Don't use images just to fill the white space. Every image should serve a purpose and that purpose should be aligned with the goal of the page - which is usually for the viewer to click your CTA button. Don't underestimate the value of white space in this pursuit. White space serves an important purpose by helping draw the viewer's eye to critical elements on the page, such as your CTA.
Use custom illustrations whenever possible to prevent looking the same as other sites. You may want, for instance, to avoid what has been labelled "Corporate Memphis": the flat, geometric art style inspired by Facebook's Alegria style that dominates many startup websites, especially in the Big Tech space.
Food for thought
Corporate Memphis or Alegria typically features flat human characters with disproportionate features such as long and bendy limbs, small torsos, and minimal or no facial features. They're usually comprised of bright colors without any blending and may include non-representational skin colors such as blues or purples.
Over time, this style has been criticized as being generic, lazy, worn-out, and attempting to sanitize the public perception of big tech companies.
That said, if you do particularly like the Alegria style, go for it - just try to add your own twist to help your brand stand out from the crowd.
Closing thoughts 🧐
While running a business is never going to be a walk in the park, there are certainly measures that you can take to improve conversions by leveraging the power of first impressions, building a sense of credibility behind your brand, centering your customers and their experience of your e-commerce store, making your business mobile friendly, and using interesting and memorable imagery on your landing pages.
Over and above these top tips, it may also be worth your while to review and monitor your business's customers and products, to identify any trends over time, and to pick apart the data that you have at your disposal from whatever platform you use to make sales. Get in touch to find out about how Syft can help you conduct this analysis.