Your companie’s ONLY sales person = Your e-commerce website
Something brought up to me over the weekend. I was enjoying dinner with a good of mine who is a VP of Sales for a major software company. We were discussing his latest quarter and I started in on eCommerce and shopping carts. Something came from the conversation that made a lot of sense.
You see there are a lot of ways to sell a product whether it’s B2B, B2C, or whatever. You have your retail storefront typically utilized in a B2C or business to consumer sales model. This is a physical location that you draw customers into with advertising over the most effective media of your choice. Once customers are in the store your sales person is a combination of sales people and (or) customer service representatives and the in store advertising generated by you or in combination with your product manufacturers marketing efforts. You see, every product is a miniature commercial. The packaging that is. The way you stock your shelves, the way you place key products on the end caps to draw customers down an aisle, the small items you attempt to up-sell at checkout. They all are very effective at gaining the interest of a potential buyer.
How do other businesses make sales?
In a more effective situation you have more sales people manning the sales floor. Think of an electronics store or just take a walk through the mall. There are always a ton of well informed sales representatives either commissioned or not making sure that you know every advantage of the products and services they are selling. In B2B these sales people usually set meetings with key people in an organization to peddle their wares but I think most e-commerce websites are targeting consumers with their products and services so we’ll focus on that.
Take that information home
Now go to your website in your mind and tell me where are your salespeople? That’s right, unless you have one of those extremely ineffective and annoying talking websites you really don’t have a sales person. That’s probably part of the reason your potential customers are visiting your online catalog in the first place. They want to shop discreetly, comfortably, and quietly (no sales person breathing down their throat) and have chosen the web to do so. You don’t want that freedom in your customers though do you? If you are trying to earn their business you need an effective way to drive them to your key products or earn the most money per visit. You also want to avoid a high bounce rate on your hosted shopping cart. So how do you accomplish this?
Deploying sales tactics on your e-commerce website
If you want to earn the most possible from your visitors and increase the amount of sales on your shopping cart you need to think like a sales person. Never been in a sales position? Sure you have. How did you convince yourself to start your online store? How did you convince others to invest with you, your product vendors to sign on, or any aspect of your business? Sales is a normal part of everyday business no matter what job you have or business you run, especially eCommerce businesses. Here are a few tips on employing powerful sales strategies on your e-commerce site:
Optimize your pages
- Make sure that your home page or front end catalog is very clean and simple. Think usability. If it is difficult for your website visitor to find what you want them to find in less than 5 seconds you’ve already lost a majority of your potential sales.
- Keeping your product pages informative is key but don’t overbear the consumer with information. Most online shoppers are looking for a product but will easily go into comparison mode if you give them that ability. You don’t want to burden them with too much information or they’ll feel compelled to search around the web for more information.
- Checkout should be fast, lightning fast! Have you ever been in a store and saw a line too long to make it worth the effort to buy that useless item that caught your eye on a casual shopping expedition? I have and most people will. Same thing applies to your shopping cart’s checkout page. Keep it smooth, simple, and fast. Eliminate unnecessary steps from the process and if your hosted shopping cart solution does not allow for simple editing of the checkout page’s templates start looking for a new provider immediately.
Don’t tell about your product, Sell it
- E-Commerce is about selling online not product advise, unless that’s what your selling of course. If you are reselling products talk to your vendors about what information they typically use to sell online. Check out comparable e-commerce sites and see what strategies they are using if you know they are successful then barrow some ideas and put them to work on your shopping cart.
- Don’t outsource the content on your product pages or use generic statements. Avoid outlandish claims and keep it looking professional. If you can write your own product descriptions do so. If you can import your own photos or real life product photos and video demonstrations you are going above and beyond and it will make a difference. When consumers bounce from one online store to another they are looking for something that makes them go yeah that’s what I want. Think what it would take for you to pull the trigger.
Learn to use E-Commerce analytic tools
- If you don’t know how to use Google Analytics or another website analytic program talk to an eCommerce consultant or a third party service that will help you set goals for individual catalog pages, products, checkout rates, etc. You need to know what potential customers are doing or not doing.
- Experiment with your website but do so carefully and in small ways. Don’t attempt to change the entire look and feel of your eCommerce website overnight and expect good results. Keep in mind that SEO can be affected by altering your website and other drastic changes could greatly impact your business. Use multivariate tools to compare small sections of change at a time. Play around with your product positioning and see what strategies are working for you and which ones are costing you money
If you learn to think like a sales person you will guarantee your eCommerce storefront to be more profitable for your company. If it is your company then you’d better start fast. If this is something of a challenge for your mentality then don’t hesitate to reach out to friends and family in the sales profession or hire a sales consultant to look over your website, product pages, and checkout page. Take their advice and deploy carefully with analytic tools to learn what will be most effective. If this is overwhelming prepare for lackluster results. Happy Selling!
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