As a business, your goal is to improve sales and increase profits. However, when your customers shop online, they have thousands of brands to choose from. How can you make sure that your company stands out from the rest?
Creating a top-notch online shopping experience is a great place to start. Outlined below are seven ways to improve your customers’ digital shopping experience and boost sales.
1. Offer Free Shipping
While you may not think much of a five dollar shipping fee, it could make or break a sale for customers. Now that more large retailers provide free shipping, many shoppers don’t consider shipping fees until check out. Seeing extra costs added into the total price right before making a purchase can be alarming and lead to more abandoned carts. You’ll encourage shoppers to complete their purchases by dropping the shipping fee.
Not sure how you can afford to sell products without the shipping fees? Consider working with a 3PL company. Third-party logistics companies provide outsourced inventory management, warehousing, and fulfillment. This can help reduce overhead costs, making it possible to offer free delivery.
2. Include Customer Reviews on Product Pages
It can feel nerve-wracking to let customers post reviews to your site. However, doing so can give you a leg up online. Studies show that 67% of customers are influenced by online reviews when making purchasing decisions. This means products with lots of praise may see a spike in sales. It also gives you a chance to address issues with items that aren’t meeting customer expectations.
Encourage customers to write reviews for products by offering incentives. This could be a discount code, store credit, or sending them a gift card. Make the review process as simple as possible by only asking a few questions. This will increase the likelihood of the customer providing feedback.
3. Stay Active on Social Media
Does your company constantly post on social media, or is Instagram an afterthought? Today, many customers discover new brands through public feeds. If you want to attract new buyers, having a social media presence is essential.
Creating a social media strategy takes the guesswork out of what to post and ensures your content aligns with marketing goals. Once you’ve identified what these goals are, plan your posts using a content calendar. This will provide your team with an overview of upcoming tasks, making it easier to prepare images and captions.
4. Provide Self-Service Customer Support Options
When customers encounter an issue with a product or have questions about their account, they don’t want to wait around for answers. But if they have to call your customer support team to find the information they need, they could be stuck in a queue. Avoid the wait times and get shoppers the information they need quickly by providing self-service customer support options.
Self-service customer support allows customers to resolve issues without needing help from your team. This not only caters to shopper preferences but also reduces the number of calls your customer service team receives. That way, when complex issues do arise, callers aren’t stuck waiting for an hour or more.
5. Simplify Your Checkout Process
It’s essential to gather buyer payment and shipping information before purchase. However, long check-out processes can cause buyers to abandon their carts. Does your checkout process require buyers to fill out multiple pages before making a purchase? If so, you may need to eliminate a few steps.
One way to do this is by encouraging customers to create an account once they’ve entered your site. While this option does require some initial effort from buyers, it reduces future checkout times. Once a customer’s payment and shipping information is saved onto their account, purchases can happen at the click of a button.
6. Use UCG to Your Advantage
After buying a cool new outfit, chances are you’ll snap a pic and upload the photo to Instagram. This is called user-generated content (UCG). This type of content resonates with shoppers because customers want to see how other people are using your product. In fact, 79% report that user-generated content highly impacts their purchasing choices.
Highlight customer testimonials and images by reposting UCG on your social media accounts. Are buyers not creating much content about your products? Encourage customers to create UCG by creating a hashtag. This can increase audience engagement and boost your brand image.
7. Build Trust With Return Policies
It can be hard to tell what a product looks like when shopping online. Even with high-quality photos, customers may not be able to see small details or know whether products flatter their bodies. Having a clear return policy gives customers peace of mind when trying a new brand or product.
Post your return policy somewhere on your site that’s easy to find. Make the terms of the policy crystal clear, so there’s no questions about whether or not an item can be returned. For example, your policy could say “returns accepted within 30 days of purchase.”
It’s Time to Start Boosting Sales
The digital landscape is crowded, but you can stand out from your competitors by creating a world-class shopping experience. Use the tips above as inspiration for ways to keep coming back to your site.