Online shops are prone to overzealous self-promotion to sell. It's not just about having the right design elements to attract customers. Online merchants need to provide a good checkout experience to complete a sale. To achieve this, you need good web development in place.
Before outsourcing web development, plan and map out your website navigation and checkout process. Here are tips on how to spruce up your website to increase online sales:
Highlight Your Shopping Cart
Your online store should have an area that lists the number of items and other relevant checkout information. This provides your customer the peace of mind that the items they picked are indeed added to the cart. This also ensures a smooth process from shopping to checkout. A quick link back to the checkout page should be included. Use contrasting colour schemes to highlight the shopping cart.Direct Call to Action
Place a direct call to action to your add to cart button. “Buy Now” is more effective than “Learn more” and “More details” because it elicits a more positive reaction from online shoppers. Use colours that suit your website's colour scheme so that the button will stand out.Update Your Product Pages
If you are not confident enough to write for your website, you can outsource content creation. An offshore content specialist can write engaging product articles and implement SEO to help with your website's rankings.Prioritise product images and information. The most common mistake that online shops make is peppering their web pages with snippets from reviews and testimonials. This may gain the trust of some, but others would see it as “salesy”. Online consumers are now more aware of scams, and this marketing move may raise suspicion.
Simplify Your Navigation
Your navigation menu should be practical and intuitive. If you have a lot of categories and subcategories, use a fly-out or dropdown menu. These are effective options to keep your navigation menu from getting cramped or cluttered. This also enables your customer to access any category at any time. A path between categories and sub-categories should also be on the page. At the checkout page, add a “Continue Shopping” link so that the customer can go back.Avoid Distractions
The checkout page should be simple and complete. Resist the urge to sell at this point so that the customer won't be distracted from going through the payment process. Keep in mind that you haven't made a conversion until the sale is completed. Use a single page where the shipping, billing, and credit card information can be filled out. A one-click checkout process is very convenient.Online entrepreneurs should always balance design and functionality. Combine a good web design with a strong foundation of web development.
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