So, your analytics report says you’ve got lots of traffic from all sorts of sources and you’re even ranking for competitive keywords by accident. Many a merchant would look at you with envy.
But, something is amiss. Your sales figure is lower than Usain Bolt’s 100m world record. What gives?
We’ve already touched on how to make your sites sticky and how to improve conversion in earlier articles. So, in this article, we’ll look at the things a little differently. We’ll try to help you figure out if you’re driving potential customers away.
Are You Pestering Visitors Too Much?
Using CTA (call-to-action) text and images is a must because sometimes people need a little nudge to get them to do something. You may need to tell them to ‘Buy This Now’ or ‘Get 50% Off Right Here’ in order to persuade them to make a purchase. However, if you overdo it, you could end up chasing people away.
To avoid this, try to focus on just one major promotion per page, especially if you’re using a banner and not a content slider. The main promotion will take up the coveted real estate at the top-fold, eye-level area of the page. Position, color, size and text must work together in drawing viewers attention and persuading them to take action.
You can have other CTA elements on the same page as well but they should not attempt to steal the thunder from the main promo.
Do You Take Forever To Reply Customer Inquiries?
Many merchants run their business all by themselves. Which is fine since we built our solution with these merchants in mind. However, this means that such merchants may not have much time to attend to customer inquiries. And neglecting customers is something you never want to do.
If you do have a limited amount of time, let your customers know that they can expect a reply within an acceptable amount of time, say 24 hours. While you’re attending to inquiries, take note of what is usually inquired about. Then, try to provide these answers on your store itself. This should help reduce the number of inquiries.
Also, when communicating with customers, it does not hurt to be human. I once came across a business poster which read ‘Customers don’t buy from companies. They buy from people.’ Don’t reply customers like you’re just repeating from a prepared script.
Of course, once a while you will come across a very difficult customer but in general, people are nice and would just like to be treated with a little dignity.
Are You Trying To Sell Ice To Inuits?
Cross-selling is a great way to increase sales, if you do it correctly. It makes sense if you try to cross-sell conditioner to someone who has just bought a bottle of shampoo. It might confuse the customer if you tried to cross-sell a totally non-related product like, say, a pair of jumper cables.
If you can’t find suitable products to cross-sell, then it might be better not to cross-sell at all. You a shopper to commit to a decision to buy as fast as possible. The longer shoppers ponder, the higher the chances of them aborting the order.
Do You Reward Only New Customers?
It is important to keep on getting new customers because that’s how you grow your market. Using incentives like discount certificates and special offers on new customers is a fantastic way to win them over. However, you might be neglecting your older customers.
Longtime customers provide repeat orders. Repeat orders are what sustains a company, especially in slower periods. These shoppers should be rewarded for their loyalty before they decide to jump ship.
You don’t always have to provide them incentives. Once a while, drop them an email asking them for ideas on how to improve the shopping experience at your store. This lets them know that you value their thoughts and not just what’s in their wallets.
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