Creating an online store is easy but have you given much thought on how to create an ecommerce solution onboarding process flow for customers?
As in how to lead your customers to do what your site was built to do – get them to purchase your products or service.
It all has to do with design and user experience.
If the design is fantastic but the user experience to purchase from your store is a nightmare, you’ll end up with high abandoned cart rates.
The other main reason for high abandoned cart rates would be shipping which you could improve by checking out the solutions here.
So what do you need to do?
Put Yourself In The Shoes Of A Customer
What would captivate them when they land on your site?
What’s the first thing that should capture their attention and be the WOW factor to keep them curious enough to browse further?
Remember, first impression counts A LOT.
Your online store exist to point customers to your products. Nothing else.
All other elements should not compete for the customers’ attention as it will only distract them from making the purchase.
Stuff like your shipping policy, About Us company write up and all those additional info about your business can be placed in other pages.
They’re not suppose to fight for attention with your products.
Build A Site That Will Captivate Them
Your front page is your site’s main real estate. Make full use of it.
If customers had a look at your front page, will they be interested to explore your site further?
Or will they head for the hills??
Display clear, high quality images.
They can be in the form of a hero shot (big picture banner) or smaller shots of your product in use.
Take into consideration the design of your site. Does it have an appealing offer upfront?
Does Your Store Design Answer Customers’ Questions?
Ever landed on a site where the store design did not jive with whatever they were trying to sell?
The result? Visitors leave as they don’t have the confidence to proceed further.
According to eMarketer, there’s currently more than 2 billion smartphone users worldwide with the breakdown according to countries.
Lots of smartphone users = lots of mobile shopping.
And this number will continue to grow as mobile penetration increases year on year.
And what do mobile users usually do? They prefer to scroll down to see more instead of clicking all over the place waiting for the page to load.
Oh, and don’t forget that users these days comprise of this extra special group of people called millennials. They grew up with mobiles. Know what captivates them.
Show your best products on your main page that’s clear enough for them to understand and quick enough for them to make the decision to buy.
You can easily add products to your front page on InstanteStore.
Admin menu > Discounts & Specials > Specials > Front Page.
Just click Get Product and select those that you want to put on your front page.
Arrange their sequence by considering how you want your customers to view them.
Make your front page look awesome and design your site with your customers in mind.
It’s All About Your Products
Your product pages should focus only on your product.
Good quality product images is a MUST.
You need to have several product images from different angles and also show your product in use.
This is so that customers can envision themselves using your product.
If you’re going to add in a video, show how your product is being used that will make people happy.
A little tug on the emotion can help tip the scales in your favor.
You’ll notice that most sites use white background. This is so that their product images can stand out more clearly.
Keep the customer’s focus on your product by making sure your product images are top notch.
Take into consideration page loading time and your site needs to display correctly across all devices.
Add In Reviews And Ratings
Positive reviews and ratings go a long way to further convince customers about your product quality.
Again, online shoppers these days spend more time doing research and comparing products.
Convince them that you have a better quality product with proof.
These will come in the form of reviews and ratings. Make sure your site has these features enabled.
Approach customers who have purchased from you by asking them for a product review.
You can then have these reviews added to your product page after you’ve screened them through.
Admin > Products & Categories > Products > Product Review
Make Checkout Smooth And Fast
Pretend to be a customer shopping on your own site with a mobile device to see what the experience is like.
If customers have to go through many steps just to buy from you and the experience isn’t pleasant, it increases the likelihood of abandoned carts.
Our ecommerce software has a revamped checkout design which you could apply to your online store.
We built it to make the checkout process fast as customers just need to fill up one form.
More info about our revamped checkout design here.
Contact our tech team if you need help or have questions about the revamped checkout design.
Delight Them When The Product Arrives
The user experience doesn’t end when they pay for the product.
Keep your customers in the loop. Send them an email letting them know once their order has shipped out.
Put in a Thank You note or include in a free gift as a way of appreciating your customers.
Include in a discount coupon or gift cert to encourage them to share with their friends for the next purchase.
If they’re elated when they receive their product, high chance they’ll share it on social media which is basically free marketing for you.
Constantly Review Your Onboarding Process
You need to constantly review your onboarding process to make your site look better, load faster with an amazing user experience.
The key is to WOW customers and remove as much friction away so that they can buy from you seamlessly and share your site with others.
Your site design needs to convince them that you’ve got an awesome product and the buying experience should not frustrate or hinder them.
Reviews and ratings will convince them further on top of good quality images.
Even if they didn’t complete the purchase, the emails that you send out should convince them that you value their visit and again, bring focus back to the product that they’ve added to the cart with one link to go back to complete the purchase.
If you need help coming up with a custom designed email to reach your customers, let us know.
We’ll be launching brand new design templates that are mobile friendly and responsive very soon.
However, if you need help sprucing up your current store’s design, let us know by contacting our tech support team.
These are important factors to take into account when you’re building your online store or looking for better ways to improve your current customer onboarding process.
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