The Ultimate Purchase

Retailers have websites for numerous reasons.

Some stores exist only online. Others are in addition to their brick-and-mortars parent company.

Online stores, of all types, should ideally be built to sell. Products should be presented clearly, the site should be searchable, checkout should be painless.

The selling of products is a measurable matrix. You can see how many of each product was sold, how much revenue was generated, the conversion rate, average order size. Bottom-line sales, in other words, are easy to assess based on statistics.

But, as all retailers know, there is more to sales than exactly what is sold. Brand awareness, customer experience, the more esoteric dimensions, are also important.

In fact, as it turns out, particularly so in the world of online shopping.

A recent Neilson Online Study found that 80% buy from a store whose site they previously visited. That is a HUGE conversion rate.

The online/offline connection is especially driven by the fact that nowadays, many consumers do initial research on the web. They may ultimately make a purchase in a bricks-and-mortar store, but it is very likely that the final purchase will be based on information gathered online.

So aside from the fact that you want to be straight-up selling online, if you are indeed a multi-channel retailer, you may want to make sure that your web portal is as informative as possible, providing potential customers with all the types of information they desire, prior to making a purchase.

This includes up-to-date inventory, good product descriptions, interactivity and customer feedback functionality.

Your website is at minimal, another face to your business, if not your business in its entirety.

155 Sleeps Away – Get Ready to Sell

According to Santa’s Official Clock, we are more than halfway there – to Christmas, that is. Now if you’re nine years old and see “155 sleeps away,” that probably seems like an awfully long time.

But as a retailer, you know that 155 days, or approximately five months, is almost no time at all.

Not just because time flies, but because there is SO much to do to make sure your online store is ready for the holiday rush. And in a recession year, or as the optimists call it, a weakened economy, every sale counts more than ever.

Of course there’s inventory to order, sales to estimate, and special promotions to devise. Those are the basics, year in, year out. And if you haven’t yet started, then here is your gentle reminder. Today is the day to begin.

On top of the basics, give your online business a boost this year by maximizing your sales. To do so you will need to focus on either improving, or acquiring revenue optimizing tools.

First off, make sure your site is operating at full capacity. Check and double check all existing tools. Is your UI clear, easy (i.e. intuitive) to navigate? Do you have a search box? If so, is it clearly visible to shoppers?

It’s important to remember, your shoppers cannot buy what they cannot find. Make it as simple as possible for site visitors to find what they are looking for, in as few steps as possible.

Are you making the most of every sale? Do you offer shoppers additional recommended products along the way? A good cross-sell solution is a must for all online retailers. Once your shoppers have committed to spend, it’s easier to add on other items.

Christmas is THE shopping holiday. So don’t let the opportunity pass you by.

For a free site evaluation, to determine your site’s preparedness for the holiday season, click here.

No rest for online retailers

You built your website, you ordered your inventory, you got the shopping cart working, the admins in place – what more is there?

A lot it turns out.

No matter how much maintenance you do, you always have to do more. Not only do you have to keep up with the functions you already have, the more you have, it often turns out, the more you need to add. Yup, just when you thought you finally had a handle on your website, it turns out you’re missing a whole host of features.

I read an article once about income that discussed how while making $100,000 a year seems like a lot of money, the problem is, once you make $100,000 a year, you have a whole new lifestyle you have to support. One generally assumes that earning six-figures would put an end to basic (financial) problems, but it turns out six-figure income earners dress a certain way, wear certain shoes, dine out more and perhaps participate in more cultural activities. The ante is upped with the income and basic needs suddenly become a lot more.

Similarly, as your online store takes form, you are confronted with a whole new set of now essential needs. The basics are not enough. You need solutions.

Joe Chung’s article “The Red Queen of E-Commerce” in E-Commerce Times, addresses this issue and offers a list of five must-have solutions for online retailers of today.

Number one, Interactive Merchandising, and the need to constantly and consistently update your site, is particularly well described.

Number four, Advanced Search and Guided Navigation, is also of particular interest. A search box alone is not enough. The site search needs to return accurate and relevant results. Simply put, customers need to be able to find products in order to buy them.

While this list will probably be expanded almost as you read this article, due to the fast paced nature of the online world, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start moving on the suggestions now. Keeping up-to-date with online retail developments is in itself, of course, a basic.