20 Ways E-Commerce WebSite Owners can Make More Money

As the months go by the orders increase steadily every month, but then you hit a plateau, and you think to yourself "How can I give the site a boost to take it to the next level?" You might think of giving adwords a try, maybe a dabble in social media marketing, or revisit your SEO. All of these are worthwhile, but what a lot of site owners forget about is conversion rate optimisation, much of which you should be able to do right now in your content management system.

What is Conversion Rate Optimisation?

Conversion rate optimisation is all about improving the user's experience of your website, while also convincing them to part with their cash. There are so many ways to do this, and it often depends on what you're selling, and who your audience is, but here are some tried and tested tips that you can use right now.

Note: If you have goals or e-commerce tracking set up in your analytics then mark down your current conversion ratio, and see what a real difference these can make.

Twenty top tips to get more money out of your ecommerce website.

1. Show your top selling products on your home page. It sounds obvious, but this really works.
2. Sort the navigation so that the most popular categories come first.
3. If you have a search on your website, find out the most popular searches, and make category or subcategory pages for them.
4. Put the best image you have onto your product page. If you don't have good images, get a photographer to take some.
5. Don't just have one image on the product page either, have plenty.   And add context if you can, pictures of people actually using your product are great.
6. Make sure your images are optimised for the website. The "save for web" option in your graphics software is your friend.
7. Focus on the benefits of your product in the description, but don't over-sell it. Educate your visitors into making an informed purchase. And use bullet points to separate up the text.
8. Don't hide the price, it should be clear and it should stand out from the rest of the page. Mention delivery prices too, so they aren't a surprise.
9. The button to add the product to the shopping cart should be the most visible thing on the page.
10. Show the delivery time of the product. If you can, offer a faster delivery service (that costs more) as well as your standard delivery.
11. Add a little urgency. If the product is low in stock, let the customer know that.
12. Make sure the security of the site and the payment methods are mentioned near the "Buy Now" button. Reassure your customers and remove any of their concerns.
13. Show testimonials or customer reviews if you have them.
14. If you have a decent number of followers on Facebook put a widget on the site to show this. It's called 'Social Proof'.
15. It should be simple for customers to share your product on social media, before and after the purchase.
16. Upsell and cross-sell on the product page. Saying "customers who bought this also bought that" can increase your average order value.
17. Have a nice returns policy.
18. Offer a discount (or a voucher code) to give your customers money off their next purchase after they place an order.
19. Tell your company's story on the 'About Us' page. Use a conversational voice.  Make it authentic and interesting.  (Easier said than done!)
20. Ask your customers why they did (or didn't) buy from you. You could do this by email newsletter, or arrange a get-together in the pub for local customers.

Too many e-commerce websites are set up with the focus on the technology, the programming and the development. At Edward Robertson we design websites to work, and then we can help to get them to work even better. Please contact us for more information.