Today more than ever, sales are harder to come by and you should make sure you are not losing sales because your e-commerce site is not user friendly.  When you look at some of the most successful e-commerce sites, the overwhelming trend is that their shopping carts and buying processes are simple and easy to use.  Every year more people are relying on the internet to find and buy products and the new “converts” to online shopping often have a healthy dose of skepticism about the process.  They may have finally accepted the concept of buying a product online, but if they get too far out of their comfort zone, they will abandon your shopping cart in a heartbeat.  My wife is a perfect example of this new “online shopper”.

She recently made an online purchase for my parent’s anniversary and I asked her why she chose the company she decided to purchase from.  Not surprisingly, this company was not her first choice, but she decided to buy from them because it was easy and fast.  Initially, she was in the process of buying from another site, but dropped out of the ordering process because she got confused with all of the steps involved.  The site had a product she wanted, she started to make the purchase but in the end another company got her order!  When asked what confused her, she said there were too many steps and she became frustrated “with the whole deal”.

While some of these tips may seem over simplified, here are some ideas to keep in mind to ensure you don’t lose sales because your site isn’t user friendly:

1. Do not require the shopper to register before they make a purchase.  Instead, allow the registration process to be optional.  Most people shopping online, once they find what they are looking for just want to place the order and get moving.  While capturing customer data is important, it is still trumped by sales and shouldn’t be an obstacle to gain a new customer.
2. Keep the order screens clean and simple.  There is nothing wrong with having a small section of “related products” to show the shopper as they are finalizing their order but if you bombard them with 20 other product “specials” all over the page this can confuse the shopper.
3. Provide a clear and simple pre-confirmation page, showing all products being purchased with taxes and shipping (if applicable), so the shopper knows exactly what they will be charged before they click the “Place Order” button.  This is an important step to instill confidence in the shopper that they are only being charged for what they purchased and allows them to review the order before they checkout.
4. Provide the shopper an online confirmation page and online receipt and make it clear that the receipt is printable.  People expect a hard copy receipt when they make a purchase at their local store, it shouldn’t be any different when they purchase online. If they provided their email address during the order process, send a back up email confirmation and receipt to their email address.

These are just a few ideas to consider when streamlining your site’s ordering process.  The main objectives are convenience, simplicity, and user friendliness.  By doing so, you can help avoid customers getting frustrated with your site and buying from another company!

So what if it’s only October? Before you know it, everyone will be in holiday shopping mode and in today’s economy everyone is looking for a good deal. It is wise for online retailers to start taking advantage of those early bird holiday shoppers now; don’t wait. As the holiday season draws near, the competition will increase and as a result, so will the costs to advertise. There are a variety of ways online retailers can work to increase holiday sales and here are just a few:

Utilize Holiday Keywords and Ad Copy - This will make your ads stand out. Also utilize captivating calls to action; anything that will make a shopper click on your ad rather than your competitors’.

Create Holiday Themed Landing Pages – Make it easy for your shoppers; send them directly to your holiday page.

Increase your budgets to allow for more visitors - Traffic volume will likely spike as we approach the holidays, therefore you will want to raise your budget to ensure that your ads stay active.

Bid more aggressively – You will want to be seen as close to the top of the page as possible!

Expand your keyword menu – Be sure to focus on your industry’s high ROI/high volume keywords. As an advertiser, you don’t want to miss out on a potential sale because you did not cover all of your bases.

Offer Online Coupons and Discounts - Entice your shoppers by offering “online only” specials, coupons, discounts on future purchases, repeat buyer/loyalty savings, etc.

Give a Gift with Purchase - Who doesn’t like getting something for free?

Offer Free Shipping – A Forrester Research survey showed that consumers are more likely to shop online at stores that offer free shipping.

Provide Free Gift Wrap – Shoppers love the convenience and time saved by having their gift wrapped! Last minute shoppers will especially appreciate this.

Be sure to include of the above services and features in your ad copy!

Marketers are taking advantage of local targeting options, but certain issues remain with the channel that are confusing marketers and limiting the full growth of the space. In a recent survey from Marchex, conducted by Sterling Market Research, “national advertisers have a significant interest in doing more local online advertising, but are missing opportunities because they remain confused about the best tactics, traffic sources and measurement tools available.”

Some main points from the survey - 90% of marketers that are using local ads are not targeting below the state level (Zip, City, DMA). 45% of advertisers are not using unique messaging for each local market. 33% of advertisers cited cost as the main reason they aren’t more involved with local ads. Issues measuring campaign effectiveness was another common reply in the survey.

The good news is that most local ad networks are listening to advertisers and offering more flexibility with targeting and measurement of ads, which should help reduce any frustrations that advertisers are currently experiencing.

Some ways you can assure that your local ad campaigns are effective:

• Utilize a unique phone number or call tracking for each locally targeted campaign to properly measure call volume from each market.
• Use distinct local messaging/offers in ads for each market.
• Serve landing pages with a local flavor for each market.
• Track actions in each local market separately with analytics.
• Assign a separate budget to each locally targeted campaign.
• Diversify your traffic beyond paid search only.

If you are looking to target your demographic on a local level, MoreVisibility would be happy to help you formulate a strategy for successful locally targeted ads.