How to convert online visitors to online customers
It’s kind painful seeing a lot of people visiting your online store yet only a few has purchase and become customer. It is definitely an issue that you must not take for granted because being able to convert you visitors into customers will immediately boost your sales. It is something that you must plan to resolve.
Every stores online has definitely encountered this kind of issue, it really make your sales worse and its very upsetting at the same time, but you should not worry about this because as the saying goes by there are no problems that cannot be fixed.
If those people weren’t able to purchase from you, It's pretty sure they have a reason for it. There is not only one reason but there’s more than that, stated below are the reasons why they don’t end up purchasing or the issues they might have encountered which caused for them to back out, there are also solutions stated on how to resolve these issues or how to fix it in a way that you can reassure your customers of high quality products and services that your online store offers.
If you really are determined to know what these common issues are and how to find a solution for it, everything is enlisted below.
Having bad quality of product photos
Having great actual photos of your products is very important in order for you to convince people in buying your products.
Like for example, if you’re selling dresses and t-shirts people would want to try it on especially on a physical store for them to make sure that the dress or shirt they want to buy, suits and fits them well, of course they would not want to waste money on dresses or shirts that they can’t even wear because it’s too big or too tight. They would also check on the quality of the fabric because they want it to be worth the money they spend.
If you’re in an online business, it’s not an excuse to just simple get inspiration photos of what you’re selling. You must give them high quality actual photos of your products that they can evaluate and examine like as if in person. You must get photographs of what you’re selling in different angles like the front, back and side just so they could see what it really looks like and much better if you have a model that can wear your products so that the customer can see how it looks when worn.
Giving great quality photos of your products would be a good temptation to your customer for them to purchase from you, product photography is such a huge factor in convincing customer so you must be able to capture great quality photos, the item should be well placed without any shadows or unwanted objects, it should be very clear and pleasing to the eyes. Providing great quality photos proves your customer that you are a professional and your product are high quality, they would also see your products like as if they were seeing it in person. You should offer your customers what they are expecting to see.
Start capturing high quality photos of your products, with great lightings, all angles taken and beautiful background that matches with your products color.
Solution for bad quality product photos
You can just easily improvise your product photography; there are a lot of ways on how to attain high quality photos without spending a lot of money.
All you need are small things, like white cloth or anything that is white that can be used as your background, if you don’t have any lighting stand you can just improvise by taking photos near your window or any area in your house that has good light quality, make sure to take your photos at day time. If you don’t have any DSLR you can just your phones, iPhones and androids because it already has great quality camera to take your product photos.
You can just use any materials that can be found in your house or can be bought in any store near you that can be of good use in making your product photos more amazing. It doesn’t have to be something expensive as long as it matches with your products.
Capturing shots of your product photography doesn’t end there. You still have to edit out your photos in order to make it more vibrant and contrast. You can just search or download any editing tools that you want to use; there are many free apps so you don’t have to worry. There guide and strategy on how to achieve high quality product photography with the use of other tools, which can be helpful for you.
Lack of product description
Giving good and more detailed product description is also important just as achieving great quality product photos.
Giving out product descriptions in a more detailed way is also a great strategy to influence people in buying your products, because if you give a thorough description, it will make the customer feel like as if they are actual handling or using the products, and it will simple answer their questions about the product.
If you are not able to give a detailed and strong description, it will lose the interest of people because people will see it as something common with other products, they would not see how the products really is, what it is capable to do. People will also find it hassle to ask questions because if the incomplete description or information you have stated.
Having a bad copy will badly affect you and your products brand because it may label you as something common or low quality, it will also affect you sales.
Having lack or bad product description doesn’t only mean that your description is short and incomplete in information but it also means that you were not able to give a clear description because of having lots of grammatical errors, wrong spellings and misarranged description. There are actually lots of factors that you must take notice.
Use the Broken Windows Theory
This theory is used to solve and analyze crimes present in your neighborhood. This focuses in crimes that are only minor like for example breaking of properties, trespassing or vandalism. This theory tells that these violations like vandalism is not the real issue or problem but these violations are what triggers to commit crime. Because it makes people angry and annoyed to the point where they lose themselves and end up doing the wrong thing.
Apply the Theory to Ecommerce
If you want customer to fully trust you and your products, you must not commit any violations or any mistakes on your product descriptions, make it very credible in order to avoid any issues or worse losing potential customers. If your descriptions would be very eye catching and interesting they would obviously consider you as a legit seller and your products as high quality. Words would express a lot and it would tell who you are as a seller. Customers just want to reassure themselves to avoid getting scammed.
Avoid making a bad impression to your customer, do you best to make them interested in your products by making sure you are putting credible and clean product description.
Solution for lack of product description
Be sure to write a more convincing and credible copy that would attract potential customer in buying your product, common and meaningless words would only make your customers go away and criticize you.
For example: This underwear is originally made and manufactured with unique craftsmanship.
You might want to change it in to something more appealing like:
This underwear is finely rendered and a 100% cotton that has soft textures that provides great comfort.
If you are planning to be technical that wants to tell every possible detail and angle of what your product can offer and what makes it unique than the others. Don’t say something like this:
This power bank has a capacity of 5,100mAh and can provide up to 1.5 charges.
Tell them what makes it unique or what its benefits. Like for example:
This power bank is superfast charging and can charge up to 1.5x faster.
You must be able to relay what your point is to your customers, so that they could easily agree with your products and convince them to purchase. Avoid any mistakes like any misspelled words or grammatical errors.
Unorganized and terrible design in your online store
What your store looks like will reflect on what kind of a person the owner of the store is and it also would badly affect the amount of customer that will enter your store. It would be very inconvenient to visit a store that is much unorganized, items being scattered around the place. Customers will find it hard to get what they are looking for, especially when there are no proper sectioning of items and sizes.
This kind of mess doesn’t just only happen in any physical retail store, but it also does happen in any online store.
There will always be issues on why customers are no longer visiting your online store and some leaves early without any purchase. Two main issues are, first you may not be laying out all your products in exact category making customers hard for them to find what they are looking for, second is that you haven’t arranged your products in a neater way, that customers will find it time consuming and exhausting.
Reasons on why online stores tends to block its products:
- The categories of your products are scattered
- Other products are already buried deep with new collections
- The homepage of your site is not clearly linked to your storefront
It’s best to a have a clean and neat design for the arrangement of your products. It will be to overwhelming for customers to see variety of products that aren’t even their type.
Some online stores feel the needs to have their own online bulla bulla which means putting all the products in one bin and jumbling it all to make it look like there’s a lot you could choose from and of course it would look like it’s cheap and affordable. This strategy would attract a lot of potential customers.
But there are also perks of having to arrange your products in sequence because it might also overwhelm customers with the large amount of photos in your album category.
When people are being bombarded with product photos that they are not even interested in, they would automatically feel the urge to swipe down or scroll to other categories or browse to something else, and ignoring products that would have been beneficial to them. When people browse, they just do it because they are looking for something they might want not because they really do need or want something.
The solution to unorganized and terrible design in your online store
You should choose a theme that is pleasant to the eyes, so that customers would get relaxed while browsing through your store; also make sure that it has a responsive design making your storefront easy to use or click around like the home or the back button. You should follow the rule that your products should be three clicks away from your homepage.
If you want your products to be accessed easily, you must arrange the sequencing of your collections accordingly to avoid any complications. Always make man intuitive category for each of your products so that it won’t get messed up and is placed to its exact place, this would avoid any stir-ups and confusion from customers.
Overwhelming your customers with photos is not a good idea; you must arrange your products in a better segment which is by introducing copy here and there to make sure that people have a clear goal to follow.
Give your customers enough time to think of what they are going to purchase from your products, which means you have to make it intuitive for them in finding your products, so that they can think of a certain reason on why it’s the right decision for them to buy from your products.
Not being able to gain your customers trust
Trust is what makes people feel more comfortable and reassured of themselves to purchase from you. Gaining customers trust when they are buying from a physical store is easier because customers can see the products themselves, it’s already on hand and is in the palm of their hands. There will be no doubts given, but if there are any concerns that you might want to be addressed you can easily be entertained by the saleslady or salesmen or even by the owner. You can have small chats with them, you can be able to know what kind of people they are, how welcoming they are to their guest which can easily build your trust.
It would be harder to follow all of what is being said if you are on an online store.
What could be your reaction or what would you say when you are browsing to an online store without any of the following?
- There is no product ratings and product reviews
- There is no press coverage
- There is no contact details placed on the site
- There is no assurance of the safety of your payment information
Would you able to trust the site? Or would it make you feel secure enough to purchase from that site?
The solution to be able to gain your customers trust
Do not lose hope yet, because there are still lots of ways in order for you to build a reliable and trustworthy reputation of your online store.
Do not forget to give a good impression to your customers in the about us section of your page, telling about your story on why you started your online business, what inspired you, anything that tells something about you. It would also be appropriate for you to include your first name, so that it would not make your customers feel like they were talking to a stranger, they might even acknowledge you.
Not everyone can afford or can easily have press coverage, it’s not that easy. So if you don’t have one, might as well include in your site the product ratings and product reviews. If you have this in your site, people will see how legit and credible your online store is because of the list of reviews and also this would engage in conversations with your customers, that can easily build trust, you can either thank them or answer their reviews, like on how you can improve your products.
If you find it too personal for you to give your contact information, you can easily create an email account on where your customers can easily reach out for you when they have any concerns or inquiries. It’s best to respond to their inquiries to give them a good quality service and of course for them to trust you.
Do your best in earning your customers or potential customers trust, they will surely find any information that can guarantee them that they will not get scammed like reading your story or just by scrolling thoroughly on your product reviews.
Apply what you have learned
We know everything is a lot to take in, but as you slowly apply all of this information you can surely be able to convert online visitors as your customers. It’s a whole lot of process but it is surely worth it, do you best to prove to them that your store is capable of providing them high quality products and services. Provide them a smooth and intuitive shopping experience, and do your best to make them want to purchase from you and trust you.