10 steps to increase your online sales
Before designing your online store or upgrading it, it's important to check the following 10 parameters that will help you boost your sales:
#1 Site Customization
Before you start designing your online store, you need to understand the purpose of your site and how the products on it will be showcased, its structure, categories, colors, logos, and other graphic elements, as well as the features to integrate.
It's also essential to know what we ultimately want the home page to look like and what marketing message we want to convey to future users. In short, know where you want to go! For example, when I start creating an online store for a brand, before choosing a pre-designed template, I put my ideas on paper based on the brand's unique identity, its uniqueness. I make sketches and mock-ups, then we adapt and create the template that best suits the client's needs. And not the other way around! The brand should not have to adapt to existing templates.
#2 Website Design and Visibility
It is very important to design a clean and professional site, as it is the showcase of your business. Your site is the user's first impression of your brand: it is therefore important to make them feel completely confident, to guarantee them the seriousness and professionalism of your company, and to avoid at all costs that they feel like they are on a "suspicious" site they want to leave!
#3 Adapt the Site's Appearance to the Niche
The appearance of your online store must match the customer niche associated with your activity. Don't hesitate to do thorough research on competing stores.
#4 Mandatory, High-Quality Images and Good Visibility
It is essential to have beautiful images on your site, and it is always very useful to reduce them so as not to slow down the site. Shopify's TinyIMG application is ideal for this! It is important that the home page is designed to call the user to action and that the landing pages are clear, well-designed, and fluid for them. Also, don't forget to check your site's good visibility on all screens, especially focusing on mobile versions.
#5 Product Page Content
Your product page should contain all technical details of the product. If it's a fashion site, for example, it is recommended to incorporate tabs on your product page (see point 6 below) such as washing instructions, product composition, size chart (insert this table, preferably, right next to the "add to cart" button) and more.
Beyond technical details, it's important to describe the benefits of this item for your potential customer. Use content that speaks to the customer so that they feel inspired by your product and decide to buy.
You can also use promotions, stock clearances, and other promotional strategies to provide the potential customer with additional motivation to quickly buy your product.
#6 Ensure the Existence of Refund, Return, and Shipping Policies.
It is essential to display them at the bottom of your site, and it is also recommended to highlight them on your product pages, to show complete transparency to the customer, which is a guarantee of a professional brand.
There are website templates on Shopify that allow for different "tabs" on the product page, preventing the page from being too long, but rather organized and pleasant at first glance.
#7 Customer Service
On-site chat is highly recommended to allow your customers to find their answers quickly, in a personalized way, and with just a few clicks!
#8 Site Reliability
Unlike a physical store, here, the customer doesn't see us. If not all visitors to a physical store are buyers, what about an online store? One reason customers abandon their carts today is that they don't trust the online seller, because the products are not actually visible like in a physical store.
So, how can we make our e-boutique more reliable? Add your contact information (phone and email) as well as an address where the customer can easily find you. Highlight customer reviews on each product page and implement a flexible refund policy.
The user experience will only be higher! Put yourself in the customer's shoes and think about what affects and motivates you as a buyer. Your site may not be perfect, but it must look professional and reliable to reduce the percentage of cart abandonment; which means more sales and profits for you.
#9 Avoid Global Discounts Except for Event-Specific Occasions
It is not advisable to offer site-wide discounts as this may make it appear as a "spam" site, unless it is a genuinely time-limited operation, such as Black Friday, an operation for occasions like Christmas, Valentine's Day, etc.
#10 Product Shipping Costs
Don't hesitate to charge shipping costs up to a certain limit. When shipping is free (except for special occasions and promotional campaigns), this can sometimes raise doubts from the potential buyer...
These 10 parameters to consider are essential, but it doesn't stop there. A beautiful professional site is not necessarily a recognized site. Incoming traffic to the site must be meticulously monitored: you can use the Hotjar tool, for example, allowing you to view live traffic and make continuous changes to your site.
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