If you build it, they will come (especially with a Google AdWords account). But will they buy it?
If your Web site is your store (or an active retail “branch” location), how you design your purchase process is key and should be reviewed every so often. Do you even need to focus on shopping carts? Maybe, maybe not, but if you have any Web purchasing going on, there are some well-documented strategies to avoid the classic 75% cart/online sales process abandonment rate (or so says one SEO maven or another). Here are few quick articles to check in on:
- Keep Customers With Their Carts
- 20 Tips to Minimize Shopping Cart Abandonment (part one of a two parter)
Port80 has found over time a couple of key online purchase concepts that seem to work:
- Engage the customer on their own terms and be flexible
- Give shoppers options (quotes, trials for free, credit card, PayPal, offline purchases, regional credit card support outside the U.S., currency conversion ain't shabby either)
- Tell them what is coming -- then deliver:
Purchase Info -> Your Info -> Confirm -> Receipt
- Make them feel safe (good content, professionalism, SSL cert transparency)
- Have a return/refund policy -- and honor it (go figure)
- Keep it short (good form design)
- Deliver content as quickly as possible -- this cool study supports speed in online sales by looking at the qualitative cost of lagging Web servers (and hey, Port80 can help with that)
- Avoid errors, and when they happen, handle things like 404s and 500s before customers sneak out the back door
- Keep testing, then test some more -- button sizes and formats can make a big difference, and it is always good to make sure that your store is working (track abandonment and do test purchases).
Cheers,
The Port