Shopping Cart System Sales Boosting Tips

Oct.24, 2009 in Internet

The Internet is filled with a host of ecommerce shopping carts software service but no matter which shopping cart system you choose, you still need to market your store properly to get results. Generally, a reputable shopping cart systems will give you a few suggestions on how to tweak your pages and additionally how to advertise your site. But it is also important that you understand what determine your target buyers’ purchasing decisions in order to more precisely trade your items.

What are the key factors that determine customer buying decisions?
Recommendations
“Recommendations from family and friends trump all other consumer touchpoints when it comes to influencing purchases.”

- ZenithOptimedia. AdAge, April, 2008

According to Royal Mail’s Home Shopping Tracker Study, reviews are the main reason for selecting a potential site. If you already have a tight customer base, make sure you retain your current customers. Treat them well by giving them some sort of incentive to introduce your site to others. Issue current customers special discount coupons which can be extended to whomever else they propose to your site. Ultimately this will snowball and you will end up with greater sales and a bigger client base.
Reviews and Ratings
“Online reviews are second only to personal advice from a friend as the driver of purchase decisions; user reviews are more influential than third-party reviews.”

- Web users and web community, Rubicon Consulting, Inc. October 2008

In fact, (65% of) customers tend to credit reviews by fellow consumers rather than experts. This simply means that user reviews are the most credible form of advertising. It’s no wonder then why Amazon always slips in a couple of user reviews on their product pages. Notice that they also comprise bad reviews along with good ones. Of course naturally good reviews usually well outnumber bad ones but the inclusion of poor reviews lends the overall reviews a sense of authenticity.

Those little rating stars you see on the product page actually have its presence felt on the minds of consumers. They indicate the quality of the product even before the customer reads any reviews (or even if the customer doesn’t even read any reviews). If there are many reviews for a particular product, even an average rating for the product may suffice to win over a would-be customer.
FAQs
“Online businesses lose as many as 67% of consumers due to a lack of online product information.”

- Allurent, January 2008

Never disregard the advantages of frequently asked questions. More than three quarters of online shoppers surveyed by an ecommerce shopping carts systems stated that available content is insufficient for them to opt to purchase online. This is 3 potential sales for every actual sale that a web store makes. That’s quite a loss right there. And the likelihood of those customers returning is close to nil. Cleverly potential|would be|prospective[/spin] customers make their minds up sooner, before they decide|make a decision|choose|opt|make the decision[/spin] to move on.