It’s a common complaint: a retailer spends a healthy amount on a new website with e-commerce capabilities only to find the store isn’t showing up in Google, or that the website is filled with browsers but not buyers.
Jewellers are often great at in-store and window displays but not so great at representing their businesses online. The best way to think of a website is to think of it as a window display that’s open 24 hours a day and in full view to the whole world.
Given this, just as much effort should be put into a store’s online display as its traditional displays.
Improving a website doesn’t necessarily require intricate and complex strategies. Instead, there are some basic elements that can be put in place to help businesses achieve greater online sales success. Consider the following information for an e-commerce checklist that can drastically improve online results.
Add Rich Snippets to product pages
Rich Snippets is a website plug-in that highlights the data from a web page to show better information in the search results.
Not only does this help product pages to rank better but it also improves a site’s click through rate (CTR) because when people see the highlighted data in the search results, they are more likely to click that page instead of a higher ranking page without the highlighted data.
Learn more about Rich Snippets here: tinyurl.com/richsnippetshelp
Product videos
Video is the new photography. It’s a great way to add engaging content to a web page but don’t use video to replace product photos. Instead, make videos an additional feature to enhance the visitor’s experience.
Videos don’t need to be complicated but they must be well lit. While it’s true the video quality of most smartphones is good enough to take quick recordings, lighting and setting play a huge role in the quality of the final product.
Show multiple photos
The more angles of a product shown, the more confident shoppers will feel. Adding a lifestyle shot of a model from the target demographic using or wearing the product will also increase sell-through chances – when customers see someone similar to themselves using the product, they can more easily envisage themselves using it.
Social proof, testimonials and reviews
These days, adding social proof to your e-commerce product pages is not only wise but almost imperative. Thanks to social media, it’s also easier than ever before.
Social proof is also known as informational social influence. It’s a defined psychological phenomenon where people assume the actions of others in an attempt to reflect correct behaviour for a given situation. Whether adding testimonials, social media content or actual product reviews, social proof will help reduce some of the risk and hesitation that all shoppers have when making a buying decision.
Social proof can also be added to Rich Snippets to ensure it shows up in search results. Again, this will help with page ranking.
Responsive website design
Today’s shoppers are searching online all the time. When they’re in stores, shoppers are using their phone to find better deals online. When they’re at home watching TV on the couch, they’re browsing e-commerce sites. According to comScore, a business that measures people’s internet activity, mobile shopping (or M-Commerce) spending jumped 47 per cent in the second quarter of 2014, far outstripping growth in e-commerce and traditional retail – yet many websites are still not optimised for mobile viewing.
They fail to capture mobile shoppers because when they arrive they have trouble navigating or purchasing so they just leave and shop elsewhere. Responsive design allows websites to display differently based on the user’s device – whether it be a computer, tablet or phone. This ensures a better visitor experience from the start.
Social login
For those businesses using their websites to build their databases, social media logins make signing up far easier, meaning more people will do it.
Social login, also known as social sign-in, allows visitors to use their existing social media credentials, such as their Facebook or Twitter usernames, to join a third-party website in lieu of creating a new login account specifically for that website.
With social login, the sign-up or joining process is completed in a single click. It gets shoppers into the site quicker and removes the risk that they’ll forget their username or password in the future. According to studies conducted by Blue
Research, 92 per cent of people left websites because they couldn’t remember their own login information.
Furthermore, because each account is verified by a social media profile, sites will have immediate, permission-based access to far more information about their customers. Now stores can provide shoppers with a much better experience and build a stronger relationship through customisation and personalisation.
In addition, people who use their personal social login are more likely to be more serious users of your products and services and therefore better-targeted customers.
Personalise your e-commerce site
Once a customer has successfully joined, sites should be customising their experience so that the customer is seeing products and information relevant to their actual interests. Not only does this make them feel more comfortable and increase the chance they’ll find what they’re seeking but it also increases their chances of buying.
This customisation can be as detailed as placing someone’s name on the site (“Welcome back, Dan!”) or it can be as simple as intelligent cross-selling. This can be done by showing related products on product pages, in a similar fashion to Amazon.
This helps increase a customer’s ‘lifetime value’ by selling more products. It also provides the customer with a better experience and that’s what good digital marketing is all about.
Positive experience equals more sales
By making sure any e-commerce website covers these different areas, retailers will have a better chance of completing more sales online. Consumers can click away from a site in seconds so retailers want to take every possible step to ensure their customers are having a smooth and helpful experience while visiting.
When consumers have a great experience, they’ll be more enthusiastic about the product and service they receive. This not only keeps them coming back for future purchases but also increases the likelihood of word-of-mouth promotion when they are telling friends about their new piece of jewellery – all of which adds up to more sales.