Great eCommerce sites meet the customers needs in every way. I came across some excellent eCommerce tips Courtesy of webmums on twitter - I've listed them here in convenient form for your enjoyment. I've also added a few more at the end to make up a nice round figure of 50 valuable tips!
- Your site title is an incredibly important SEO factor. Put your keywords in there, not your shop name!
- You must have excellent pictures of your products. Customers will not buy if the images are low quality, its unprofessional.
- Establish who your competitors are, look at what they are doing and then do it a whole lot better! Or consider a joint venture.
- Make sure you have your payment terms displayed on your home page. This is a convenience & an added trust factor for customers.
- Started your email campaign? Have a sign up box for customers to sign up for your newsletter or money is being left on the table.
- Use a pic on your 'About Us' page if possible & add really great info. This page often gets high hits as customers check before buying.
- High traffic volume is irrelevant, its conversion that counts. Concentrate on using long-tail keywords for targeted traffic
- Try using fridge magnet style sales material in your mail outs/parcels. Most people do pop them on their fridge.
- Put your important & striking info above the fold. Images, Special Offers, contact details & security tested sign work well.
- Got a blog? If not, get one. eCommerce sites are not consistently updated with new material, blogs are and you want to attract Google.
- Don't send all of your backlinks to your homepage. Spread keyword rich link love throughout your site to individual products.
- Don't add text like 'We're a Brand New Store' or anything to suggest you are new to the biz (if you are), it appears amateurish.
- Make your buyers say WOW. Include a gift, send it fast, email a thank you - Anything that encourages them to remember you.
- SEO is important, but build your site for the customer. A block of keyword packed text is ugly plus Google will view it as spammy.
- Using social media creates a natural footprint for your customers to check you out. Use it wisely!
- Don't be boring - use your blog to show your personality. People will relate to you whilst you also build your trust factor.
- Don't make your customers register to see things like the 'shipping costs'. Most won't bother, they'll shop elsewhere!
- Educate your customer. If your product allows you, show them how to use it, create a tutorial or video, it's a great opportunity to connect with your buyers.
- Difficult customers dealt with in the correct manner often become your biggest buyers so persevere.
- For SEO purposes, make sure your product names are in the title tag of the corresponding page - before your company name.
- Be an expert in your niche. Don't just sell a product, blog about it, recount it's history, list facts, report on statistics. People like to buy from an expert.
- Don't try and sell everything, be niche specific. You are not Amazon so don't try to be, focus on niche products to a niche audience.
- Create loyalty by finding ways to reward existing customers, special offers, competitions, bonus points, discounts and freebies, etc.
- Make sure you are always updating your FAQs page with any new questions that you receive. It saves you and the customer precious time.
- Organic traffic is best but don't rule out PPC especially if you haven't long opened your store. Great for testing purposes!
- A good place to ask customers to sign up to your newsletter is on your 'thank you' screen after they have placed their order.
- Keep the customer informed about the progress of their order BEFORE they have to ask you. It adds reassurance, trust & loyalty.
- Utilize free services like Google Base as these can bring you highly targeted traffic sources. http://base.google.com/base/
- You don't have to sell your products cheaper than the next guy (who's making no profit). People gladly pay more for excellent service!
- Include promo material in your parcels. Discount vouchers to encourage return visits, catalogs to showcase your other goods, etc.
- Have a search facility available. Customers like to be able to search for products easily rather than hunt for them. A bad search facility is the height of frustration. If it returns the wrong results or no results - you lose the sale!
- If you often get asked a lot of questions about your products include a keyword rich FAQ's page, very good for SEO purposes.
- If you hold your own stock then ship orders FAST. You're in the shadow of eBays 'want it now' mentality.
- Put yourself in your customers shoes. Go right through your buying process. Is it easy? Are there too many steps? Does it need tweaking?
- Raise your profit margin and encourage larger orders by offering free shipping for multiple-item sales or orders over a certain amounts.
- If you're selling the same products as competitors, add something extra to your product descriptions to make them stand out in the search engines.
- Try new things, test & test more. You need to fail in order to succeed. If you don't try and you don't fail, you'll never move forward.
- Your internal links are incredibly powerful. Make sure you are optimizing them correctly with keyword rich anchor text.
- If your thumbnail image says "click here to see larger image" make sure that a larger image actually appears.
- Study your after-sales care. One off buyers don't create a business, you want a base of returning, loyal customers.
- Remember the 80/20 rule. 20% of your customers make up 80% of your sales - work on creating the ultimate customer experience.
- Be contactable. If a customer can't reach you, you'll lose the sale, but even worse - you'll lose that customer for life.
- Close the sale at the checkout, the time for promo X is on the product pages. Too many choices at checkout could lose you the sale.
- Adding additional payment methods can help in preventing abandoned shopping carts.
Plus I've got some more:
- In addition to 32, Write informative and keyword rich buyers guides and how to articles on your flagship product categories. e.g. If you sell digital cameras, do a how to on taking great time delay photos with the latest Canon SLR.
- Expanding on 36, don't just use the manufacturers product description - everyone else does, and you sink back into noise. Write your own quality content.
- Add a personal touch to your packages. A hand written note, some confectionery, etc. It gives your customers extra gratification and helps you stand out.
- Offer consistent and fast service - and always look for ideas on how to raise the bar.
- Best practice is good. It has to be done. But this only gets you so far. Innovative is better. How can you stand out?
- Make sure your site has a polished look, professional feel, and responsive user interface. Make sure it's fast. Make it intuitive.