The Ecommerce Blog

The Pages People Generally Forget When Setting Up an Online Store

Published on July 15th, 2009 by michelle

shopping_cartProducts generally don’t sell themselves.  People want to know who they are buying from and what the terms are.  Establishing your own credibility is just as important as the credibility of your products.

Here are a few pages people tend to forget when setting up an online store that help establish credibility:

  1. Return Policy.  According to Practical Ecommerce, returned orders cost online retailers more than $20 billion in 2008.  Putting up a return policy will help you prevent costly returns as well as establish trust with your customer.  You will need to consider how many days a customer has to return or exchange an item as well as the terms for a return (why and how a customer can return something).
  2. An “About Us” page.  Unlike real life, a customer can’t see your face or what neighborhood you are in.  Your “About Us” should tell a story about you and your mission behind your store.  If you aren’t wanting to put yourself out on the internet, consider a MarketingSherpa study that concluded personable “About Us” pages increased conversion 30 percent.
  3. A “Contact Us” page.  People have questions about your product, so you’ll want a way for them to email you easily straight from your website.
  4. Depending on your industry, you may want a Facebook page.  Setting up a Facebook page is free and using one means your customers can share with their friends that they like your products.  If you advertise on Facebook, it will display your ad and show a person’s friends that they are a fan of yours.
  5. A phone number.  This obviously is not a page, but it is something people often forget.  Many sites chose to put their phone number in the upper right hand corner of their website.

Remember, your potential customers probably don’t know anything about you when they see your site.  You could be some scam trying to take their money.  Taking the time to establishing who you and why people should trust you can go a long way towards converting sales.

Making the Most Out of Your Online Store’s Product Descriptions

Published on July 1st, 2009 by michelle

product_descriptionToo often, online stores do not take the customers’ interests in mind when they describe their products.  It’s not uncommon to find stock descriptions of the same product across several online stores.  What if your customers have one question that is not included in the stock description?  Will they have to go from site to site with the same question?

Here are some things to remember when writing product descriptions:

  1. Original content is better for search engines.  Google wants to show the freshest content to people using its search engine, so it actually penalizes duplicate content.  If you copy someone else’s descriptions, their products tend to show up first show up first in search engine results because they were archived first.
  2. Your product descriptions should answer questions people have about your products.  If you sell shirts, give the exact dimensions for each search size.  Include washing instructions.  If you sell electronics, give all the technical specs as well as the dimensions and warranty information. If someone’s already at your site, you don’t have to sell them that hard.  Just give them all the info they need to make an informed decision.
  3. Consider video.  If a picture is worth a a thousands words, a video is worth a million more.  Video demonstrations and reviews can inform your customer the same way you could if they were in your brick-and-mortar store.  Consider putting these videos on video sharing sites as well to drive traffic to your store as well.
  4. Collect feedback from phone calls, emails and live chats.  If someone has a legitimate question about your product, there’s no use in letting others have the same question.  If you update the product’s description, you’ll improve the experience for others as well as cut down on the time you have to spend on customer service.
  5. Tracking progress is key. If you install Google Analytics or a similar service, you can track to see if people are dropping off on your product page and then make proper adjustments.  If the product is one of your big sellers, consider testing two different variations of a description to see which one works best.

Shopping at your store shouldn’t be a chore for your customers. Insuring your product descriptions are complete as possible will mean higher conversion, less returns, and happier customers.