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Increase sales with eCommerce 2.0
by Nowshade Kabir
Published on this site: November 27th, 2006 - See
more articles from this month
In recent years we are seeing a great deal of interest in eCommerce from
retailers. An increasing number of retailers are adopting eCommerce tools
and getting involved in online business. The influx of large number of
new players has intensified thebattle for customer's time and pocket book.
Gone are the days when you could build a good site and expect a number
of visitors to rush in. Today, websites are using every possible promotional method
available to attract visitors. As a result, web promotion has become a
complex and expensive part of company's overall online marketing strategy.
However, getting a visitor to your site is just half of the job, even
if the visitor is from your targeted segment of the market! One of the
primary issues that you have to deal with as an owner of an eCommerce
site is to convert a visitor to a real customer. You have to take a number
of measures in order to increase thisodd. Unfortunately, a huge number
of prospective customers leave a site after even placing items in the
shopping cart. Most of the site owners grossly underestimate the number
of abandoning customers. When asked, none of the respondent site owners
gave a figure for visitors from this category more than 30 percent. But,
the reality is quite different! According to various studies, the abandonment
rate can be a staggering 67 percent for an average eCommerce site! So,
what do you have to do to reduce this number and increase your sales? Some latest web development ideas combined vaguely under thename of Web
2.0 technology can be used to increase functionalities of a website and
lower shopping cart abandonment rate.
Web 2.0 as a concept has become big in the Internet world, but this phenomenon
has yet to make large impact on conservative business segment like eCommerce.
Over the coming months this is going to change as more and more online
shopping sites are embracing Ajax based technology and other Web 2.0 ideas.
The originator of the Web 2.0 describes this term to define new generation websites that use collective contribution, social networking,
tagging, open APIs, remix, etc.
Ajax, a short name for a combination of website developing technologies
and a key instrument of Web 2.0 concept, is used to create web applications
with enhanced usability, interactivity and speediness. Present eCommerce
sites are also in a position to reap similar benefits.
Below are listed the primary reasons for visitors to abandon a shopping
cart and possible ways of dealing with it.
- Cost of shipping too high and not shown until checkout
This seems to be the number one reason for most of the people to
abandon a shopping cart. The first step you need to take here has nothing
to do with technology. You have to understand that people are not willing
to pay extra on top of the real shipping and handling charge. People
are not stupid! They have more or less rough idea, how much shipping
might cost. That's why keep shipping and handling costs really low or
at least reasonable! The second step which can radically improve your
conversion rate is the use of new technology to keep the shopping cart
with all its content visible at the right upper side of the page presently
visited. Once a new item is added to the cart, all calculations will
take place right away without reloading the page or the cart. If you
feel that shipping and handling costs could be crucial in buying decision,
once the first item is added the system will ask for visitor's zip code
and automatically calculate the final price.
- Changed mind and discarded cart content
In this case, unfortunately, you can't do much! However, if your
site automatically saves the content of the cart, there is a chance
that the same buyer might come back and continue shopping. Analysis
of the exit page of the visitor might also help you determine the reason
why she/he has left.
- Comparison shopping or browsing
Apart from monitoring your competitors' sites and keeping your offers
aggressive, you should also create a site with better functionalities
and contents than your competitors.
- Total cost of items is too high
Again, if the cart is constantly visible with the final price always
calculated automatically, the buyer will be able to take a more informative
decision.
- Saving items for later purchase
The moment an item is added to the cart, it should be saved automatically
without reloading the page. If the buyer is not logged in, request the
buyer to register with just login and password, explaining that this
way he or she can come back and continue shopping on your site.
- Checkout process is too long
If you have a shopping cart as described earlier all the buyer will
need to do is click to check out. A simple form with minimum information
needed to execute the check out process will appear upon checking out.
The filling out of this form should be the final step of the buying
process.
- Out of stock products at checkout time
The functionalities of the cart, as described earlier, will let
the buyer immediately know whether the product is available.
- Checkout requires too much personal information
The Web 1.0 eCommerce sites collect a lot of information about the
customer, which presumably help get marketing data. These days, online
customers are not willing to reveal more than necessary information
for nothing. Avoid the temptation to ask questions unrelated to check
out. All you need is name, shipping and billing address and credit card
information. That's it!
- Poor site navigation and long download times
With the help of above mentioned technologies you will be able to
increase interactivity, speed and better navigation experience many
folds.
- Lack of sufficient product or contact information
Your contact telephone numbers should be always visible! Use a form
or wizard based product adding system. This will help you not to forget
crucial information related to an item when you add it to your database.
Of course there are other minor reasons why visitors abandon a shopping
cart, but if you make over your eCommerce site with the help Web 2.0 technologies
many of these issues will also disappear.
Nowshade Kabir - is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com. A Ph. D. in Information Technology, he has wide experience
in Business Consulting, International Trade and Web Marketing. Rusbiz
is a Global B2B eMarketplace with solutions to start and run online business.
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