Table of Contents
What Does The Customer See?
Do It Faster
Remove the biggest price objection
Don’t wait, sell them more NOW!
Give them a deal
Grease the rails
Show Them Proof
Keep in touch
Checkout Champ Can Help
In this article, we’ll share strategies to do all 3.
What Does The Customer See?
First, let’s talk about product pages.
Optimizing these is essential to the success of every e-commerce store.
Product pages need to look good enough to grab attention and be easy to navigate.
They should also include enough clear and relevant information for a customer to feel they’re making an informed purchase.
That means going deep on creating quality product descriptions, specifications, pricing information, and curated customer reviews.
Don’t try to save money on the images either.
Optics are even more important in online retail than offline.
Customers can ’t inspect, touch, smell, or try on the product, so they make most of their decisions based on how it looks on the page.
This is somewhere that investing in quality pays off, but it’s not just about the quality of the image itself.
It’s also about giving customers a better idea of what to expect when they receive the product, so show multiple angles and different user settings.
Do It Faster
Speed is probably the most important optimization of all.
No one likes to wait for a page to load, and if it takes more than 3 seconds, over half of visitors will ‘bounce’ off the page.
By 7 seconds, it’s game over.
Crazy to think these load times are still being seen in 2023.
Now that we’ve got 5g mobile data on our cellphones and Gigabit fiber powering our home wifi, there are no excuses for a slow loading site.
Remove the biggest price objection
The problem with charging for shipping is that it messes with customers’ perceptions about affordability.
Customers may be happy to pay $30 for a tshirt, but change their decision to ‘no way’ when it totals out at $45 including shipping.
As much as possible, make the shipping costs clear up front, or ’ll see cart abandon rates rise. And remember that consumers would pay a slightly higher product cost if shipping is FREE.
Free shipping is a powerful incentive that helps to increase sales and boost AOV, but it’s not always affordable for store owners to offer it on all orders.
In this case, add free shipping on orders above a certain dollar amount, or give buyers a bonus of ‘free shipping on next order’ to get that repeat purchase in the bag.
This way, it’s still possible to offer the incentive without hurting the bottom line.
Don’t wait, sell them more NOW!
Upselling and cross-selling are great techniques to increase sales and boost AOV.
The classic upsell is from the supplement business…
When someone buys 1 bottle, instantly offer them a great deal to upgrade to get 3 or 6 bottles.
Cross selling works just as well.
The buyer who just added some new Nikes to their cart is a great candidate to see and offer for some fresh Nike socks in a matching color or different colored shoelaces.
This not only increases the value of the order but also makes it convenient for the customer to find the matching items they need in one place.
Give them a deal
Discounts and seasonal promotions work.
Sales work at any time of the year and for any silly reason.
Just be careful not to overdo it.
We don’t want to devalue products, or make the customers feel like they’re constantly being pitched with false urgency.
Instead, use special offer promotions strategically.
Offer a discount on larger orders, or run a promotion that encourages customers to buy multiple complementary products as a bundle.
Grease the rails
Once someone’s decided to buy, make it easy for them to pay.
The checkout process should be as simple as possible, with a checkout page that’s well-designed, easy to navigate, and has all the necessary elements for customers to complete their purchase – clear pricing, shipping options, and a secure payment gateway.
Make sure the pricing displays in a local currency so people know exactly what they have to pay – confused minds say ‘No’.
And give them as many payment options as possible – including stripe, paypal, and ‘buy-now-pay-later’ options like Afterpay and Klarna.
Show Them Proof
Customer reviews help to increase conversion rates by showing proof to potential customers that other people have purchased products and been satisfied with them.
They’re also valuable feedback for business
Collect customer reviews and display them prominently on product pages.
The more the better – quantity and recency of reviews are important decision factors for a potential buyer.
Keep in touch
Email is the most powerful tool to increase Customer Lifetime Value from the customers you’ve paid to acquire.
The #1 email mistake we see business owners making is simply not mailing enough.
How much is enough?
Well, there’s no upper limit.
People don’t notice the email they don’t read, and the people who do read are the ones who buy!
So, after getting your core automations running –
abandon cart email
exit intent popup
new lead welcome
post-purchase follow up
Send out newsletters and promotional emails to customers at least 3-5x a week, with topical information and seasonal offers.
And combine email with SMS to drive open rates and engagement higher. Your opt-in is crucial to grow your business.
As your list grows you can segment and apply more targeted strategies based on past purchases, but the most important thing is to get started.
And if in doubt, just send more emails!
Checkout Champ Can Help
There are many strategies that e-commerce store owners use to improve online sales volume, conversion rates, and AOV.
With Checkout Champ’s integrated platform, you can link the features you want to level up your existing store’s performance, and cut out third-party apps that cost you thousands in extra fees.
Improve your online store this 2023 using bolt-on technologies like Checkout Champ.
Book a demo today and see for yourself what Checkout Champ can do for your store’s AOV and profits.
