Stop Losing Customers

Often as I work with my local clients, I try and uncover reasons they are not converting all of their shoppers" into "buyers". Click here to read more on this subject.

Meanwhile, if you are an online businesses, you need to do a similar assessment:

Stood Up at the Altar

Because your customers will abandon online purchases if they encounter a tedious checkout process, it's critical to make your e-commerce functionality simple and efficient. In a post at the Conversation Marketing blog, Ian Lurie offers recommendations like these:

• Never make a customer log in before checkout. "If you show any kind of form requiring a password on the first checkout page," he says, "you're losing customers."
• Display shipping costs on the same page as shipping options. There's almost nothing more frustrating than getting to the confirmation page and discovering the two-day option costs much more than anticipated. A surprised customer might abandon the purchase, rather than going to the trouble of choosing a cheaper alternative.
• Request information you actually need. "Don't need their phone number?" says Lurie. "Don't ask for it. Don't need their full ZIP+4 code? Don't ask for it! Are 99% of your customers in the USA? Have that pre-selected in the billing and shipping form."
• Make it quick. Small conveniences count—for instance, let customers check a box if billing and shipping addresses match, and make any edit from the order confirmation page.

The Po!nt: "If your developer says they can't make these changes, or even tries to bill you for it after swearing they could build a great site for you," says a tongue-in-cheek Lurie, "slap them. When they fall down, kick them. When they stop crying, tell them to fix the damned site."

Source: Conversation Marketing. Click here for the full post.

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