How to open an e-commerce website
Tips and ideas to open an e-commerce website and sell.
Open an e-commerce site is any day easier, but it becomes harder to use it to sell. So here are our experiences, tips and techniques to transform an e-commerce into an effective sales tool.
We will never stop to remember that electronic commerce is a real job: to sell online is just as challenging as a physical store.
Every businessman knows that to sell he will have to "run faster than the gazelle," and then, every day, he will go to his shop well in time, to lift the shutters, sweep the sidewalk, to renew the windows, and perhaps to create some offers to convert "who passes" in a Customer.
In electronic commerce there are no times, the shutters are always open, the sidewalk must be kept always clean, and the windows need to be changed continuously. Sure, is not a real world, and for this reason, in addition to the commitment and perseverance, requires a deep competence.
To create a site with a high number of conversions, just follow two simple rules:
1. Make visitor want your product
2. Don't make him change his mind about wanting your product
Regarding the first point, everyone has his favorite techniques to "unlock" the desire. Many years ago, a good seller told me that every visitor is a potential customer: it was only necessary to trigger the right emotion. This excellent seller explained to me that sales are always based on 6 mechanisms, whose initials are -ironically- the phrase "il caso" (he was italian, and in italian it means "the faith")
The 6 emotions to convert the visitor into a customer
1. THE UNKNOWN
Curiosity is a strong motivator in every individual. A feeling of mystery, a desire to hear, see, know, know.
Curiosity is an element essential to attract the interest of the client at the initial stage of the visit and is a card that can be played only once. Represents the attraction for what is new, not yet known, capable of new sensations.
2. PROFIT
Since there is no customer who does not want to make money, you should always sell the idea of the gain: give to your customer the feeling of receiving something more than what he gives. He wants to feel a good deal or investment.
3. COMFORT
Everyone wants to feel well. The concept of comfort can be connected to health, desire to live well, saving time and energy.
4. AFFECTION
This need derives from the need of being in contact with others, of friendship, of companionship, of being surrounded by nice people, of being loved. If the site transmits this feeling, the user will treat you as a friend, as you treat him.
5. SAFETY
Everyone don't wants to feel insecure, embarrassing, fear, pain.
Security, therefore, is a key factor.
Security can be:
* Objective, linked to the details of your website or the product;
* Subjective, related to the particular desire that the customer intends to meet with the purchase of the product.
You sell security offering a brand with worldwide appeal.
You sell service that ensures the efficiency of the product.
You sell the security of the success and the quality of a product.
6. PRIDE
It is the desire of asserting personality.The enhancement of the customer is an effective means of indirect influence, as long as it is explicitly perceived by the individual.
Every element of our online store will meet and maintain these six "wishes". Must comply with a force of inertia encouraging the visitor to the end of the buying process. From now on, every step will decrease the pressure, and it will grow the risk of a simple visit. From the psychological point of view we have created an expectation, a "hope" and from now on there will be only small frustrations.
At this point the visitor will look for the famous button "buy", and for us it will start a new job: Let's not lose their desire.
Before you click there will be a number of questions: dont' make shift the focus from the button "buy": time and costs, guarantees, important features of the product must be clearly written next to the button, and always accessible easily and without moving.
If we have answered all the questions that he may have, our user will find the famous basket.
The "registering procedure" is one of the main causes of abandonment of a purchase process: only the word should be "creepy" for people designing a website.
Paypal offers a good way to completely skip this tedious step, transferring all the data of the buyer to the seller. Simply perfect, a little bit expensive, and probably the data must be integrated with telephone numbers, or other characteristic of the product you are selling. In any case remains a great way to increase sales.
Each "validation" is the a chanche that the user click to continue and to find himself on the same page with an error message.
Imagine buying off-line, and imagine that the seller wants that you give him the notes in order of value, for the exact amount, because it gives you no rest ... and that once this is done he says: "yeah but you should now offer the money with your left hand," and that once you do it he says that he wants notes with the image of the president facing him ...
Some websites have begun to prefer the payment to the registration: "First pay, then tell me who you are and where you want I send your order" Maybe it's an exaggeration.
If you survived, you reach the order summary. This is undoubtedly the most beautiful and delicate phase: on one side the user have already given the data, maybe he's ready with the credit card ... we are at the magical moment that has accompanied the history of mankind: the Exchange.
As Italo Calvino in his book "t with zero" I would stop time and analyze this moment:
The first consideration is the time between the click on "buy" button and the click on "payment" button. The smaller is this time, the greater are the chances that the purchase will be completed.
The page of the product was able to warm up the visitor, but now the object of his desire is only one element of a page where there are shipping costs, sub-totals, totals, taxes ...
The second consideration is the visitor's attention: at this time he reads the name of the product, price, total, address ... and if it is all right he unconsciously thinks: "sure?". Anything out of place can bring down the cards castle we built. Think about how much may influence, at this stage, a missing image. The search for simplicity, clarity, usability in the order confirmation page will then be increased to maximum.
Now we take the time, and we enjoy the beauty of the moment of exchange.
These considerations were the basis on which we built our software for e-commerce .
What happens after beyond the scope "to open an e-commerce," but we hope that these considerations have been-somewhat-useful at the beginning of your online activities, or they can help you improve your site
