E-Commerce: Turning Visitors into Invested Consumers

Increasing visitors with SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and having a creatively designed, customer friendly, and unique website is sometimes not enough. How do you change your visitors into invested customers? A visitor is someone who came across your website and has viewed it, but they have not purchased any merchandise. An invested customer is someone who buys products and returns to buy more. There are many different strategies to increase sales through the converting of visitors. I am going to list five different ways that businesses can do this. Keep in mind that it is not limited to these five suggestions.



1. Work on what your customer wants
Interaction with customers, online and in person, is critical to finding out the customer's wants. This isn't something that is not particularly easy to do. It is a process that is requires continuous approaches that result in trial and error. Creating target markets helps with defining groups and matching them with the products that are specialized to them. This specialization will create engagement which will increase the chances of there being a purchase.


2. Have a call to action/Landing page
In my pervious post Top 10 E-commerce Webpage Designs I found calls to action on all of the websites that I included in the list, which are seen in the image below. In order to get customers to do what you want, you need to tell them what to do. If not, they are not likely to do anything. A call to action includes a linked buttons that say: Explore Now, Available Here, See Today's Deals, Learn More, Shop the Collection, and Shop Reebok CrossFit. These buttons encourage an action for the visitor to take.

3. Examine page flow
Page flow has to do with the navigation around the website. Flow needs to be simple and quick. A visitor needs to be able to get from the selection of purchase and through payment quickly and efficiently. The designer may test the way customers travel throughout the website through observation or they may use a more technical tool like Google Analytics, which allows you to map the order and sequence of pages a visitor goes through. You may be able to see through both of these approaches where customers are getting stuck. The problem could be as simple as the location of a button or a too long of a process to purchase orders.
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4. Testimonials
Testimonials are common because they work. They provide social proof which reaffirms that a purchase was the right decision. This comes in different forms. Testimonials can be in the form of video clips, comments, or written stories. The longer, the more authentic it looks, and the more trust you can built with the customer in buying your product.


5. Strategic design
Design is a good way to get customers engaged. If they see something interesting or placed in an obvious place, they are likely to pay attention to it. There are several different strategies you can use to do this. You can do this by using simple layouts and navigation, cutting down on content, creating larger actions buttons, and using colors to bring out certain emotions.






Sources:
http://99u.com/articles/7075/how-to-turn-website-visitors-into-customers-for-your-creative-business
http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/07/15/7-simple-ways-to-convert-your-visitors-into-customers/
http://www.inc.com/neal-cabage/4-ways-to-turn-visitors-into-buyers-online.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-turn-online-visitors-into-paying-customers-2012-11
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