Give Your Online Sales a Boost: Avoid These Five Common Mistakes
Updated: September 14, 2004
A Business Software Tip by J. Carlton Collins, CPA
I buy everything I purchase over the Internet—unless I plan to eat it right away. Why? Like millions of other shoppers, I take to the Web to find products, services, and rock-bottom prices. Call us smart or call us stingy. Either way, our group is growing and there will be more Web shoppers in the future, not fewer. Yet, many e-commerce Web stores fail because of mistakes, which could be easily avoided. This article can help you avoid five of the most common mistakes I've seen on Web stores.
1. | Make sure customers can contact you.
Contact information should be displayed on every page in the Web site. You never know when that reader will want to print the page, forward the page via e-mail, or pick up the phone. |
2. | Include product pictures.
All items offered for sale should include a picture, if not multiple pictures. People like to touch and feel stuff before they buy, but a Web store does not offer this possibility. Pictures and movies offer the next best thing. Multiple pictures, diagrams, schematics, blueprints, and dimensions all help the shopper understand the item before they purchase. |
3. | Give detailed product descriptions.
Some Web sites do not even attempt to describe their products—you have to wonder what they are thinking. Hey, when no printing or publishing costs exist, why not offer a longer description? |
4. | Always provide pricing information.
When I encounter a Web store without prices, I leave immediately. So do you. Often we leave because we're shopping during non-business hours and, therefore, the Web store's instructions to "call for a price quote" at midnight doesn't cut it. In most cases, we conclude that because there are no prices listed, they must be high prices, or else why wouldn't they list them, right? In any event, I for one am not willing to go through the extra effort to determine the price—it's far easier to just move on to the next click. |
5. | Offer competitive information.
Most Web sites do not include detailed lists of competitive products. What a mistake. Savvy shoppers will shop around if necessary, but if you provide all of the information they need to make their decision, you will attract more shoppers and generate more sales. They'll stay on your Web site, where you control the content—doesn't this sound like a good thing? Yeah, I know—creating deep content is tough. But it's easier for you to dig up this information than your customers. Do them the favor of providing them with the information they truly need to make the decision and close the deal—you won't be sorry. |
J. Carlton Collins, CPA, president of ASA Research, LLC, is an independent author, lecturer, and analyst in the accounting systems industry. He has installed more than 200 accounting systems and delivered 1,800 lectures around the world on the subject of accounting systems and technology. Collins has published extensive accounting system reviews which can be seen at www.AccountingSoftwareAdvisor.com.
Contact Collins at Carlton@AccountingSoftwareAdvisor.com with questions or comments.
