07/10/2013 16:22
Remember the moment when you decided to build an ecommerce site? Was it because you knew someone with a profitable on line business and it looked so easy so you though that you can do it, too?
Remember the time you spent on reading about different platform to set up your store and the happy feeling watching it develop before your eyes? I am pretty sure you remember it like it was yesterday the satisfaction you got after you launched it.
But how fast things changed. It turned out that operating an e-commerse site wasn’t as easy as you it would be. All of a sudden the everybody decided to launch websites that carry exactly the same goods as yours, or so it seems.
Sure, there are visitors to your website and you get a few orders here and there but that is not what you were hoping for, right?
Like a lot of other people you probably thought that if visitors came to your shop sales will follow. That’s probably the N1 disappointment I hear from not so successful website owners. I can certainly understand them, because I thought the same way when I was first starting out.
Truth is - people will visit your web site and look around but only a tiny fraction of them will buy something A good example from the real world is the window shoppers. But fear not, there is good news, too.
They won’t purchase from you but they won’t buy from websites that compete with your sites either. As a matter of fact only about 3 percent of them will buy. Good News is that after reading this article you’ll know what needs to be done to make more of the visitors to your website buy.
I want you to listen to something I have to share with you. One day a while ago the phone rang and on the other side was a guy who had recently launched a site to sell Motiv bowling balls, DV8 2 ball roller bowling bags and Storm shoes, that kind of stuff.
He gave me access to the site and I started looking around. Traffic was ok, even though not something to write home about. His conversion rate was low though – much less than the standard 3%.
My advice was something he already knew – people were just window shopping on his site with no intention to buy. We began working together and in short time we found out that visitors to the site didn’t purchase because they didn’t trust the website, nor the guy behind it.
After leaving his website visitors were visiting the big dogs in the bowling niche and spending their money with them. That was the hard part, figuring out what was wrong. Armed with that
knowledge we started brainstorming ways to convey trust and get more sales in the process.
After talking with the guy for a few hours I found out an interesting fact – he was a former coach of the U.S. National Bowling Team. How great is that, I thought, that’s what we are going to use to earn visitors’ trust.
On the right hand side of every product page we put a his picture along with a few words from him. Next, we added an About me page where we talked at length about his passion for everything bowling. Our goal was to humanize him as much as possible.
Just in case you wanted to know if that worked – the answer is positive, it worked great.
We knew we were onto something when he started making more sales and emails from people telling him how Long Live Bowling is the best bowling site ever.
To be honest with you we thought something similar would happen. And here is the reason for this – people don’t want to buy from faceless companies. They would rather buy buy from genuine human being they think they know and trust.
After all was said and done the result was significantly increased conversion rate and plenty of balls, bags and shoes sold.
So that concept works and you can apply it to your e-commerce website today. This is the big secret – people won’t spend money with you because they do not trust you!
Here’s what needs to be done. Head on to your e commerce website and do your best to see it through the eyes of your visitors.
While browsing it think about all the big company web sites out there – does it look like them? Or does it look like all the other ecommerce sites in the bowling niche?
After you are done write down what sets you apart from everyone else. Done? Great, now go take a pencil and a few sheets of paper and after thinking very long and hard about it write down what’s that thing that makes your site unique and one of a kind. Once you have answered that question - get busy – start building trust.
Start implementing changes to the website that will make visitors feel like they can trust you. I know, I know that you’re not a former US National Team Coach and for that reason what I just shared with you won’t work in your case.
Good news is that you do not have to be because there’re many different ways to make people trust you.
I know that not everyone could be a National Coach but there’s always, always something that makes you unique and one of a kind.
Here’re a few of them:
First – you got it – upload a picture of yourself on your e-commerce site. People want to know more about you so tell them who you are and why you started the business.
For example, if the man I keep talking about was a regular guy and not a US Ntional team coach I would have told the story of the regular guy pissed off with the way major bowling websites do business.
Let me tell you that if he was a normal guy just like you and me I would have found a way to make him interesting to his audience.
What about telling the story of the regular bowler who didn’t like his on line shopping experience and decided to to do something about that If it seems to you that you’ve heard that somewhere else before this is because you really have. That’s the classic little guy vs big guy story.
Secondly: People want to know that people before them have done business with you and everything was ok. You can accomplish that by showing logos of companies that are trustworthy.
In the case of LongLIveBowling I used GoDaddy’s logo to show that the site is secure. Given, I can take that a step up – I can contact a few very well known bowlers and ask them for endorsements.
Third: get good words from your past clients – if they shared with you how much they loved the experience – by all means ask them for permission to post their testimonials on the site. If you think that won’t work because it has been used so many times that it’s ineffective – think again. It still works like a charm. Just make sure that testimonials address specific concerns that people have.
That’s all it is to that – build trust and they will buy.
