Removing Barriers to Buying Online
Your customer’s onsite experience is perhaps the biggest factor in helping guide them down the marketing funnel from awareness to actual conversion/purchase. Whether your traffic is originating from organic search traffic, social media links or your email lists, make your customer’s journey smooth and comfortable.
Take What They Have
Your customers probably have a few things in common (other than totally loving you!) whether it’s their location, age, sex, or lifestyle. There are some little fixes you can do to meet them halfway that go beyond talking in their language: making your website work better with their computer speed, taking all forms of payment they want to pay you in, and getting them ready for any unexpected things that might pop up.
Speed
Not all of your customers have super fast internet. Some of them can have a slow connection and might appreciate faster-loading articles like Google’s AMP or Facebook’s IA. Or site speed on your end might help them out a ton. Site speed is often seen as a secondary concern, but for e-commerce sites like Amazon rate is the difference of billions of dollars. Speed is a great reason for people to leave your site. It’s something people wants (even if their internet is too slow to accommodate your super fast site), so if you’re able to, making your site faster will help them. That means setting up an AMP version of your content, or sharing Instant Articles (IA) versions of your site will help your users read more. Yslow is a great, free extension to look at more detailed speed issues (if you are just starting out).
Cash
Take everyone’s money. While there are now the whole bunch of payment methods people like to use (BitCoin, anyone?), credit cards aren’t going anywhere soon, and in fact, they are just getting more and more popular as EMV transactions have made transactions even more secure. Make it easy for your customers to buy things from you.
Taking all forms of your client’s money means accommodating their needs, it can sometimes mean offering outstanding payment options like Venmo and Paypal. Or even just giving your IRL Salesforce a POS system that works out in the field. Accommodating all the ways that your customers can give you their money removes one of the biggest barriers to e-commerce (the checkout process).
Prep Them For What Is Coming
Don’t you hate surprises that make you do stuff, or when you’re unsure of what’s coming next, and it may not be good? You’ve felt some light package nervousness when they don’t send a tracking code. Preparing your customers for what’s coming, how it’s going down, and what they can expect from you in the future is an excellent way to keep them on your side.
That covers everything from reconnecting with them after they buy (or meet-up) with you, tracking who comes on site and reminding people who have seen you that they should come to see you again. Reconnect with your customer base often (at least to show off, or see how they are doing). It’ll remind them that you are there and break down a barrier of return.
Have What They Need
You talk to your customers, you take their chip cards, PayPal, and sometimes checks, and are fast about everything (website, returning calls, hitting them up with emails), but do you have what they want/need?
Your customers are savvy buyers; they have to need what you are selling them. Selling the right product to the right people, at the time they can buy it, and informing them about all the awesome things that you can do, will help you explain why you’re needed. You can also use informational posts to start to persuading process online.
Informational articles and emails are ideal for customers who don’t know that they need your product. They might know that they want a product, but not which product. They might even just know that they want what your product does. This is an excellent way to reach out and help these people find their particular needs. They might be interested in a car, but not know that you offer the exact one they are looking for. Helping them out with information with bringing them onto (and get them to stay on) your site is a wonderful way of getting your customers where they need to be to buy.
Customer Service
There will always be something that someone can’t find online. Making your workforce available to them quickly and easily is one of the best ways to provide them offline help (no one wants to be on hold or juggled around). There’s a ton of ways to provide fantastic customer service. It’s a wonderful way to get people to return as long-term clients (or just make a purchase in the first place).
People want your product. You have a fabulous product that could help lots of people. It’s major key. But for some reason, no one’s buying. Remove the barriers between your customers and the product by making sure your site is working, that you can take their money, let them know why they want it, and be extra careful helping them along the way. Remove the barriers to buying.
