5 Ways to Create a Successful Online Customer Holiday Shopping Experience
December 1, 2010 By Josh Levine
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The e-commerce holiday shopping season is upon us and online retailers are busy implementing new shopping features, social campaigns, analyzing test results, and redesigning sales funnels from browsing to checkout.
The experts are out in force: Focus on usability! Optimize your product page! Come up with brilliant holiday promotions! Study the shopping trends! Yeah! Yeah?
No. Don't waste your precious and ever-dwindling time focusing solely on usability and UI improvements. If you don't have your customers' trust and confidence, you won't convert—regardless of all the improvements your testing indicated you should make.
This holiday season, guarantee that your site is providing customers with the sense of safety and security they are longing for in their shopping experiences. Here's a few tip to ensure your customers spend their precious time deciding which product to buy from your site, rather than if they should even buy from you at all.
1. Make Your Contact Information Prominent
Contact information should be prominent and in a consistent place within your header and footer so your customers know where to go when they have questions or encounter issues. Display both phone number and email address so customers can contact you in the manner of their choosing.
2. Don't Hide Costs
Transparency in shipping costs and delivery times is key—especially come holiday season. Be sure to provide all of the actual costs up front, including shipping, handling and sales tax. These can have an enormous impact on the final price. According to OneUpWeb, 95 percent of customers want to know the exact cost of the order before proceeding into checkout. There is no better way to put the kibosh on a potential sale than to withhold additional costs until later in funnel.
When the user can expect to receive their package is enormously important as well, especially to shoppers cutting it tight during the holiday season. Show this information as early as possible. This is a deciding factor when it comes down to those final few days: Shoppers are willing to pay a premium as long as you can provide them with the security that it will arrive on time, as promised.
3. Apply the Human Touch
Ten other sites may sell the same product, at the same discounted price and have the same safety features in place. Differentiate yourself by emphasizing a personal touch and telling shoppers that you completely understand their concerns. Give them the warm and fuzzy feeling that they are in good hands by hitting the emotional aspects of shopping.
The experts are out in force: Focus on usability! Optimize your product page! Come up with brilliant holiday promotions! Study the shopping trends! Yeah! Yeah?
No. Don't waste your precious and ever-dwindling time focusing solely on usability and UI improvements. If you don't have your customers' trust and confidence, you won't convert—regardless of all the improvements your testing indicated you should make.
This holiday season, guarantee that your site is providing customers with the sense of safety and security they are longing for in their shopping experiences. Here's a few tip to ensure your customers spend their precious time deciding which product to buy from your site, rather than if they should even buy from you at all.
1. Make Your Contact Information Prominent
Contact information should be prominent and in a consistent place within your header and footer so your customers know where to go when they have questions or encounter issues. Display both phone number and email address so customers can contact you in the manner of their choosing.
2. Don't Hide Costs
Transparency in shipping costs and delivery times is key—especially come holiday season. Be sure to provide all of the actual costs up front, including shipping, handling and sales tax. These can have an enormous impact on the final price. According to OneUpWeb, 95 percent of customers want to know the exact cost of the order before proceeding into checkout. There is no better way to put the kibosh on a potential sale than to withhold additional costs until later in funnel.
When the user can expect to receive their package is enormously important as well, especially to shoppers cutting it tight during the holiday season. Show this information as early as possible. This is a deciding factor when it comes down to those final few days: Shoppers are willing to pay a premium as long as you can provide them with the security that it will arrive on time, as promised.
3. Apply the Human Touch
Ten other sites may sell the same product, at the same discounted price and have the same safety features in place. Differentiate yourself by emphasizing a personal touch and telling shoppers that you completely understand their concerns. Give them the warm and fuzzy feeling that they are in good hands by hitting the emotional aspects of shopping.
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