17
Jan
Facebook Graph Search: What Online Businesses Need To Know
This week Facebook revealed ‘Graph Search‘, a new feature that lets users search the interests, location, and preferences of your friends. For instance, a Facebook user could search for “Clothing Stores my friends like” and receive a list of Facebook business pages of clothing storess, online and retail, that their friends either checked in, liked, or recommended.
As AllFacebook.com said, “Graph search takes the recommendation power of Yelp and combines it with Facebook’s tremendous social graph to make it more important for businesses to cater to their Facebook fans and brick-and-mortar customers.”
Up until now, social search was an ideal that Google and others have attempted to foster. While Google+ offers traditional SEO value for businesses, the limited user activity & cannot provide the data context needed for social search to work. Facebook, however, has over 1 billion users, 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections.
Facebook Graph Search is rolling out slowly. But is safe to say that social search is here.
Now here is what merchants need to do to prepare:
1) Emphasize local – Right now graph search heavily favors local brick & mortar businesses , as it works more like a Yelp than Google. However, that does not mean your online store can’t rank. Add your physical location to your business page and ask your local friends and family to all like, recommend, and check-in to your store. You can promote your store’s location further by showing your city some love and offer special shipping rates for local orders.
2) Get Liked – As Social Media Today pointed out, that graph search could make page likes more important again, as results show what friends have liked each page. Now is the time to run social contest to increase likes and up engagement.
3) Add Facebook Connect – While individual Facebook posts and Open Graph actions (like when a user connects with your store to leave a comment, post a product, or share a deal) are not included - the company says they’re coming. 3dcart merchants can easily integrate Facebook Connect to your store.
4) Sponsor Results: Advertising is going to be very much a part of Graph Search. Or as Facebook says it, ”sponsored results allow you to promote results in the search bar and will appear whether or not users have Graph Search.”
15
Jan
Beyond The Basics: How To Create Product Pages That Convert
Studies tell us that 65% of shoppers abandon their cart before purchase and the average eCommerce site converts only 2.13% of traffic to sales. Fighting your way through abandoned carts to a higher conversion rate is no small task. Every page of your site needs to usher shoppers closer to conversion, especially product pages.
The basics of an effective product pages are:
- Compelling copy - Product descriptions should be detailed, non-generic, and list benefits, not just features
- Quality Product Photos – Photos should be clean, high-quality and offer a multitude of angles
- Call To Action – An easy-to-read call to action should be prominently featured
While those elements are essential to an effective product page, there are many other ways you can set your store a part and increase conversions.
Beyond The Basics: How To Create Product Pages That Convert
Prominently Display Shipping Costs:
Zales informs customers on shipping time & offers free shipping on purchases over $149
Informed customers are confident customers. Don’t make customers anxious about shipping rates and times – inform them upfront by prominently placing shipping information in your product pages.
Free shipping goes a long way in increasing conversions, but it is important to weigh the pros and cons to decide if free shipping is for you. A great way to increase your store’s average order value is to offer free shipping over a certain amount. Flat rate shipping is also another great option. Flat rates are easy to understand and eliminate surprises.
Scared to display your international shipping rates for fear of scaring away customers?
High shipping rates will scare away some customers. However, it is much better for a customer to leave your product page because they didn’t want to pay your actual shipping rates, than it is for a customer,that would be happy to pay your rates, leave the page for the fear of the unknown.
See Also:
Can You Make Free Shipping Work for Online Store?
Cost Of Free Shipping
Remove Guesswork By Providing Sizing Information:
Often, online retailers burry their sizing charts in “about us”, “FAQ” or other pages, but that is not where the information is the most useful. Give customers the information they need, where they most need it – on the product pages.
Offer sizing guidelines and conversion charts to avoid refunds and unhappy customers.
Establish Trust By Listing Customer Reviews:
Build trust with your customer by allowing shoppers to post reviews of the products and of your company.
Athletica shows a useful summary of customers reviews findings
See Also:
Boost your SEO with customer reviews
Promote Customer Photos:
FreePeople displays customer's Instagram photos on product pages
Models and product photos are great, but seeing the product in-use by a real customer can reassure potential buyers the product that will arrive at their door is as great as the product photos on your site.
Don’t have user-submitted photos?
Hold a contest encouraging previous customers to take pictures of your product in use and upload to Facebook, Instagram and other social sites for a prize. Make sure you are up-front with all the entrees that submissions could be used on your site. Most customers won’t mind and often many are flattered to be featured!
Include Useful Product Advice:
Including useful product information like styling, cleaning, and best use tips allow the customer to feel more educated about the product and helps them to picture themselves wearing, using, or integrating the product into their lives.
JCREW offers customers styling advice on each product, and even goes far enough to offer PERSONAL style advice!
Use Daily Deals To Create Urgency:
Daily deals add urgency to your offer and let shoppers know they should act while they can. Furthermore, by constantly updating the type of deal that is offered and posting a new deal at regular intervals, your shoppers will get into the habit of checking your site often to see what the new offering is.
3dcart has a great free daily deal feature that all merchants should utilize to increase a shoppers sense of urgency. Make sure to prominently display the normal retail price and the amount of discount you are offering.
See also:
Five Reasons Why Online Stores Should Run Daily Deals
Give Customers Peace Of Mind With Free Returns:
Nordstrom reassures customers with an easy return policy on all product pages
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Free returns are crucial for customers to feel confident purchasing online, especially for a customer’s first purchase on your store. It is especially crucial for all etailers as fit and style come into play with garments and accessories.
Allow customers to give your brand a try without fear.
Encourage Large Orders With A Buy more, Save More Discount:
Offer a discount on orders over a certain amount to encourage shoppers to fill up their carts.
Show-off Your Products With Product Videos:
Using video demos of items increased sales for Zappos between 6% and 30%. Include video content to show your product in real-life, offer tips, answer common questions, and express the benefits/uses of your product.
See also:
8 Tips For Making An Effective Product Video
eCommerce Video: Tips for Effective Product Videos
05
Jul
How Behavioral Targeting Impacts Your Online Store
The next evolution of the social web is behavioral targeting—and online stores are among the businesses that can benefit hugely.
New tools that track how people use the web represent the catalyst behind behavioral targeting. Like the name implies, these tools collect data on how people behave on your website. They analyze the data and turn it into actionable information that allows you to understand and target your audience with more relevant content.
You already see behavioral targeting at work in your day-to-day web browsing. For instance, you may see banners advertising a product, service or company you recently researched. Google searches are becoming more targeted based on factors like geography and search history, and Facebook reads your interest to attempt more relevant advertisements.
For businesses, behavioral targeting connects more consumers to the products and services that benefit them. Not surprisingly, behavioral targeting has also begun to play a huge role in the world of ecommerce.
You have the ability to identify customers when they visit your store and use that information to convert more sales. It’s all a part of our new 3dupsell feature.
3dupsell is a customizable service that uses behavioral targeting to reduce cart abandonment, increase conversions, learn more about your audience and get more out of your existing customer base. Through one of three different display methods, 3dupsell attempts to lure customers back into the sales funnel when they may be poised to leave without buying.
While attracting more conversions may be your first priority, 3dupsell does much more than that. By targeting customers with a newsletter sign-up call-to-action, you can turn a one-time customer into a regular. Trying to stay on track with your audience? Ask them to complete a survey that could offer useful information about how you can better serve their needs.
You control the parameters. Simply define what sorts of user behavior triggers a message, and 3dupsell delivers. How you use behavioral data to target your audience is up to you.
We’ll have a few more posts detailing how 3dupsell works in the future. For now, go here and check it out for yourself!
10
Apr
How To Educate (And Win) Customers Through Product Details
One of the most common and most-sale-crushing mistakes online merchants make is not giving enough product information. Product information is the lifeblood of sales – it can help sway a purchase and deter returns.
When customers are shopping online, they are looking for transparency, reliability, and all the information, details & reviews they can get their mouse on to make them feel as comfortable as possible about their purchase. They don’t want to feel like they are in the dark or entering into the ecommerce lottery. And you don’t either because when they do feel uneasy about a product, they leave.
And if you aren’t providing them enough information, your competition is. Your online store is competing with brick and mortar stores, which offer customers the advantage of seeing, feeling, & touching products. While you can’t offer customers a sensory experience, you can offer them an educated one. You need to go the extra mile to educate your customers on your products, because educated customers are more purchase-ready qualified customers.
Here are just a few ideas on how to educate your customer on your products.
7 Steel Grill shows off both features and benefits of their products, by using flowery, colorful descriptions .
Description:
- Scope out the competition. Research similar products listed in other online stores and note their descriptions. Make sure you list all relevant information, and then give customers more.
- If you’re an online retailer, offer sizing charts, the weight or thickness of a product, the fit of the product, the care instructions, & descriptions on the brand/ designer.
- In addition to list all the technical words like dimensions & weight, mention a benefit of each feature using colorful descriptions to provoke emotion and excitement in customers. ( See above example)
- Show that you like your products. Add personal remarks at the end of product descriptions to lead the customer to imagine themselves using the product.
Examples:
“This tent is perfect for a father-son camping excursion or romantic woods getaway with your love.”
“We love the way this rug is just bright enough to pop with color but also blend-in in almost any decor.”
“This bowl works double-duty – beautiful enough to serve at a dinner party, but durable enough to mix a cake-in.”
“This dress is perfect for a quick trip to the beach, a drive up the coast or a lunch around town with the girls.”
“Pair this dress with black plumps, pearls, and red lipstick. Thank us later
”
Forever 21 uses real models to show multiple angles of their products.
Images:
- Offer as many as possible but don’t overload the customer with a lot of pictures that all say the same thing. Each photo needs to serve a different purpose – like a different angle, model, close-up of a detail etc.
- Use photos to offer cues on competitive advantages or product highlights. For instance if you are selling an extra-long fishing pole, take a picture of the pole next to a regular pole.
- Show the products in use. If you are selling a rug, show the rug as a part of the decor of a stylish room in addition to close-up photos and photos of the isolated product. Use models to show off clothing, equipment, etc
- If you have models wearing your clothes, note their height and size. Models are great because they show off a product in a real-life scenario rather than how it would look sitting in your closet. But sometimes you can’t tell if a model is 5’5 or 5’10 from a picture. Customers want to know how it will fit THEM, giving them the height & size of your models will help them to gauge what it will look like on them.
Keen Men's Targhee II Walking Shoes offers a product video in addition to a wealth of product details.
Videos:
Making product videos is a great way to convey a lot of information, show the product in use and also create trust with the customer. But everyone won’t take the time to watch the videos, so all the information you provide in the video should be found elsewhere in your description.
13
Dec
Knowledge Is Power: Battling Abandoned Carts
‘Abandoned Cart’ - the words are enough to send chills down a merchant’s spine.
Every online retailer fights the good fight of skittish shoppers and abandoned orders. But when merchants arm themselves information on WHY customers click off without checking out, they can win the battle!
Here’s what we know:
- The average conversion rate for ecommerce websites is anywhere between 1-2%
- The average shopping cart abandonment rates is around 60-70%
- A study conducted by PayPal and ComScore found that 45% of consumers abandoned carts more than once with an average abandoned order of $109.00
- 37% of consumers abandoned a shopping cart because of comparison shopping.
- 27% abandoned a shopping cart to search for coupons
- 24% abandoned because they wanted more payment options
- 22% abandoned because were not able to easily find contact information for the merchant
Knowledge is power, but without action that power fails to pack a punch. Here’s some easy fixes that will help you convert higher:
Reach Out
If most cart abandoners are repeat offenders, catch them before their second round. Set email auto-responders to reach out to customers who have abandoned their cart reminding them of their cart AND offering a coupon.
Be Bold
Savvy shoppers will comparison shop. No way around it. If you feel that you REALLY are the best deal in town or that you offer the best value ( price, store security, loyalty points etc), be bold. List your competitions prices and explain how you are the best deal.
Show them the coups’
Customers don’t like to play hide the coupon. Display the actual coupon or a link to the coupon page on the product page as well as the check out page.
Tip: List ALL coupon codes and corresponding items on the checkout page. Unable to resist a good deal, savvy shoppers will add additional items to their cart.
Be Flexible
Don’t let payment options stand between you and a good deal. Check out 3dcarts 100+ payment solutions.
Don’t Hide
Be easily accessible.Give customers all options of communications: phone, fax, email, livechat – maybe even your Skype name. Display contact information at the top of the pag – every page.
Image credit: sascian.blogspot.com
12
Dec
How Does Loading Time Affect Your Online Store? #Infographic
Loading time is an important part of any website’s user experience, but it is vital in eCommerce. Sometimes we can get caught in the aesthetics of a site and end up sacrificing speed. Unfortunately slow loading time, not bad design, is a leading cause of site abandonment. Check out KissMetric’s infographic below to learn more about the affects of a slow site. Then use our 3 tips to help better your load time and your conversion!
Check your Speed: The first thing you want to do is check your current speed. Luckily there are some great free tools that let you do this:
Rearrange your HTML Document: It’s important to place the Stylesheet References at the top of your HTML document and the script references at the Bottom.
Only two components per hostname are downloaded by browsers at a time. By placing the <head> of your HTML document st the top of your page, your site will load faster because it allows your pages to render the styles progressively. Thus by choosing to place the script references at the top, you block other mor essential elements from loading of the page.To quicken your load time, place script references before the closing <body>.
Optimize Your Images
File format can greatly affect your page load so it’s important to know when to use each file format:
- PNG: Use for high quality transparent image.
- GIF: Use for images with few colors like logos
- JPEG: Use for images with lots of color and detail like photos.
Use free services to help you optimize and shrink your images:
Tip: Avoid changing an images size using the width and height attributes of <img> elements in HTML. Use an image editor like PickNic to decrease load time.
infographic by KissMetrics
