Making money from selling online is a tough challenge to manage. While the likes of Amazon and Walmart can attract people to their site because of their long-standing brand superiority, not every retail site has such a commanding presence on the internet. Selling better online and growing the site requires patience and perseverance. Here are four ways to do it.
Ensure the Site Navigation Isn’t Confusing People
Site navigation is a tricky thing. It might be understood by half the visitors, but the other ones are a little confused over it. To see if this is the case, it’s helpful to test it with real visitors. One approach to this is by using Usability Hub. They allow site designers to test navigational elements and other design features to see how people respond to them. The design can later be adjusted based on real feedback to make the usability better for site visitors.
Another way is to use HotJar. This site can be set up to record live videos of visitors’ interactions with the website and to show heatmaps based on their activities. You can see exactly what they did, where they looked, what elements they clicked on, and so forth. It’s another approach to confirming whether the navigation is being used successfully.
Get the Payment Processing Right
It’s important to use the right kind of payment processing company to ensure valid transactions go through and bad ones do not. This avoids unnecessary chargeback expenses and a volatile sales revenue too. Use a company that provides a customized payment processing solution to match your website’s needs. This way, you won’t run into features you wish they offered but aren’t available yet.
Also, if you have a retail store presence too, it’s useful if they can assist there as well. The ability to take payments through a mobile app is beneficial in a retail environment to speed up the checkout process and avoid queues on busier days.
Provide Interactive Tools for Products
Look at what interactive tools can be incorporated into the website to let visitors see the products for sale. Go beyond a couple of still photographs. Think bigger. Use tools to allow a customer to zoom into the high-definition product images or to rotate them using 3D imagery. Work with a specialist web studio with experience creating websites that show off products in their best light. Include product videos too. These might be produced by the manufacturer, or they could be made in-house. For in-house, create a review of the product providing a balanced opinion on the pros and cons of it.
Pay Attention to Site Performance
Web users won’t wait for a slow website to load when other sites don’t include loading delays. Find a balance between visually impressive features and the loading time. In retail, this is more difficult because it is necessarily image heavy. However, sites can still be optimized through faster web servers and larger content delivery networks to download static files quicker.
Also, delayed lazy loading on images and video content below the fold helps to reduce the time to the first interaction. This is where it only begins loading after the visitor has scrolled down to it.
With online retail, it’s necessary to look at all the possible ways to make money. While the margins are higher than with retail stores, securing the sale is more difficult.
