5 mistakes that make people turn away from your online shop
The real reason why you’re struggling to drive sales
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Poor or generic images, suspicious reviews and an unspiring e-shopping environment and have a critical impact on your business. Here are some innovative ways you can turn the tides.
E-commerce is tough and the competition is heating up. While it doesn’t have to be complicated to build a website and get the basic functionality in place, getting quality traffic and increasing dwell time are just some of the hurdles that online merchants need to overcome.
Below are some of the most common problems, do you recognize them?
Reason #1: You’re not building a community
It takes a lot of effort to build customer loyalty and perhaps even more so in e-commerce where the transaction is more anonymous in comparison with physical shops where customers can see, hear and speak to the representatives from the company. With new websites popping up every day, it can be difficult to keep up with the competition and really build trust.
Building customer loyalty is a lot about creating and maintaining a community. And not just in social media, but everywhere. Offline and online, on your website, in your physical stores and on Instagram. Traditional advertising and outbound is still a cornerstone in marketing, but starting conversations and improving your inbound marketing is what can really make your customers come back and remain loyal in the long run.
Reason #2: You’re not spending enough time or money
You already know that quality is more important than quantity. But great marketing campaigns and quality content takes time and resources to produce. With tougher algorithms in social media, businesses are increasingly forced to pay to be seen. For startups with a limited marketing budget, this can be a tough challenge to overcome.
Reason #3: Your customers abandon their carts
Your customers throw items in their cart, but leave it there. How do you get them to complete the journey? No matter how much you optimize, cart abandonment rate just won’t go down. This can be very frustrating.
Reason #4: Your images are boring and your reviews look suspicious
Your product images are not convincing or are lacking in details. A customer will want to examine a new item from different angles and in different context. Generic stock images that make it difficult to judge what the product will look like in real life can have the opposite effect.
Suspicious reviews are contrary to common belief not the same as negative reviews, but rather reviews that seem artificial or simply not real. Displaying both negative and positive reviews will build customer trust more than a page with only five- or four-star reviews.
Reason #5: Your site looks like one in a million
An online shop will by default have a certain standard functionality like a buy button and product pages, but differentiating your brand from your competitors is crucial to close deals and increase customer loyalty. A common challenge for online merchants is to create a shopping experience that is intuitive with buttons and pages that are familiar to the visitor but still inspiring.
Time to take action
While there are no magic one-size-fits-all solutions, there are things you can do to improve the chances of turning the tides.
Solution #1: Showcase your products in a different way
As a brand, you want to display your items in a certain way, but keep in mind that your visitors and customers can easily find information about your products or services from other online sources. By instead acknowledging that there are alternative ways of using and displaying your products or services, your will strengthen your community and build customer trust. Do some research on Instagram and check what content your customers are already producing, and how you can use this in your brand communication.
Solution #2: Inspire with real life photos from actual customers
You don’t have to produce all content yourself. By using user-generated content you can decrease the amount of time and resources spent on creating branded content for marketing campaigns. While sticking to your brand guidelines is crucial when it comes to brand awareness and alignment, having a flexible approach and showcasing real life non-branded photos from real customers can according to several studies increase the conversion rate as well as improve brand engagement.
Solution #3: Humanize your brand and dare to be authentic
People buy from people, and building customer loyalty online can be a little more tough. Show that there are people behind your brand, show photos of your staff, display your phone number and business address and let your customers know how and when they can reach you. Content marketing is also a great way to humanize a brand, and an easy way to to this is by starting a company blog.
Avoid filtering out certain type of reviews in order to convey a positive brand image, as it will likely seem artificial and construed. When you have the courage to be real and authentic you will be rewarded with returning customers and a more loyal community.
Solution #4: Use content everywhere — not just on your product pages
To differentiate your brand from your competitors, you need to also do something different. While certain things must be conventional to create a user-friendly experience, consider which parts of the customer journey that can be altered. Don’t stick to just product pages, look at the whole process from A to Z. Content such as user-generated photos can be a great source of inspiration on for example order or delivery confirmations or on the start page. Think outside the box!
Want to know more about how user-generated content can help you grow your business? Let’s talk!
Written by: Helena Nordh Myhrman, Head of Content at Flowbox
