jecasc - 10:24 am on May 6, 2007 (gmt 0)

There are two things you have to do if you want a good conversion rates.

1. Make sure to get more targeted traffic. For example if you are using advertisement like Google Adwords, tweak your ads so that only potential customers will click on them. Many online shops create misleading ads to get people on their webpage and hope they can convince them to make an impulse buy. In most areas this simple does not work. If you sell for example refrigerators chances someone makes an impulse buy are very low. You are simply wasting your money. Actually I would say impulse buyers are a very rare species on the internet.

2. Once you have a potential customer on your page make it easy for them to buy:

-> Create landing pages for different products and if you use advertising make sure that if you advertise "blue widgets" the customer gets on the page in your shop where he can buy "blue widgets" and not on the homepage where he has to start the search again.

-> Get straight to the point on the landing page. Use bulleted lists to get across the benefits of the product or service you are offering.

-> Include a call to action. Once you have convinced your customer to buy - tell him to do so and make it easy for him. I cannot recall how many times I left an online shop simply because I could not find the "buy button"

-> Dedicate the landing page to one product or service. Don't present widgets of manufacturer A and then tell the customer on the same page that they should also take a look at the same products from manufacturer B,C,D,E,F,G...

-> Good pictures: If you are trying to sell products without pictures - forget it. Also make sure that the pictures look professional.

-> Convince the customer that it is safe to buy from you. The site layout plays an important role in this. It has to lock professional, no spelling mistakes or grammatical errors.

-> Let the customer know with whom he is doing business. Especially in the US I have found many online businesses that do not even give an address on their website.