You have been trying out many ways to lift up your lower-than-industry- average conversion rates. However, you still feel frustrated because it has not improved much. If that is the case, you might have been neglecting the following mistakes. Being left unresolved, they cost you more money than you think.
1. Hidden and expensive shipping fees
We’re sure that you have bought something online at some point and felt angry because the shipping costs for your orders were ridiculously high. In the end, you probably did not make those purchases because you felt that you were scammed. You know how it feels, and customers’ perspectives should be taken in account in the decision making process of businesses. Frankly speaking, buyers hate hidden fees, which usually refer to those that are mentioned nowhere before the check-out process. Hidden fees often hurt your conversion rates as well as overall customer satisfaction.
What you should do
To avoid this pitfall, you should clearly provide the shipping fees on the product pages. This can also be stated in your shipping policy section. However, it is not always possible to calculate an accurate rate. In that case, you may give estimated amounts and inform your customers that the rates are not accurate unless specific information such as shipping address is provided.
Another thing that you should keep in mind is that many sellers give free shipping to stay competitive in the marketplace. If you cannot offer free shipping for every order, you could do so for orders with a certain minimum value. This would encourage shoppers to purchase more items, thus boosting your average order value. Moreover, it also brings a more satisfactory shopping experience to your customers because we humans tend to react positively to ‘free’ options. This threshold varies across sectors, so as a store owner, you should conduct some market research to find out an acceptable shipping rate while maintaining your profit level. For instance, stores selling affordable cosmetics and skincare usually offer free shipping for orders valued more than $30 while the amount is around $70 for clothing and footwear.
2. Poor customer support
People in today’s world are often bombarded with biased advertisements and other forms of marketing. As an alternative, consumers are increasingly looking out for reviews and opinions from authentic buyers when they intend to buy an item. This is why businesses should care about their clients because reviews and word-of-mouth can have a strong influence over their brand and reputation. According to studies conducted by both McKinsey Institute and Boston Consulting Group, word-of-mouth, including online conversations among consumers, is among the most influential drivers in consumers’ decisions.
More specifically, If your customers are happy with their purchases at your store and how you help them to resolve their issues, they are likely to do you a favor by marketing your brand for free (i.e. spreading good words about your business). In contrast, delivering them a bad experience costs you both the customer himself/herself and most likely those who trust his/her judgements.
What you should do
You are encouraged to invest in hiring and training your customer service team. In particular, you should equip them with a thorough understanding about your store and your products so that they can best advise your customers should there be any inquiries or concerns. If your budget allows and you would like to provide the best experience to your buyers, you can offer live (as opposed to auto chatbox) and 24/7 support. However, this might be hard to implement if you are resource-constrained, so you can also consider hiring Virtual Assistants (VAs). Ideally, you should respond to customers’ messages within 24 hours. If you don’t have the answer right away, explain the situation to them and promise to get back to them as soon as you can.
3. Lack of product content and particulars
Customers usually would like to have a good understanding about products and/or services on which they intend to spend their money. Therefore, a product page with detailed descriptions of features and highlights is necessary. If customers cannot find the information they need in your store, they are likely to search for it somewhere else on the Internet, which is filled with similar items to yours, leading to a low conversion rate or cart abandonment to your business.
What you should do
You are advised to make the content and visuals on the product pages as relevant as possible to the customers. For this to be well executed, you should look at the items from the consumer perspective. For instance, you should think about what level of detailedness and what kind of information that a customer would need to make their final decision on buying a particular product. One general tip is to introduce how the products would help to solve their pain points.
A good product page should contain:
Product highlights
Main features
Specifications, if applicable
Images and videos taken from multiple angles
Reviews from past buyers
Additionally, you should also do A/B testing where you publish multiple versions of the product pages, then collect and analyse the data to find out which is most preferred by shoppers.
Do you feel like you are juggling multiple roles within your business? Let us help you with tedious logistics matters so you can focus on growing and scaling your business. Contact Xianchao Logistics today to get all the support you need. With 30+ years of experience in logistics industry and 5+ years in dropshipping sector, we strive to solve your pain points, ranging from product & supplier sourcing to ecommerce order fulfillment, or branded packaging & private labelling to quality inspection & product certification. Please feel free to reach out to us if you need to know any details about partnering with us.
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