Some businesses with online stores often lose that certain something that makes customers enjoy shopping with them.
Little to no information about the businesses personal service, the added benefits to shopping with them such as a 60-day returns policy, money back guarantees, free delivery, personal fitting or installation, well protected packaging, order notifications, information about the founder and the businesses aims and objectives. All of those areas are incredibly powerful selling points that add tremendous value to your online store and products. Each benefit will increase your chances of converting a customer into a sale while keeping to your promises in both good and bad occasions will ensure that you win a customer for life.
If you fail to promote the added benefits that come with shopping through your website and dealing with your brand, then the customer will be none the wiser and shop purely based on price. The customer will probably consider how the site looks, feels and how easy it is to use. Of course those are benefits and will certainly help matters, but to ensure that growth is achieved and that your website improves its conversion rates, you will need to highlight those added benefits to your service.
You may question this at first and possibly even wonder why most other websites do not do this, the answer is simple, it’s because those are the companies that are missing out on this opportunity. What better way to increase your conversion rates without needing to change anything else within your business than by implementing a simple solution such as this?
It’s important to remember that people do not always buy on price, in fact for most businesses it is a very small proportion of customers that buy purely on price.
Think about it logically, when you buy paper, where do you buy it? Staples Amazon, Viking Direct? All of those are not the cheapest providers of paper, but why do you buy from those places? It’s likely to be one of these reasons:
- You own a store card
- You were passing the store
- You already have an account set up
- You have used them before
- You saw their advert on TV
- You have received marketing material from them before
- You trust the brand
- The website is easy to use
- The website accepts PayPal payments
- The website looks trustworthy
- You need to order other bits that they sell as well
- They offer full refunds on purchases made within the past 30 days
- A purchase qualifies you to enter this months free draw
- You know someone that works there
- You saw their adverts on social media
- You saw their adverts within search
- They have hundreds of positive reviews
- The paper can be delivered to your door
- They were awarded best retailer of the year
- They accept several payment formats
The list could go on and on and you can quite quickly see from this list that people do not just buy based on price. It’s your duty to ensure that your business and website is portrayed in a professional manner. That your business fulfills its promises, that you keep in contact with your customers, that your business qualifies for as many of the points above as possible and most importantly that you make it very clear to your current and potential customers the benefits offered by shopping through your website.
It’s at this stage, when people know more about your business and what added benefits you provide over others, that people will look less closely to sheer price comparisons and towards the actual benefits associated with dealing with your company.
We often find that such important and powerful customer service principles are lost through the set-up of an e-commerce store that markets those points poorly.
Your website should make those points clear to customers, either through a small section of the home page, certainly through a dedicated services page and if possible include the most relevant and powerful messages within the product page itself.
Take further consideration as to how your business benefits its customers and the strategies you are going to use to incorporate key messages within your website and marketing material. This is the most powerful solution to fighting price busting poor quality competitors.