Sell­ing Goods On­line? Guess Who Your Best Friend Is?

A few decades ago, the idea of be­ing able to pur­chase things in­stantly through a com­puter from the com­fort of home seemed im­pos­si­bly far-fetched.

When on­line shop­ping be­came a re­al­ity, the mere fact that you could or­der what you needed from home made it in­stantly popular.

The nov­elty has worn off, though, and con­sumers are more de­mand­ing - and dis­cern­ing - than ever.

If you’d like to suc­cess­fully sell things on­line, your web­site needs to be way more than a cat­a­log. It needs to make up for the fact that it’s not a brick-and-mor­­tar store. Do­ing that is eas­ier than you think.

The Perks of Buy­ing Online

There’s no ques­tion that peo­ple love be­ing able to or­der what they need on­line, but you should­n’t as­sume that you can get away with merely of­fer­ing that to your cus­tomers. On­line or­der­ing saves peo­ple a lot of time; it makes it eas­ier for them to com­par­i­son shop too.

Many peo­ple swear that they get much bet­ter deals by shop­ping on­line. You can and should play up these ben­e­fits as much as pos­si­ble, but you need to do more too.

Buy­ing On­line ver­sus Buy­ing in Person

As nice as it is to be able to shop for what you need in your pa­ja­mas, there are some def­i­nite draw­backs to buy­ing cer­tain things on­line. You can’t ac­tu­ally han­dle the mer­chan­dise, for in­stance, so you have to hope that it’s as good as it looks online.

Al­though peo­ple some­times com­plain about over-ea­ger sales­peo­ple, their ab­sence is of­ten felt when shop­ping on­line. You can’t turn to an ac­tual hu­man to ask for assistance.

Your Mis­sion? Bridge the Gap be­tween Buy­ing On­line and Buy­ing in Person

You can prob­a­bly do quite well for your­self by sim­ply of­fer­ing peo­ple a way to buy what they need through your website.

Why set­tle for „quite well,” how­ever, when the sky’s the limit?

By ad­dress­ing the most com­mon com­plaints that peo­ple have about buy­ing on­line and repli­cat­ing the ex­pe­ri­ence of buy­ing in per­son as closely as pos­si­ble, you can be a real stand­out in the world of on­line retail.

With a few small, sim­ple steps, you can of­fer your cus­tomers a truly un­beat­able on­line shop­ping experience:

• Be De­scrip­tive - You may have the best prod­ucts on the planet, but on­line shop­pers can’t han­dle them to see for them­selves. They can’t reach through their com­puter screens to check out the mer­chan­dise in per­son, but you can make up for that a lot by be­ing as de­scrip­tive as pos­si­ble. Fur­ther­more, you need to re­ally sell your prod­ucts. Use de­scrip­tions that are en­gag­ing, in­ter­est­ing and informative.
• It’s All About Pho­tos - If you rely on thum­b­­nail-sized im­ages to show peo­ple what your prod­ucts are like, you’re do­ing it wrong. It’s okay to use thumb­nails, but they should open up into much larger im­ages when peo­ple click on them. It’s also nice to al­low peo­ple to zoom in on im­ages for closer looks. Don’t set­tle for one or two im­ages of each prod­uct. In­clude plenty of pho­tos from many dif­fer­ent an­gles. De­pend­ing on the item, you may also want to in­clude a photo of some­one hold­ing, wear­ing or us­ing it as well.
• Cre­ate Demo Videos - In some cases, the best way to re­ally show a per­son what a prod­uct is all about is by cre­at­ing a demo video. This may seem like a tall or­der, but these videos don’t need to be slickly pro­duced. They just need to show peo­ple what the prod­uct is all about, and they can be short and sweet.
• En­gage Your Au­di­ence - Your web­site should be more than an e-com­merce des­ti­na­tion. It should add value to peo­ple’s lives by teach­ing them about the prod­ucts and ser­vices that your com­pany pro­vides. This can be done with well-writ­ten, in­ter­est­ing and in­for­ma­tive ar­ti­cles, blog posts and videos. Be sure to in­te­grate these posts with so­cial me­dia for max­i­mum effect.
• Be Ac­ces­si­ble - One of the top com­plaints about shop­ping on­line is be­ing un­able to get help when it’s needed. Email sup­port is suit­able in some cases, but peo­ple of­ten need help right away. Phone sup­port is a great so­lu­tion, but many folks are loathe to switch from the screen to the phone. The best way to ad­dress this is­sue is by of­fer­ing sup­port via live chat. Live chat soft­ware is more so­phis­ti­cated and eas­ier to use than ever, so make sure to avail your­self of it.
• Sim­plify the Re­turns Process - An­other rea­son peo­ple some­times dread shop­ping on­line is be­cause they’re wor­ried they’ll have trou­ble re­turn­ing things. Go out of your way to make the re­turns process as easy as pos­si­ble, and make it clear that re­turns are han­dled quickly. Don’t bury your re­turns pol­icy on some ran­dom page of your web­site. Put it up front and center.

By com­bin­ing the best as­pects of on­line shop­ping and shop­ping in brick-and-mor­­tar stores, you will be able to achieve un­par­al­leled suc­cess. When in doubt, put your­self in your ideal cus­tomer’s shoes. How sat­is­fied would you be with the ex­pe­ri­ence? You’ll know whether or not you’re on the right track by an­swer­ing that sim­ple question.