Online retail has been with us for a few years now, yet some retailers still struggle with some old habits. These habits typically come from years of in-person sales, and even though some techniques might work great when presented by a salesperson, they can and will hinder your online store.
We have compiled the top 5 mistakes made by online retailers so that you get ahead.
BONUS: Some of these are automatically countered by the Lifeboat platform.
1. NOT displaying or having in-correct prices
This is by far the most common mistake made by online retailers, that have a background of sales through
Facebook or similar sales channels. The idea behind such a technique is to trigger engagement, and give space for potentially up-selling the customer with more products or services. Some also use this technique because they believe it will give them a competitive advantage.
Such a technique isn't effective when running your online store, and actually has a huge detriment on your online sales. When using this technique as a sales person, you typically want to have an in-person conversation and adapt your pitch, based on the receiver's body language and reception of the service/product.
In online sales, you have a few seconds to make the sale. Not providing crucial information such as price is a suicidal move.
BONUS
In Lifeboat all the price information is mandatory, to make sure you don't hurt your online sales.
2. Low quality or missing images
My art teacher used to preach this; "A picture tells a 1000 words", and in online sales, it can't be more true.
On average 70% of your customers will NOT know what they are interested in buying before they land on your site. They might know the category and some specs about the item they are looking for, but ultimately very few are looking for an exact item. By providing accurate and high definition images your potential customers are much more likely to make a purchase.
BONUS
In Lifeboat you can upload up to 10 high-res images per product. We encourage you to have at least 5 per product.
3. NOT providing adequate shipping options
Wherever you are in the world, you probably had to deal with a shipping company that simply wasn't great. It happens, a delivery person might have had a bad day, the company might have had some technical issues... Bottom line is that you had a bad perception of that company. Now imagine going to a website where the only shipping provider is that company...
BONUS
In Lifeboat you can specify multiple shipping providers for each product group.
4. Un-responsive support
At some point, someone is going to make a mistake or have a question. This is when you should be ready to take in that call and put those years of sales experience to use.
If your customer support is on point, the customer will not only gladly buy from you again but, chances are they will recommend your store. FREE MARKETING. We as humans love when people treat us well, and absolutely despise being ignored.
BONUS
In Lifeboat you can setup multiple support channels, and we'll automatically notify your customer with important changes to their orders.
5. Long shipping times
This is the no.1 cause why people don't use your store again
Just put yourself in the customer's shoes. They saw an ad of your product, or are jealous of a friend for having this item. You have this product for sale, the customer goes and buys it on impulse. To later find out you will ship his/her item in 3 weeks! He/she will be PISSED. Bad reviews will start flying in, and in a matter of a few hours/days, you have a PR nightmare to deal with it. Why? You broke an un-disclosed promise; "When I buy on impulse, I expect you to share my enthusiasm for the product".
BONUS
This is the main reason, why we at Lifeboat are very hesitant to get into Dropshipping. Dropshipping typically carries the down side of very long delivery times.
