The goal of any eCommerce business owner is to make money. You might develop a high-quality website, advertise desirable products, and put time and effort into marketing to drive traffic to your site. These steps can undoubtedly set you up for success, but not every eCommerce business owner will be impressed by their conversion rate.
Whether you’re confused by poor sales or want to ensure the best chance of success going forward, here are some of the most crucial factors affecting eCommerce sales.
Shipping Costs and Timeframes
Cart abandonment is a genuine problem eCommerce business owners face. Often, it relates to how much shipping will cost and, sometimes, how long shipping will take. Thankfully, if you align yourself with a quality fulfillment company, you can avoid such problems.
Some of the best fulfillment companies have access to competitive shipping rates, which means you can pass those savings on to consumers. You should also enjoy faster shipping timeframes if you ensure you have stock spread across multiple warehouses.
Product Quality
While price is undoubtedly one of the most crucial factors affecting eCommerce sales, product quality is also central. Shoppers don’t want to purchase inferior products, especially when the price doesn’t reflect the quality.
Before opening your eCommerce store and selling goods, research the products you’ll be stocking. Receive samples, trial them yourself, and ensure their robustness and desirability before offering them to your customers. You can then confidently make sales, knowing your consumers will get as much joy out of the products as you do.
Competitive Pricing
There are millions of eCommerce websites bringing in sales surpassing $5.2 trillion. The sheer volume of competition means site owners must continuously compare pricing to ensure they can compete with other eCommerce stores and physical businesses.
Savvy online shoppers like to shop around, and if they can find something you stock much cheaper elsewhere, they’re unlikely to return to your store, knowing they aren’t going to get the best deals.
Online Reviews
Surveys have found that 90% of online shoppers will read reviews before purchasing a product. If those reviews are overwhelmingly negative, they might choose not to go through with the sale.
While you can’t control the reviews people post, you can control the contents of those reviews. For example, if you notice that they are focused on specific things like shipping timeframes and product quality, address those issues to benefit from more positive reviews in the future. You might even like to respond to reviews directly to show other potential customers that you take negative feedback seriously and care about fixing problems.
Site Quality
It’s easy to assume that offering customers the ability to purchase awesome things from your website is all you need to enjoy a consistent sales stream. However, website quality counts for a lot. Your site should be secure, easy to navigate, uncluttered, and beautifully organized.
Customers should be able to quickly find the products they want to purchase and receive clear information regarding shipping, returns policies, and product descriptions. They should also be able to filter their results to enhance the shopping process, such as organizing goods from high to low or vice versa, depending on their budget.
You need more than just an eCommerce site to enjoy sales success. You have to put time and effort into creating a desirable shopping environment. Focus on the factors above, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to satisfy customer needs.
Image Credits: rupixen.com
Like this article? Share with your friends!