Five-Part E-Commerce Questionnaire

Have you taken a good look at your e-commerce business lately? If you’re not getting the sales that you think you should get, take a quick glance at these five questions to see if you can improve in even one area of your online business to make more money.

Are You Using an Abandoned Cart Strategy?

Every single e-commerce store, regardless of size, needs an abandoned cart strategy. An estimated 70% of online consumers leave filled shopping carts. We have to work hard to recapture these lost sales. A lot of e-commerce providers have some sort of abandoned cart option that lets you send gentle reminders or special offers.

reduce cart abandonmentGreaterGood’s Animal Rescue site sent me the following email the day after I left something in their shopping cart: “Still Thinking? Let Us Sweeten The Deal!” Then they offered me free shipping. Of course, to help make it so that they don’t abandon the cart in the first place, try using a third-party trust seal that shows the potential customer that you are a legitimate company that cares about their customers.

Are You Paying Too Much?

Not all e-commerce providers are the same. Never assume that they charge the same price.  There are many choices in the eCommerce universe. The fee for each PayPal transaction is 2.9% plus $0.30 USD of the amount you receive. Etsy charges a listing fee of $0.20 USD plus a transaction fee of 3.5% of the displayed price (there may be additional shipping costs depending on your location). Shopify’s Basic Plan is $29 per month plus 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction. There’re a lot of variables. Look at how much you are spending each month and if there are any cheaper options you could use instead. For example, companies like

Shopify’s Basic Plan is $29 per month plus 2.9% and 30¢ per transaction. There’re a lot of variables. Look at how much you are spending each month and if there are any cheaper options you could use instead. For example, companies like iTransact can help you run digital payments through ACH, charging less than a dollar per transaction regardless of the price of the transaction!

Where Can You Add New Sales Options?

The world of e-commerce is always evolving. New technology comes out often and creates entirely new profit streams. That’s why it’s essential to see where you could add a sales options and what gives you the best chance for sales. Knowing this helps you determine where you should spend the majority of your time, effort, and marketing budget.

Many e-commerce providers now have the ability to add a sales option directly into YouTube videos. Maybe you want a Facebook store or an Instagram store (Facebook owns Instagram so you can easily make an Instagram store using a business Facebook page). There are many, many places to sell online. Make sure you’re focusing on the right options for your market.

What’s Your Checkout Process Like?

Shoppers don’t want to wait. They don’t want a lengthy checkout process. We live in an instant gratification world. Shoppers simply want to press a button and get their stuff. Blame Amazon with their incredibly useful “buy now button.”

Make sure your checkout process isn’t difficult, frustrating or challenging. If your e-commerce provider doesn’t have some type of “buy now” button, give consumers a clearly marked and direct route to the “confirm order” button. Go through the entire process yourself. Compare it to your competitor’s checkout process. Do everything in your power to streamline this incredibly important aspect of any online business.

Can You Add an Up-sell Option?

Have you ever bought a medium-sized movie theater popcorn without offered a large for just a little more? Movie theaters understand the power of upselling. Who can resist an extra large for only a $1 more? Adding an upselling offer is a simple and powerful way to increase sales. Just remember it’s not another step in the sales process, as upselling needs it’s own strategy.

Keep it simple, straightforward, and logical. Don’t forget it’s very easy for customers to click away from your site at any point. Create a system that flows and makes sense to your customer. See what types of upselling or even cross-selling options your e-commerce provider offers and take advantage of these opportunities to increase your profitability.

The time you spend analyzing, testing and evaluating your e-commerce system can save money and increase your profits. Never be satisfied with a system. And never assume your system is the best and can’t be improved. My brother owns Trust Guard. It is the leader in website security. Still, he A/B tests everything – even pages and processes that are making him tons of money – just on the off chance that some other step or color or font or size works better.

Maybe you’d rather spend your time focused on creating new products or connecting with customers than running through this questionnaire to improve your e-commerce processes. That’s fine. Just remember that everything in your business is connected.

Thanks Huffington Post for your article from Liesha Petrovich on e-commerce strategies.

You may also like...

rolex replica watches