When you run a tiny online retail operation, there is little room for mistakes. You could set yourself back a year simply by overlooking how your website navigation is difficult to use for how well your PPC plan works.
Successful online retail stores get that way by constantly and tirelessly testing every part of their business to see if everything works as intended. What kind of tests do you need, you ask?
Test your Website and your Business Processes
One of the greatest challenges that you face as a small retail business involves getting people to trust you. People entering your website wonder if your store could fail after they pay, for instance. They also worry about the safety of their financial information. Your main mantra running an online retail store, then, should be to do everything in your power to inspire trust.
To offer a smooth, fast and efficient user experience is one important way to come to gain trust. Every webpage should look well-designed and should work exactly as intended. You need to test your website constantly to make sure that nothing seems to stall. Monitoring and testing your supply chain arrangement, customer returns, customer service and every other step that you can think of is part of the arrangement.
Test Different Policy Statements
Research indicates that 30% of the population doesn’t buy online simply because of trust issues. Every word on your website and every design feature needs to work towards building trust. You need a great, well-written About Us page, a thoughtful Privacy Policy page and prominently posted information on refunds and returns. A website like NextDayLenses.com is a good example of how friendly policy statements can contribute to a successful online retail website. Testing different plans for these pages can bring results.
Test your Business Plan
Some businesses focus on a niche market – with no more than one or two products. Others offer a whole range. If you deal in multiple products and services, it is likely that your homepage tries to highlight a number of them. While this approach might work with a large retailer, it usually translates to lower sales with small ones.
Small retailers often find that focusing tightly on one product or one clutch of products helps them devote a great deal of attention to it. They are able to align themselves to their customers better.
Small online retailers need to test their website with no more than one or two products on the homepage to see if it makes a difference.
Test your email sign-up opt-ins
Every online retailer realizes that getting visitors to sign up for email notifications and newsletters is great idea. They often don’t realize, though, that where they place their email sign-up box can make a huge difference.
Some retail sites put up a screen overlay when a visitor arrives. Others have a little form on the upper right. Yet others only ask for a sign-up when visitors actually buy something.
All of these are valid approaches. Yet, they don’t all work equally well for everyone. You need to test what kind of approach works best for you.
Try promoting different product benefits in your headlines
While people read magazine promotional material, they only skim when they look at web-based commercial material. Often, the headline of an ad or sales material is all they ever see. Retailers need to test all the time to find out what benefits their headlines should promote.
Elizabeth Garvey enjoys helping businesses get their online presence right. Her articles mainly appear on business and website design blogs.