Mobile commerce is all the rage right now. In 2013 alone, the overall e-commerce transactions topped $1 trillion. The first quarter of 2014 saw a 35% increase in global e-commerce transactions as compared to the same time last year.  Yet in a lot of cases just because you have an e-commerce capably site doesn’t mean you are making all the sales you need your site to.

Here’s a few quick tips to help you increase your sales.

1. Be upfront about shipping and other processing costs

Nearly 50% of users abandon their transactions when they can’t immediately find shipping costs, delivery dates or other important product details. The biggest mistake that many sellers commit is leaving this important information for the final checkout page.

Adding this information earlier on in the checkout process can prevent the frustration some users feel when faced with high shipping or processing fees right before they press the purchase button.

2. Speed up your site

Page speed is a critical performance factor for any website. But maybe most important for  when it comes to eCommerce sites. Many studies show that buyers are willing to wait for about 3 seconds on average before abandoning a site.  This becomes a problem when you realize that almost 80% of those who leave your site, will never come back.  There are many online programs that will help you test you site speed and give you tips on how to better optimize your site.

You can use Google’s Page Speed tool to analyze your page speed. Or get our full site audit.

3. Make it Mobile Friendly

Considering that mobile commerce is the fastest growing segment of eCommerce,  ignoring mobile and smartphone users is just asking for trouble.

For this reason it’s critical that your shopping cart app, your sales landing page and the product pages are all responsive and/or  mobile friendly. Responsive websites and apps adjust automatically to the dimensions of the device they’re viewed on. While mobile sites are dedicated just for mobile devices. There are pros and cons to either solution, the most important thing is to have a solution.

4. Make it Secure

Whether your company  is big or small security is an issue. With the rise in online transactions, there has also been a steep rise in the different forms of online security threats to buyers.  Many shoppers are reluctant to put their personal data out there given the number of recent data breaches.

Your shopping cart needs to be integrated with a payment service that is well known, like PayPal or Master Card, a system that will ensure the security of all its transactions.  You also might want to try to minimize your own exposure by minimizing the amount of information required from your buyers at the time of purchase.  This will not only aid in limiting you customers exposure it will increase the likelihood of a customer not getting frustrated and abandoning your form.

Conclusion

 eCommerce is on a steep rise throughout the world. Now is the time for your to implement your solutions and fully benefit from it. You can do this by establishing a modern, user friendly, responsive and secure shopping process. Without a memorable user experience, you might become one of the many online sellers who lose buyers just because of a poor buying process.

Having an effective call to action is an essential part of any effective website. A call to action is not just limited to e-commerce sites. Every website should have an objective it wants users to complete whether it is filling in a contact form, signup for a newsletter or volunteering their time.

A call to action provides…

• Focus to your site
• A way to measure your sites success
• Direction to your users

Here are a few  techniques which help achieve just that.

1. Lay the groundwork

Before a user is willing to complete a call to action they have to recognise the need. Infomercials do this very well. Before they ask people to respond, they first identify a problem and present a product that solves that problem.

You also need to communicate the benefits of responding. What will the user get out of completing the call to action?

Take for example the VoIP service Skype. Immediately above their call to action (a download button) they have the following text:

2. Offer a little extra

Sometimes you may have to sweeten the deal to encourage users to complete a call to action.

Incentives could include discounts, entry into a competition or a free gift.

3. Have a small number of distinct actions

It is also important to be focused in your calls to action. Too many and the user becomes overwhelmed. Studies in supermarkets have shown that if the shopper is presented with too many varieties they are less likely to make a purchase.

By limiting the number of choices a user has to make we reduce the amount of mental effort. Effectively you guide the user around the site step by step.

The number of appropriate actions will vary from site to site. However, it is not so much the number of actions as the distinctiveness of each.

4. Use active urgent language

A call to action should clearly tell users what you want them to do. They should include active words such as:

• Call
• Buy
• Register
• Subscribe
• Donate

All of these encourage users to take an action.

To create a sense of urgency and a need to act now, these words can be used alongside phrases such as:

• Offer expires March 31st
• For a short time only
• Order now and receive a free gift

5. Use an alternative colour

Color is an effective way of drawing attention to elements, especially if the rest of the site has a fairly limited palette. Of course never rely solely on colour because many users are colour blind and will not see the contrast.

7. Make it big

As web designers we often get annoyed with clients who ask us to make things bigger. It is certainly true that size isn’t everything. We have already established that position, colour and white space are equally important.

However it cannot be denied that size does play a large part. The bigger your call to action, the more chance it will be noticed.

8. Carry the call through

Finally, consider what happens when a user does respond to your call to action. The rest of the process needs to be as carefully thought through as the call to action itself.

One particular word of warning – if you require users to provide personal data about themselves, resist the temptation to collect unnecessary information.

Marketing people in particular like to build up demographic information. Although I can appreciate the value of this, it brings a danger users will drop out of the process.

Conclusions

An effective call to action is the linchpin of a successful site and involves drawing together best practice in usability, creative visual design and powerful copy writing.

However, if it is done right it can generate real measurable return on investment and in the current economic climate that is what we all want. As always, if you need help. Drop us a line.

Photo by Sean MacEntee

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Google announced  yesterday a suite for business owners, offering them a one-stop shop to update their business information, add photos, read reviews and, of course, use Google+. The service replace Google Places and is called “Google My Business.” Google My Business seems to be aimed at those who have yet to figure out how to “get on Google” so to speak; in fact, there’s a button that even uses that same expression.

Users you were previously on  Places for Business or using Google+ dashboard will now be upgraded to Google My Business.

After signing up and filling in the requisite information, Google My Business will add the business information to Google Search, Google Maps and Google+, allowing customers to find the business no matter what device or service they happen to be using at the time. Companies are also invited to add photos and virtual tours, read and respond to their Google reviews, as well as add or correct business information like address, phone, store hours and more.

The service also pulls in custom insights and integrations with AdWords Express, which will help business owners better understand how people are finding their business on Google, what they’re clicking on, where they’re coming from when clicking on directions, and other trends over time. The insights, meanwhile, are designed to give businesses, as well as brands and other organizations, more information about their Google+ audience and content, including visibility, engagement metrics, and demographic data.

Welcome to our first post. Today we are talking about why it’s important to plan your site and web strategy before you begin to build.

The first step in creating anything on the web is the most important and perhaps the most difficult step. You have to decide what to do and why you are doing it. It’s not enough, to know you need a website or social media real estate. You have to think about why.

Price Is Not The Most Important Thing.

Too often, companies simply hire someone to build something similar to what another company has, and while said company might get a usable product, they miss an opportunity to really move their business forward and create  momentum with their vision.

In the biz we often hear, ‘How much is this going to cost?’ before anything and everything else. But the real question isn’t how much should I pay to get my company online, it should be: What do I want my web presence to do? How can it help my company.  Answering those questions will help you create a better tool for your company and in the end will also inform how much you end up spending on a web solution.

Goals Set The Tone

Don’t begin to build your web presence just because you think you aught to have one. While we think you do  🙂  , its more important to have a goal for the site and other web application than to actually have them at all.

So whether you’re launching a new site, rethinking an old one, or trying to add to your web real estate, you should start with two questions that will crystallize your goals.

Why does my organization need this web solution?

What do my visitors/prospect need out of this solution?

If you answer these questions  everything else should will fall into place.