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35 ways to improve sales

Classic advice from e-commerce master Sam Decker, now CEO of Mass Relevance, originally published in 2004 and still relevant:

Can I find that item I’m looking for?

  • Tune your internal search engine to match top search terms to product pages.
  • Put top sellers on home page. People buy on impulse or recommendation.
  • Match the landing page to the marketing campaign. Use vanity urls for offline advertising.
  • Test your categories, naming and navigation with customers. They’re less intuitive than you think.

Can I find something that interests me?

  • Put top sellers on home page.
  • Add related items to a product view.
  • Add relevant, topical-based shopping navigation or search.
  • Add interactivity to pull visitors into your site or a page.

Do I really want this product?

  • Display larger product pictures.
  • Show the product in action.
  • Headline the results your product promises.
  • Feature benefits in the copy.
  • Make it easy to read – bullets, short sentences/paragraphs, conversational.
  • Add substantiated recommendations (“4 out of 5 dentists…”).

Can I get it for the right price?

  • Add a limited time promotion to a product or category.
  • Use Free Shipping (#1 online promotion).
  • Show a good, better, best options.
  • Show comparisons to competitors.
  • Slash through pricing.
  • Repeat the deal or promotion on every page.

Can I trust this company?

  • Clean up the site design.
  • Add testimonials.
  • Add security certifications.
  • Add affiliations.
  • Get listings in BizRate, Froogle, Epinions, etc.
  • Show your personality.
  • Increase the font size.
  • Less is more.
  • Highlight your money back guarantee.
  • Include privacy, contact us, about us pages.
  • Add a phone number.

Can I checkout easily?

  • Add a call to action on every page.
  • Copy the best-practices in cart and checkout.
  • Add reassurance statements (security, guarantee, etc.).
  • Add a phone number on every page.

Read the full original post here.

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