Turn online shop guests into buying customers!

Turning Visitors into Buyers

The biggest challenge of online shops is getting people who visit the pages to makes purchases.

"For the modern consumer, time is a scarce commodity, so you have to offer them nifty solutions. Keep it simple!" advises Carin Blom, an e-commerce specialist at PostNord in Sweden.

Growing the rate of conversion is related to a few general things that you'll want to take into consideration.

First, products have to be easy to find, and anything that deters the decision to buy has to be minimized.

Second, the shopping process has to be made simple for the customer; you'll want to start with a streamlined payment solution.

Finally, getting to choose from several delivery options can increase customer confidence in your online shop.

The Payment Transaction

Offering simple ways of payment is crucially important so that the customer will decide to buy the product, feeling secure during both the purchase transaction and the possible returns process.

"A relatively large number of mistakes happen while establishing operations, and one of them has to do with ways of payment," says Anders Halvarsson, an e-commerce professional. "If you open a shop in Denmark without offering the option of paying with a Dankort card, you'll be eliminating a great number of potential buyers."

The rule of thumb is simplicity: payment shouldn't become an obstacle for making an online purchase.

• Use established payment methods that increase customer confidence in the secure processing of payment cards and personally identifiable information.
• Since different countries prefer different ways of payment, do give your customers some options (ranging all the way from the invoice to paying through an online bank).

Order Confirmation

Sending an order confirmation is a good way of deepening the customer relationship, since it opens direct contact with the customer. It also increases customer satisfaction and the customer's feeling of security.

• The order confirmation has to be sent immediately in connection with the order, and it has to specify the content of the order, the price and both means and time of delivery.
• The challenge is estimating the time needed for internal logistics. If the products are in stock, how long will it take to assemble them and pack them? When can shipments be handed over to a carrier for delivery?
• It is important to know your own target group and be able to anticipate what kind of information customers will want, how much and how often.