ReveNews
Clear Away Distractions to More Sales
Continuing my rant about how to increase sales via your shopping cart, let’s talk about eliminating distractions. Every element that takes your visitors away from completing the purchase means a potential loss of sales.
Some common distractions I see during the checkout process are:
- Mailing list sign-ups
- Flashing banners and Ad Sense
- Search boxes
- Even your clickable logo is risky!
The only links you should have on your checkout pages are ones that support and encourage the sale. For example, links to your shipping and return policies and your About Us page promotes trust and answers questions. If you do link to these pages, make those links pop a new window. That way there’s a good chance they’ll come back to complete the transaction. It also eliminates the chance of a page-refresh blanking out some or all of the shopping cart info.
Racehorse trainers use blinders to focus the horse on the one goal… to win. The horse will still run a fast race without them and maybe even win. However, in a very competitive situation like a race, the tiny advantage that blinders add makes it worthwhile to use them. The same applies to your customers. There’s no need to have all those distracting options competing for your customers’ attentions. Place blinders on your customers so they stay focused on the goal - the end of the transaction.
What distractions can you eliminate from your checkout process?
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When I consult our merchant clients on maximizing their sales position via their shopping cart, I always use the analogy of a “sales closer” in traditional sales. Someone who has mastered the art of closing a sale usually sets a mood and does everything possible to eliminate any distractions and hurdles a consumer might encounter in making a purchase decision. This article further proves this idea and provides a great deal of insight to its reader. Keep it simple, keep it clean and do everything possible to ensure that customer enters their CC information without encountering any interference.
Nice article!
Emilio Yepez
Andy Rodriguez Consulting
Emilio@andyrodriguez.com
Also remember that things like coupon code boxes cause shoppers to go looking for one. Moving the coupon insertion further up the food chain can reduce cart abandon rates.
Super Affiliates tell me that their higher conversion than the merchant is due in large part to focusing the sales process and giving the shopper what they came for. Retail website conversion is terrible at 0.5 to 2.0% because they try to cross sell, upsell but end up down selling. Conversion testing is overlooked!!
Keep on ranting!! The truth is sometimes painful, but someone has to say the emperor wears no clothes!!
Kudos, my friend!
I don’t think you can say enough about this. People go with their pride or their gut and not true evidence or even customer feedback. Great topic.