Weekly Business Tip #7 from Snap Finance: How to Optimize Your E-Commerce Channel

Furniture World News Desk on 10/30/2020

With over 75% of U.S. adults shopping online, e-commerce is here to stay. To help your website stand out, attract new visitors, and boost conversion rates it must provide a great customer experience. There are multiple ways to create an appealing website that drives sales — from utilizing search engine optimization (SEO) to including customer reviews. To make things easier, we’ve created a list of the main areas to work on.

Content Optimization

A Marist poll done by NPR, revealed that 33% of online shoppers use Google to find what they need. By using the specific keywords your potential customers are searching for in your product descriptions, pages, and headings will help your site rank higher in search engines. The process of finding and incorporating these keywords into your site is called Search Engine Optimization, (SEO). Hubspot explains how to find those keywords and the best way to use them. Google has free keyword research tools online like Google Keyword Planner, or their Chrome Extension Keywords Everywhere and even Wikipedia can be used for keyword search.

Product Pages

Answering 5 basic questions will help you create relevant product descriptions that convert visitors into customers.

1. Do customers know what they need? Make it easy for them to find it by including its’ name in your product description.
   
   
2. What problem does it solve? Describe in a few clear words how your product solves their problem.
   
   
3. Why they should buy your product? This is your opportunity to describe how your product outperforms others in terms of quality, value, or even your return and delivery policies.
   
   
4. What’s your product made of and its benefits? Go beyond listing components, explain how it can help provide a better solution for a specific problem.
   
   
5. What do current customers think about it? Verified customer reviews will give your site credibility. And good reviews make great sharing posts for your social media platforms.

You can also check out your competitors’ websites for ideas, or get practical advice at Bigcommerce blog.

Product Images

Describing unique colors, textures, or smells may not capture their full effect. Good quality product photographs and short videos will do a better job conveying these details. Investing in good product photography will pay off if you follow these rules:

1. Use multiple images. Providing different angles of the product and even photographs of people using the product, can help answer questions the customer might have. Expert Photography has great advice on how to take pictures that portray distinctive attributes.
   
   
2. Edit your photos. Improve the quality of the image to compensate for changes in natural lighting or increase contrast to bring up details. Pixlr it’s an online tool with free basic editing features. They also offer photography editing services.
   
   
3. Optimize images. ABetterLemonadeStand recommends product photos to be a maximum 80-150 KB, and between 250 and 350 KB for large homepage images. These sizes offer the highest resolution without slowing down loading speed. Their Guide for Optimizing Images walks you through this step by step.

Optimize for Mobile

According to Comscore, as of August of 2020 the percentage of online transactions using a mobile device or smartphone surpasses the 50% across continents. If your website is not optimized for mobile, you’re losing customers.

1. Try it yourself. Open your own site on your device and identify problem areas.
   
   
2. Start with a responsive design. According to crazyegg.com the first step to improve conversion rates on mobile devices is starting with a responsive design that makes your website appear attractive while remaining navigable for all visitors.
   
   
3. Use a heatmap tool. Heatmaps allow you to identify how your users interact with your pages so you can pay extra attention in perfecting them for mobile users. VMO suggest you start with the free versions online or the free trials to find the best.
   
   
4. Make product images prominent. Customers spend less time reading on their smartphones, so make sure your photos load fast and with good resolution.

Checkout

Your checkout process can be one of the most crucial parts of the customer experience and have a big impact in your cart abandonment rates. When you optimize this process, you’ll likely see your sales go up.

1. Go mobile. Last year mobile contactless payment accounted for 22.5% of all online transactions in the US, according to Commscore. This represents both a challenge and a growth opportunity. Mobile payment is certainly something you want to offer your customers.
   
   
2. Make it simple. If your customers can’t complete their transaction because of an overly complicated checkout process your cart abandonment rate will increase.
   
   
3. Offer financing options. According to an omni-channel retail study conducted by BigCommerce more than 50% of younger consumers want financing options for online purchases. Generation Z and millennials buy more expensive items when financing is available.
   
   
4. Click and collect. According to the National Retail Federation, 65% of online shoppers like to use click and collect to get products faster while saving on shipping. Fit Small Business Guide to Set Up Click and Collect can help you get started.

Having an omnichannel presence will help you reach new customers. Using these tips to perfect your online channel will help you create a pleasant experience for customers, while boosting sales and your bottom line. Snap’s lease-to-own financing e-Commerce solutions offer a simple and convenient way to boost your online business. Snap Checkout and Checkout Lite make online and mobile customer financing easy for you and your customers.

Innovating the fintech industry, Snap Finance helps furniture merchants reach their full sales potential by offering credit-challenged customers flexible financing solutions. Are you interested in learning how Snap can grow your business? Contact Snap at 866-871-0311 or visit snapfinance.com.

About the Author: Monica Tucker is a marketing content writer for Snap Finance and a regular contributor at Furniture World Magazine. Visit www.linkedin.com/in/mtuckercopy to learn more about her and read other articles.

Weekly Business Tips from Snap Finance

Articles in Weekly Business Tips from Snap Finance