Be Transparent

If you do not offer free shipping, keep costs visible and transparent at all times. No one likes to be left in the dark or unclear of costs up front. This includes, taxes, fees and any shipping costs.  The more transparent your store front is with the shopping cart, the more likely you will gain loyal followers. This leads to repeat business.

Have Guest Checkout Enabled.

Requiring customers to have to register for what may or may not be a one-time purchase can be grueling to a shopper who may not shop online that often. Further, this may slow-down their process. Especially if they are trying to quickly holiday shop.

Help give them and your business a boost by only requiring e-mail for them to complete their purchase. This makes the transaction quicker and smarter.

Be Contactable

Whether before or after a purchase is made, customer may have questions. Ensure that there is visibility of how to contact your business for any questions. This could be with an e-mail address, a chat feature or an 800 number.

This measure can be critical to both business and customer. For example, Cynthia made a purchase for a high-end purse through a known feminine retailer that she saw advertised on Facebook. She ordered a purse to be delivered to her in new England. The tracking numbers reflected that the item was shipping to her from Tennessee. Unfortunately, the item got directed to Texas and she never received it. She tried desperately to contact the retailer with no luck of finding a phone number nor e-mail. She could only contact the seller through the marketplace only to learn the package was not insured. Cynthia was out hundreds of dollars.

Situations like such need to allow customers to be reassured their purchases are being tracked and their money is not lost.

Ensure customer know how to contact your business for various situations.

Nonetheless, the more reachable the business is, the more likely there could be repeat business.

Save the Cart

Many online shoppers go back and forth between tabs and windows (such as myself). We get distracted and sometimes may just close a tab, window or the computer may shut off. Nonetheless, ensure that any shoppers cart is saved upon their return. This can really increase sales encouraging one to pick up where they left off. It’s satisfying having a cart full of items saved.

Use Scarcity

Emphasing a need for urgency is a great strategy to entice shoppers to complete their purchases. This can be done by letting customers know that inventory is low, how many are currently viewing items, or by using a countdown time to let them see visually when a sale ends.

These strategies perform well to seal the deal!