Interessante articolo di una nota rivista americana che si occupa di commercio online.

L’articolo focalizza l’attenzione su alcuni elementi fondamentali da tenere in considerazione per aumentare le conversioni di un negozio online.

In dettaglio:

Increasing sales online: the checklist

Here it is:

• Create buyer personas
• Drive relevant traffic and create relevant messages (for personas)
• Make your design good
• Create compelling value propositions
• Understand buying phases
• Reduce friction
• Focus on clarity
• Eliminate noise and distraction
• Engage visitors
• Add urgency
• Follow usability standards

 

1. Buyer personas

The more people feel that an offer is right for them, the more likely they are to take it.

Let me prove it to you. Let’s say you want to buy new running shoes. First, answer these questions:

• Your gender?
• Age?
• Weight?
• Where do you normally run?

 

2. Relevancy and motivation

This is about 2 things:

• targeting the right people,
• communicating the right message.

 

3. Design and visual hierarchy

In a nutshell: beautiful design sells better than ugly design. Beautiful does not mean it’s full of bells and whistles. Beautiful design is also effective.

BMW, Apple or Nike are not throwing millions of dollars at design just for fun. They know it sells better. In fact, design (not just how it looks, but how it works too) is the key reason why people buy them.

 

4. Value propositions

A value proposition is a promise of value to be delivered. It’s the main reason a prospect should buy from you (and not from the competition).

In a nutshell, value proposition is a clear statement that

• explains how your product solves customers’ problems or improves their situation (relevancy),
• delivers specific benefits (quantified value),
• tells the ideal customer why they should buy from you and not from the competition (unique differentiation).

 

5. Understanding buying phases

Let’s say you surf the web and come across this site:

What stands out is that they go straight for the sale – asking to register right away. The only thing people know about them at this point is “Create attractive articles. Quick. Easy. Profitable.” – which says absolutely nothing.

 

6. Reduce friction

Whenever you ask people to do something or commit to something, there’s friction. It’s impossible to remove friction completely in a business transaction, you can only minimize it.

Friction is all the doubts, hesitations and second thoughts people have about giving you money for a product.

Is it really worth the money? Will it break? Can I trust this guy? Will it work? What if it doesn’t fit? Is this a scam? Is it the right choice for me? Will she like it?

The way to convert an infidel to a believer is to address all of their doubts and give them full information, so they are able to convince themselves.

 

7. Clarity

People won’t buy what they don’t understand. In fact, people fear what they don’t understand. Racism, xenophobia and all that comes from the fear of the unknown.

Whatever you’re selling, the buyer is a human. Doesn’t matter if it’s your granny or a top exec from PwC. They’re all humans. If the text (or video) on your site is easy to understand and in a compelling language, your conversions will go up.

 

8. Noise and distraction

There’s an adage for outdoor billboard design – it’s ready when there’s nothing left to remove. In a way this also applies for websites.

The more choice you give to people, the harder it is to choose anything. When there are too many options to choose from, it’s easiest to choose nothing at all.  There’s tons of research to confirm this. In addition, greater choice makes us unhappy.

 

9. Engagement

What’s your conversion rate? 1%? 3%? Even if it’s a high 5%, that’d mean that 95% of the visitors don’t buy anything.

They came to your site (maybe even through paid advertising), bought nothing and left… now what? Have you lost them for good? Not necessarily.

In a lot of cases the best way to increase sales is to avoid one at first. Remember buying phases? Instead of asking for money, try to engage them in some way and ideally collect their email address so you can keep talking to them.

 

10. Urgency

Urgency is a powerful motivator, if done well.

 

11. Usability

If your site is difficult to use, people won’t use it. Nobody will bother to figure out stuff. The best websites provide a seamless experience – everything seems intuitive and people don’t have to think.

Luckily it’s not the 90’s or early 2000’s anymore when usability was just plain awful. In 2010 the average failure rate was 22%.

 

FONTE: http://conversionxl.com/