How to Increase Sales with Automation Improvements

How popular is online shopping? And is there room for improvement? Let's check out some pros and cons of automated shopping and see.

Digital carts offer convenience for people around the globe 24 hours a day. Yet an estimated 4 percent of shoppers make purchases, up from 3.5 percent in 2003, reported by DoubleClick, an online marketing company.

And approximately 30 percent of shopping carts are abandoned, according to recent surveys by BizRate.com, a shopping search engine.

The main reasons for shopping cart abandonment are*:

• High shipping prices (72%)

• Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)

• Changed mind (56%)

• Saving items for later purchase (51%)

• Total cost of items is too high (43%)

• Checkout process is too long (41%)

• Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)

• Site requires registration before purchase (34%)

• Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)

• Checkout process is confusing (27%)

To decrease shopping cart abandonment and increase sales, simple minor improvements in automation can be highly effective. Here are some tips that work best for clients and workers alike of OhioHelp.net, an Ohio-based company that specializes in helping businesses worldwide with their marketing, public relations and freelance writing services.

TOP TIPS FROM OHIOHELP.NET

1. Calculate all handling charges and fees in with your price whenever possible, so that you can offer no-cost shipping. And check for specials like Flat Rate packages with Priority Shipping.

2. Don't have people pre-register, fill out lengthy forms, wait for email confirmation, find their password / user ID and figure out how to log in again and continue to fill out more detailed forms and click through a half-dozen pages. Ugh! People want to shop, buy and go. Period.

3. On EVERY page of your site, shopping cart, receipt and Thank You or other automated reply, list complete contact information. Include a specific person to follow up with, business phone number and postal address (no P.O. Box) and a direct email address like diana@ohiohelp.net (i.e. not info@ohiohelp.net). Then if the Internet connection fails, the site goes down or any number of other technical issues occurs, the shopper immediately has concrete information for follow up.

4. Set your product order numbers at one (1). In other words, when someone clicks a purchase button, have the cart say one (1) item purchased when they preview their cart instead of zero, making them select "1" again.

5. Include a no-cost gift in the shopping cart, with the receipt or in the Thank You email, especially with large purchases. Let your customers know you appreciate their business. And ask for referrals!

6. Test special product and package prices with offers on a "Thank You" page or with a "Thank You" email.

7. Accept multiple payment options when possible; credit cards, faxed and telephone orders, print checks, money orders, echecks and 3rd party solutions like Paypal. Note: many businesses use American Express.

8. Choose a progressive shopping cart software solution like ProfitAuto at http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot for a variety of services, pricing packages and options for company growth. ProfitAuto manages not only the cart but also your leads, contacts and shoppers with automated "Thank You" follow up. It also has autoresponders for pre-sale and after-sale communications, digital tracking and delivery solutions, importing / exporting of lists and autoresponder series, electronic coupons, affiliate programs and more.

NO-COST TRIAL AND INFORMATION

For a 30-day no-cost trial of ProfitAuto, sign up online at http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot . And download ebooks with loads of information to help with your business from the "Freebies" section of the OhioHelp.net bookstore at http://www.presssuccess.com/bookstore

So tweak your checkout process. Make your clients and your company happy. And ring up more sales. To learn more top tips and receive them on a regular basis at no charge in your email, sign up at http://ohiohelp.net today or email diana@ohiohelp.net.

* From research (Fall, 2001) by Vividence Corporation, specializing in Customer Experience Management (CEM) products and services.

--

You have permission to publish this article electronically or in print, free of charge, as long as the bylines are included. A courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated - send to: diana@ohiohelp.net

About The Author

Diana Barnum, president of http://movingaheadcommunications.com and CEO of http://ohiohelp.net. For more help with marketing, public relations and writing, email diana@ohiohelp.net or call: (614) 529-9459.

---

Ever Wondered What Challenges Other People With Their Web Site?

Have you ever wondered what challenges are faced by other... Read More

Email Addresses in Web Pages

You want to give your site's visitors a way to... Read More

Building eCommerce Websites that Work - Part 3

An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely overlooked, but... Read More

Whats Your Business Online Attitude?

This article was prompted by some customer support work I... Read More

Create Huge Income From Your Web Site - 10 Easy Ways

The cost of setting up a web site is dirt... Read More

Creating Dynamic Website Content with PHP - MySQL

Fresh website content for your visitors can be of real... Read More

MySQL Database Handling in PHP

Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically... Read More

How Improving Your Sites Usability Can Increase Your Buyers by 40% and Boost Each Order By 10%!

With all of the factors involved in designing and building... Read More

Ten Major Tips to Develop a Multilingual Web Site to Work

If you are living in a country that its native... Read More

I Did It: Six Months to a Successful Website

For years now I've been looking to start my own... Read More

Is Your Website Doomed for Failure Before Youve Built It?

One of the things that many people overlook when building... Read More

Getting One-way Inbound Links: the 5 Major Strategies

With search engines putting a damper on direct reciprocal links,... Read More

Top 5 Webmaster Tools You Can Pick Up For Pennies

1. SiteSpinner V2 - On Sale www.deprice.com/sitespinner.htmSiteSpinner is a user-friendly... Read More

Why Your Business Needs a Website

Even with the steady growth of the World Wide Web,... Read More

Pick Up Your Own Domain Name

Think up a name and check if yourname.com is available.... Read More

You Don?t Have to be Amazon.com to Achieve 12% Conversion Rates!

That's right. According to a recent study by Nielsen/NetRatings, Amazon.com... Read More

Web Content Strategy 101

Your content is what gets you in search engines, speaks... Read More

How Does Your Website Make Me Feel?

When people think about the Internet, they think about technology.... Read More

The Importance of Website Stats to You

One of the best tools you have as a webmaster... Read More

What Works and What not Works for Your Internet Business

"Build it and they will come."--Filed of Dreams (1989) If... Read More

Web Site Optimization: How To Speed Up Your Web Site By Minimizing Your GIF and PNG Image Bit-Depth

Are bloated images slowing down your web site and causing... Read More

The Number 1 Reason Most Websites Fail

Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and... Read More

Running An Effective Website

Running an effective website is a continuous process. I have... Read More

Having a Domain Name And Web Site Gives Your Business The Key To The Door

Just like all things in life, the ways to run... Read More

Creating Compelling Content , Write It and They Will Come

In a previous ezinearticles.com article,"I Need real visitors, Not Search... Read More

You Cant Just Build A Website And Hope It Works!

Like any area of business your website needs some effort... Read More

But My Business Doesnt Need A Website!

Revenues are often lost because many business owners don't see... Read More

What is The Google Toolbar?

No matter what browser you may want to use, you... Read More

Writing Effective ALT Text For Images

Anyone who knows anything about web accessibility knows that images... Read More

Why Do I Need A Web Site?

Even though the Internet has been around for a long... Read More

Link Trades That Waste Your Time

Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world.... Read More

Learn to Build a Better Online Business Website Using Keywords and Content

Are you aware that 90% of the websites on the... Read More

What Business Owners MUST Know BEFORE They Commit To Having A Web Site

Q1.Why would I need a web site? A1.- Improve my... Read More