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7 Strategies to Increase Your Online Orders

Tuesday 27 October 2009, 10:24AM

By RES Group and 10x North Shore

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NORTH SHORE CITY

7 Strategies to Increase Your Online Orders
 

Here’s a hint: the easier you make it for people to purchase, the more sales you’ll get. In the online world, there are some specific things you can to do to increase the perception of ease, safety, and reliability on your site that will in turn lead to increased purchases.
 

10X Recommends:
1. Accept all credit cards – some people prefer Amex to Mastercard or Visa, so by offering all major credit cards your sales will increase.
2. Accept online cheques and payments from bank accounts – there is a facility via some third party companies including www.paypal.com for people to pay directly from their bank account. This is particulary beneficial for people who don’t have credit cards.
3. Offer real-time credit card processing – so people can access parts of their order or bonuses immediately. Offering instant download bonuses on your website is a great way to increase your conversion rates. People want information right now and don’t want to wait, so ensure you can process their credit card details in “real time.”
4. Offer a “secure” environment to process their credit card transaction and show people that the environment is secure – even though most people are comfortable purchasing on the internet, there is still some fear around the security of internet buying.
5. Logos that sell – remember that some people may have fears about purchasing online. Before they purchase, they want to make sure that the company they are dealing with is credible and above-board. You might consider joining and then using the logos from:
Australian Direct Marketing Association
Various better business organisations
VeriSign or other “securing certificate” organisations
6. Discounts or special offers when people purchase online – obviously, online purchases save you time and money. You don’t need a salesperson to take every order. You can take orders 24 hours a day 7 days a week. All payments are processed directly to your bank account.
7. An email confirmation for the order and information for tracking and monitoring the order. Reducing uncertainty dramatically reduces the number of orders lost due to cancellation.

What you can do today:
• Identify “simple” ways you can start offering online payments right now - if you don’t want to handle and process the payments through your own server, you can engage the services of a third party provider, such as www.e-junkie.com or www.infoshop.com.au.
• Write sales copy and design new web pages to display your wares – an interactive system works best, however you can supplement this with downloadable PDF files, etc. Remember, increasing the amount of information and images for each product helps to reduce uncertainty and increase orders.
• Create an internal system for processing online orders and then let your clients/customers know about your new offer – include the links to purchase on all marketing collateral.