13 Apr 5 Fundamentals Of Building A Revenue-Driven Ecommerce Website
- The power of branding
- End-to-end support
- Talking prices
- Testimonials and reviews
- Web interface and design refresher
With the recent implementation of circuit breaker measures, landing pages have become more important than ever for revenue. Websites are the big guns in the arsenal of a business’s marketing strategies that can make or break the customer’s purchase decision. These are 5 things to look out for when creating or improving your online marketplace.
1. Everybody loves a good story
Storytelling is a marketing buzz word which can be a powerful tool for businesses. According to research by UK content marketing agency Headstream, if people like a brand story, 15% would purchase on the spot and 55% would consider the brand in the future.
A good story helps your business come alive, gives it meaning and captures the attention of your audience. Every business has an origin story to tell that embodies its values; be it a passion project, an innovative problem-solving venture, multigenerational family trade, an initiative for giving back… The list goes on. It should also display the unique selling points (USP) of your business.
Having your brand story on your website establishes an emotional connection with the customer. An authentic story evokes positive emotions and builds trust in your business, which could in turn translate to higher sales and even brand loyalty.
Sometimes, it can be more about the storytelling than the story itself. Singaporean fashion label Love Bonito hits the nail on the head with their About Us page. Their story speaks directly to the target audience and checks the box for invoking feel-good emotions such as female empowerment. It reflects their purpose, values and even USP in a relatable manner that does not distract from the message.
Source: Love Bonito
And remember to show, not tell!
2. End-to-end service for a seamless buying journey
The buying cycle is a process consumers go through before buying a product. It is made up of 3 stages – Awareness, Consideration, Intent, Purchase and Retention. Showing up early, namely the Awareness and Consideration stages, can increase top-of-mind awareness and influence buying decisions.
This is due to the shift to mobile, increasing opportunities for websites to market to micro-moments. Coined by Google, micro-moments are intent-rich moments when someone turns to their smartphone to act on an instant urge to find information.
At the Awareness stage, people realise they have a problem and start searching for potential solutions. At the ‘I want to know’ moment, people turn to search engines for convenient information. At this stage, fostering a relationship takes priority over conversions.
What you can do:
- Create educational content that is not sales-driven, perhaps in the form of blog posts
- SEO optimisation
Armed with information, the customer enters the Consideration stage where he chooses from different solutions. The ‘I want to do’ moment needs authentic information about the product, without any call-to-action. Take this opportunity to provide an in-depth explanation of your product/service and why it is better than the competition. Knowledge gained here affects the Intent stage too, where the customer makes a choice between you and your competitor.
What you can do:
- Create content that helps people compare solutions
- Have multiple options in different price range
There is also the risk of displaying conversion messaging too early and losing customers who are not ready to buy. Successful companies employ programmes that are able to identify and detect behavioural cues leading to the Purchase stage.
Combined with existing strategies in the later stages, end-to-end support can make your website a one-stop shop throughout the buying journey, maximising your number of potential customers.
3. Dress your prices up (or down)
Singaporeans are natural bargain hunters. According to Ice Cube Marketing, 55% of locals search for prices when online shopping and 38% prioritise price when making a purchase.
Of course, low prices don’t necessarily equate to better choices. Higher price tags could result from more ethical practices, higher quality materials or meticulous manufacturing processes. By justifying the prices of your products in the product description, customers know exactly what they are getting and why it is worth paying more for. It also allows you to remain competitive with industry giants who might charge a higher price for their products simply due to brand name.
Similarly, if your prices are low, it would benefit you to let your customers know how you manage to keep prices down. This is to reassure them that the product is comparable to its expensive counterparts. Singaporeans, especially women, are sensitive to quality and exclusivity due to the exposure to global premium brands.
4. Gain trust with testimonials and reviews
Singaporeans are notorious for complaining, but you can take that in your stride. A study by iPrice and Trusted Company shows that local online shoppers are found to be 34.7% more likely to leave a bad review if something goes wrong. On the flip side, they are also twice as likely to share their positive experiences publicly as compared to Indonesia.
What better way to show off the effectiveness of your product than with praises from other trustable buyers? While a Testimonials page on your website could show off the reviews from your best (or Verified Buyer) customers, PwC found that 57% of Singaporeans use social media to read reviews.
Source: ONLY Aesthetics
User-generated reviews are constantly being uploaded on social media. Adding a social media review plugin to consolidate customer reviews across social networking sites and display them in real time would greatly increase the transparency of your brand and build credibility.
Source: ONLY Aesthetics
Furthermore, Spiegel Research Center shows that purchase likelihood for a product with 5 reviews is 270% greater than the purchase likelihood of a product with no reviews.
5. Keep web design and interface fresh and functional
Your website is an online shopping platform, but it is also the platform that supports your content marketing efforts. Without refreshing and maintaining the quality of your website, your copy goes to waste.
38% percent of users will stop interacting with a website if the layout is unattractive and 39% stop if it loading time is too long. Be sure to keep up with the website layouts that customers prefer and optimise the design to cater to their journey.
It is found that long landing pages generate 3 times more leads than those with call-to-actions crammed in the top half of the page, and removing the navigation bar increases conversions by 100%. Finding design statistics and testing them out would also help your website appeal more to the consumer.