Monday, August 25, 2008

Increased Sales With A New Shopping Cart

By Kirt Christensen


Two years ago I created my website so I could sell rare books online. I thought it was going to be very easy: I just had to put my website online and people would stand in line to take the books out of my hands. But things were not that easy and this is a recount of what I had to find out the hard way.

I was wrong, time past and my sales were scarce, to say the least. If I had a good SEO strategy and good website design, what was wrong? Nothing. And yet, I couldn't help wondering "Everything is alright. But how can I use my shopping cart to beef up my online sales?" I had to read a lot of articles on ecommerce shopping cart software to find out!

The first question I had to answer was what I wanted to do. It is not as simple as picking the first software out there. You need to examine what the functions of it are, and make sure that it is good for your particular website.

Still, how can I use my shopping cart to beef up my online sales? Well, I discovered that sometimes I would buy an item out of impulse on some stores. After some digging, I found out it is called impulse buying and it is on Internet as well. When you have an item that the buyer wants, you have to let them know what other things previous buyers bought.

You can also use this impulse buying by adding the possibility to send a volume discount or a discount coupon, it is usually better to sell a client two or more items rather than one! Additionally, some carts allow what is called "group buy", you will need a forum where your clients may meet and decide to make a volume buy on certain item.

If you have a affiliated program that is well designed than this may also help with sales. You can promote your items for little or no cost. Some shopping carts are able to take care of the signup process, give statistics, and even check payments.

One thing you must include in your website is information. Ask yourself if you have everything your customer needs to know. Some key things are pictures of the product, shipping fees, and estimated delivery times.

Asking professional help is never bad either. If you still do not know how your shopping cart can help increase sales, asking a professional will not hurt.

About the Author:

No comments: