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Maximizing Your Website's Sales Potential

The ultimate goal of an e-commerce website is to sell products. There are other kinds of sites that serve different purposes like brand exposure but in the end, the measure of a successful e-commerce website is whether or not you were able to move merchandise.

If you feel that the sales generated by your website has not reached your targeted goal, maybe it's time to take a look at your site and determine what you can improve so that you can maximize its full potential.

Analyze your website's design. Can potential customers easily find what they're looking for?

Take a careful look at your website and then try to answer these questions - does your website make it easy for buyers to make a purchase and does it cater to different kinds of shoppers?

If you're critical enough, chances are, you'll find things that can be improved in the design.

Let's take a look at how the different kinds of shoppers would view your website and what you can do to attract them:

The first type is the no-nonsense power shopper. These are the shoppers who are searching for specific items and don't like wasting time. An intuitive search bar that provides suggestions and alternatives would keep this kind of shopper from leaving your website.

The second kind is the recreational shopper. This kind isn't too worried about time and tends to buy items impulsively. It would be a good idea for you to set up a series of featured products, specials and discounts if you hope to win them over.

The last kind of shoppers is the reluctant shopper. For this type of shopper, you have a few seconds to convince them that you're the right shop for them. Their concerns vary and might include security, trustworthiness, privacy, and good customer service. Your website's design must assuage their fears. Putting authority logos and certifications on your website will help dispel some of their fears. If you have testimonials on hand, it would be helpful to pepper these content all over your site.

Improve your Product Details pages. If you have their attention, how do you hold on to it?

You've been there. You find your desired product on a website only to get totally turned off by its details page. The last thing you want to happen is turn customers away because your Product Details pages are ugly.

Remember that when it comes to your product pages, you should never underestimate the power of images. You should only use high-quality images to show off your products in the best light. If you're planning to give a particular product a discount, another thing you can do is display the original price (struck through) with the new adjusted price side-by-side or below it in a different and more bold color to make it stand out. These are just some of things you can do to improve your Product Details pages.

Does your checkout process frustrate most buyers? Make checking out Hassle-Free.

So your customers found what they're looking for. They checked out the product's details and specifications, liked what they saw and added the item to their shopping cart.

What could go wrong? A lot of things.

First of all, nobody likes a drawn-out payment process. The best online payment processes usually requires just a few steps prior to submitting the order. One way to shorten the process is to skip the need for registration so that the shopper can buy products on the fly. Think of your power shoppers - the longer it takes for them to check out, the more likely they won't finish the transaction.