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"Need More Orders? Fix this..."
By Jim Daniels
After 3 years online I found a mistake that instantly
increased my orders by 20%... Last month I learned a
few more valuable lessons about doing business online. I didn't know it, but I was
committing a mistake that was costing me thousands of dollars each year.
I really should have know better actually. I've been marketing online since 1996. And I've
been told by many folks that I have a good grip on how to do business online.
What's that old line, "physician heal thyself?" Well it applies here. Three
years is a long time to be making the same mistake at my website. But that's how long this
had been going on.
So what are these horrible mistakes I had been making for so long?...
I thought you'd never ask.
I've been pushing away potential customers by dragging them through more trouble than
necessary at the most crucial time during their visit to my site -- right when they were
ready to place an order!
Actually, I refused to truly acknowledge the problems until I was forced to reckon with
them. I had received a fair amount of complaints from potential customers who had trouble
ordering at my site, but the complaints were well spaced out so I figured it was just part
of doing business online. Then again, most problems you tend to ignore until something
brings them to a head. That's what happened at my site just before the holidays...
It all started when the third party website that processed all secure orders from my site
essentially went dead. Along with it, my orders all but stopped. When the company (which
shall remain nameless for their own protection) could not get the ship righted in a few
days, then a week, then two weeks, I finally smartened up and took action.
And what started as a real pain in the you know what, ended up as a blessing in
disguise.
After investing lots of time and a little money, I have increased the orders being placed
at my site by a full 20%. Without generating extra traffic. That's a lot of money,
especially over the course of a year. Scratch that, especially over the course of THREE
years!
As any webmaster knows, the lifeblood of your business online can be the secure ordering
process you offer to your customers. So when my secure ordering system shut down, the last
thing I thought it would be was a blessing in disguise. But that's just what developed.
The lessons I learned were invaluable. I only wish someone else had suffered them and
wrote about it in their ezine first! :-)
Anyway, here they are. Don't take them lightly...
Lesson #1 and 2: You absolutely MUST keep the secure ordering process at
your website simple, streamlined and fast. If at all possible, offer a one-page, secure
checkout for your customers. And you may not really need that shopping cart!
My own example elaborates on this perfectly...
First, here is the "Old Way" I accepted secure orders at my site: (Bear with me,
this is a bit tedious...)
My old secure shopping cart system took customers through no less than four separate web
pages before they were done ordering. At each page they would enter some information.
Page one was off my site altogether, was not secure, and resulted in scaring away about
more people than I realized. From there shoppers who were bold enough to continue had to
click the "checkout" button to go to the secure area. (If they accidentally
clicked "continue shopping" they were brought back to my site instead of to the
checkout page.) If they DID click the correct SSL checkout button they moved to the secure
area. That is, IF their ISP kept them on the same server. If not, and many ISP's do not,
their cart was reported as empty. Bye bye customer. The surfers who made it to step three
usually continued through and placed their order.
Sounds sloppy right? Well believe it or not, many shopping cart providers have inherent
problems similar to these that you do not learn about until you've invested too much time
or money.
For this reason, I strongly suggest you take a look at your site. Do you really need a
full blown cart? Maybe not. If you are selling a small number of items, the answer may
very well be no. You could actually do much better with simple stand-alone order forms. I
certainly do! Just take a look at my...
"New Way" to accept secure orders at my site:
The surfer clicks "Secure Order" and is immediately brought to a secure order
form in the SSL area of my server. The form is a single page which lets the buyer complete
their transaction in one step. Done. Order placed.
To see this simple setup in action, click to any "Secure Order Form" at my software catalog.
The nearly instant 20% increase in orders has taught me (the hard way as usual) that web
surfers want a simple way to place their secure order. They cannot be bothered with
learning how to use your cart or clicking through too many pages. The quicker you get them
in and out of your checkout process, the more likely they are to complete the transaction.
It makes sense really. Have you ever walked out of a store because there was only one
register open and the line was too long? Well that's what you are doing to your web
surfers if you can't give them a speedy checkout process, or express line!
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And I learned one more lesson from all this...
Lesson #3: Think twice before you hire any third party company to provide
a service that you may be able to perform without them. This applies especially to
something as crucial as processing your orders.
There are many things that webmasters hire third party companies for. But things like
website maintenance, product shipping, credit card transactions and the like, may be very
simple to do in-house. In most cases you'll find software that can automate or at least
simplify most tasks so that they can be handled without a third party provider. Not only
will you save money doing this, you will also have the peace of mind that comes along with
depending less on other companies.
If you are just setting up shop online this lesson will really help you save money and
aggravation in the long run. If you already have a web presence, make a commitment to sit
down and evaluate it. Can you pull things in-house that are being handled by other
companies right now? Even if it means shelling out cash for your own merchant account or
SSL server space, you may be very glad you made the move some day.
That's not to say you should never hire other companies online. Undoubtedly you will need
to hire SOME web services that are just too costly to do in-house, such as web hosting or
real-time processing providers. But the fewer third party services you employ, the less
likely you are to be left in a compromising situation that is beyond your control. And
that's not good if it handicaps your ability to do business online.
So take some time and learn from my mistakes. I promise to keep making them as long as you
get something from them!
Best regards, Jim
Daniels
Owner - bizweb2000.com
* Article by Jim Daniels
of JDD Publishing. Jim's site has helped 1000's of regular folks profit online. Visit http://bizweb2000.com for FREE "how-to"
cybermarketing assistance, software, manuals, web services and more. No time to visit the
site? Subscribe to their Free, weekly BizWeb E-Gazette: mailto:freegazette@bizweb2000.com |
