2 Things Your Ecommerce Website Must Have

What is your ecommerce website?

If the answer to this question is a blog, a website where you sell handcrafted goods or anything else (physical or digital), here are two things you can do that will make your life easier and sure to increase sales:

1. Create an "About" section on your blog explaining who you are, what you do, and why people should care about what you have to offer.

2. Make sure that every single product on your site has detailed written instructions for installation and use. The benefits of doing this are twofold :

 - People will be able to explore the product better and make a better decision on buying it.

 - You'll start collecting customer testimonials that will speak for your products. It's invaluable!

2. "Delivery Time" Is a Lie

This is one of the most confusing aspects in ecommerce and we don't even need to mention how important it is to have data on delivery time. 

There is nothing wrong with the concept or the idea that delivery time is a real concern. In fact, it's something that should be highlighted and advertised, but in reality, it doesn't really happen.

Why? Because in order to make a living selling online, many ecommerce entrepreneurs simply add an extra price to their products: price + shipping cost = more money for them!

Sound outrageous? Well here are some statistics on just how much money people spend printing shipping labels : 

According to this study , US retailers will pay $500 million on shipping costs this year  (that's roughly 6% of all their revenue). If you're a US ecommerce merchant, you'll probably get the same result.

What Can You Do?

The sad truth is that the world's economy is based on lies and we are all living in the Matrix. 

You don't need to be a programmer to understand how the ecommerce system works: many merchants just change their pricing systems from "base price" to "price + shipping cost". They add a little bit of extra profit, but they don't create accurate and reliable information on how their customers actually spend their money.

The question is, how do you react when Amazon or eBay tells you that your "free shipping" rule isn't working? What are the steps you take to correct this problem?

Some people are wise enough to start a blog or a forum to track their shipping costs and try to find solutions. Others just give up and buy products from other brands or (gasp!) pay cash in person.

It's true that not having free shipping is a problem, but this kind of situation can be easily solved once you understand the reason why this happens.

That reason? It's in the system.

We have a delivery system where sellers are forced to mark up their products and then ship them as fast as possible to the customers - this is their only choice.

And with all these extra costs (at least for online merchants), they'll have very few people willing to pay extra for quicker deliveries. This is where your "About" section and customer testimonials come in handy: you can let strangers know your company culture and help them make a more informed decision on buying from you.

To solve the global shipping issue, you'll need to do two things:

1. Create a sales and delivery system that doesn't require you to add extra costs to your products. You can read more about this idea here .

2. Make sure that every single product on your site has detailed written instructions for installation and use. The benefits of doing this are twofold:  

  - People will be able to explore the product better and make a better decision on buying it.

- You'll start collecting customer testimonials that will speak for your products. It's invaluable!

3. Color-Code Your Cart With Your Own Shipping Costs

I used to get annoyed with ecommerce websites that have everything spelled out on the cart page for me, but without also showing how much I'll have to pay for shipping: it's confusing!

The solution is simple and easy: just add color-coding to your cart to show which shipping options you offer. Not only will this make things easier for you, but it will also help your customers find the right products faster and save them time and money on their decision making process.

4. Product Recommendations Are Your Friend

Your customers are looking for help in the buying process, but you can't always be there and guide them. That's why a product recommendation system is a must have on your ecommerce website.

This is one of the most underestimated features and I'm sure most of you know about it, but I bet the majority of you don't use it on your websites. The reason this feature has been left out is simple: it slightly decreases sales just by suggesting products to people that they might not be interested in or that don't fit their needs.

In conclusion, these are three things that you can do on your website to make selling easier. There is one other thing that will help you manage complex transactions:

5. Create an Order History Page for Your Website

Most ecommerce websites don't have a proper way to manage their orders and it's understandable: it takes time and money to set up this kind of system. If you do it the right way, though, you'll not only increase customer satisfaction, but also help boost sales with a single click. 

Whenever people buy products from your site (especially if they bought three or more times), they should be able to easily create an order history page with all their past orders. Here's how things work on Amazon.com:

What Can You Do?

First of all, you should create a separate page on your website that shows all requests from shipping companies - this is the most important part of your order history page and it will help you solve customer complaints related to lost or damaged shipments.

There are other useful things you can add to this system:

- A place for customers to give feedback about their past orders (asking people for feedback is one of the most underutilized tools on ecommerce websites).

- A separate page where you can track customer service requests and send automated messages when an order is completed.

Conclusion

Having a great product to sell is important, but there are two things that make an ecommerce business successful: the customer service and the shipping system.

It's not enough to just have a top-notch product and an appropriate public image, or you could end up like Dell  with negative press about lost shipments and no way to fix this problem.

If you want people to remember your name, you'll need a way to keep track of your online orders, help customers solve issues they encounter with their purchases and give them personalized gifts for long-time loyalty (like Amazon!).