E-tailer No-brainers – 5 Essentials For Online Stores – Part 1 September 24 2013 / Posted By: Melissa Priest
From a shoppers perspective, the internet provides access to as many stores as you wish. Hundreds, thousands, maybe millions of stores. And more opening every day.
If you’re an online retailer, this means your (many) competitors are just a click away. So if your site isn’t user-friendly, or your products aren’t easy to find, it is oh so simple to leave your store and go to the next one. So it’s important your site gets some simple things right – at the very least.
We’ve compiled a list of essentials that online shopping sites MUST get right, if they want to stay competitive in the online retail space.
Before we get started, there’s one over-arching principle that online retailers must keep top of mind whilst considering everything else, putting yourself in a shoppers shoes!
Forget what you know about the product you’re selling. Forget that you’ve seen it, felt it, held it up, smelt it, or whatever people do when observing a product they’re interested in.
Your online customers can’t do that. So you need to fill that gap, and motivate them to send money over the web, to someone they’ve never met, for something they can’t touch or try on.
5 ESSENTIALS FOR ONLINE STORES...
1. PRODUCT IMAGES AND INFORMATION
Online shoppers want to see images and information of a product they’d like to buy. It’s a fact. They can’t hold it, they can’t try it on, so they need photos and info to help them make a decision.
As an online retailer you’ve gone to the trouble and expense of getting a website developed, spent time and money buying products for your store, you’ve more than likely spent money on SEO and/or online advertising, maybe business cards, maybe offline advertising. But for some reason, once all of that is done, you don’t put any time into taking pictures of, or describing your products.
Do you expect that your stock is going to walk out the door with next to no effort put in to actually promoting the products on your site?
As an online shopper, if I’m searching for a product or I see something I like whilst browsing, I want to see images and information before deciding to hand over my hard earned cash. Don’t you?
If it’s a dress, I want to see it from all angles. And preferably on a model so I can see where and how it sits on your body. If it’s a handbag, I want to see all angles and inside please. I want to know if it has handy pockets and compartments inside.
I can’t believe how many online stores don’t provide this information.
If I can’t find the images or information I need to be able to make an informed decision, I will search for them. Meaning, I will leave your site, google the product, and find a site that is providing the information and images I need and make my purchase there.
If I can’t find the images and information elsewhere, and I really ‘need’ that dress, you might just get lucky and win my business, but otherwise I will buy from the shop that showed me the images and information.
If online retailers are unsure of how to promote their products on their online stores, why not look to some of the more successful fashion e-tailers for example, ASOS, Net-a-Porter, or Birdsnest, for some ideas.
ASOS is particularly helpful by providing a video of a model wearing the clothing on a catwalk (screenshots below). For an online shopper, this functionality is invaluable in your decision making process!
We can’t afford video I hear you say! Most likely the camera you are using to (hopefully) take images of your products, not only takes pretty pictures, but also in most cases has video capabilities! And you don’t need a fancy catwalk, why not use the street?
Birdsnest are also very helpful where they show complete ‘styled’ outfits. Let’s face it, many of us struggle when it comes to putting an outfit together, so any help we can get will definitely be appreciated. Not only do Birdsnest visually show you styled outfits, but allow you to click on the outfit and add the whole thing to your bag at one time! User-friendly for the customer and smart for the business, as I imagine this would also help their sales – ka ching!
Some tips when it comes to providing product images and information:
- good and consistent lighting and background (this also makes your site look great)
- as many images / angles as you can
- if the item comes in various colours, show me images of the colours please
- close ups of special features, details or the fabric etc
- present the images in consistent sizes on your site (this also helps with the visual layout and balance of your store)
- tell me as much about the product as you possibly can – measurements, fabric, colour, sizing, special features
- I’d love for you to even tell me how and where to wear it (suitable for wedding, event etc)
- it would be helpful to know about the brand as well
- anything that you can think of that someone who has never seen this product might need to know
ESSENTIALS For Online Stores, to be continued………