If you are concerned about the performance of your website, here are a few top tips to help you improve it.
*Optimize Your Site Load Time
There’s nothing more frustrating than trying to browse an online store that is loading slowly. It is also unprofessional and erodes trust that you are a professional site.
Keep in mind that a lot of people will want to browse many products before buying. They will often open as many as ten different product windows all at once using tabbed browsing and compare items side by side. Your server needs to be able to respond to these kinds of requests with blazing speeds.
If you are still on shared hosting, or worse still, trying to use a free site to run your online business, it is time to get an ecommerce-optimized dedicated server to help speed up the page serving and shopping process. Then visitors will be happy to browse your high-performance site and you will be to handle the volume of orders you will be hoping for.
*Run compelling new promotions regularly
Come up with different promotions and use them to boost your sales. This can be an incredibly effective way to get a lot of sales in a short period of time. This is also a great strategy for any month that might be slow in your business.
Check your sales volume at least once a week and check your monthly goals and targets—if you don’t have any, you should set them. Then check your progress at the middle and third week of the month. If you are not going to meet your targets, set up an online special sale and email the people on your marketing list to tell them all about it. Also encourage them to pass the information along to any friends and family who might be interested.
*Be able to process credit cards safely and securely
Merchant account services can be difficult to obtain when you are first starting out in business, and expensive too. Instead of applying for a merchant account, think about using PayPal. 24% of online shoppers report it as their preferred method of payment because it is convenient, safe and secure.
PayPal processes transactions from all of the major credit cards, plus accepts electronic transfers from banks and even cash if people go into a MoneyGram location. So if you are not accepting PayPal, you should be. Most people who use it already have an account set up, so all they have to do to shop is to remember their email address and password. Even if they do not have an account, they can pay by credit card and you will only be charged modest transaction fees.
*Have a catalog and shopping cart
In PayDotCom (PDC), which uses PayPal as a clearing gateway, you can create a catalog and even a shopping cart of all of your products. You can also change the prices any time you like. If you were thinking of creating a monthly membership site, you could also set up regular payment schedules. You can even organize a free trial, or introductory pricing for your membership site. There is nothing better for your business than recurring revenue. It helps you predict your income each month and not leave you prey to the huge ups and downs of passing customers who just happen to come to your site and buy.
PayPal will take a percentage and PayDotCom will also charge a small fee themselves, but the advantage is in the flexibility of all the cataloging and payment options. With PayPal, you have to create one button and program it, all at a time. If you want to make a change, you have to start again, and replace the button on your site. With PDC, you can change the price or product details at any time and the button will change automatically on your site.
You can put special date limits on the promotions, such as a special holiday sales price, and more. The more options you offer people, and the more products, the more likely they will be to buy.
If you feel your site is not performing as well as it should, try these strategies to build a better website. Focus on improving conversions of browsers into buyers, and see what a difference it can make to your online revenue.
Further Reading
How to Track and Test Your Online Business Success (Marketing Matters)
Powerhouse Profits: 15 Fast Ways to Boost Your Online Revenue (Marketing Matters)