Tips to Help Make Your eCommerce Website Profitable

May 24, 2012 - Last Modified: April 10, 2013 by Lori Highby

Google Shopping, Nextag, and all the other great places online that will accept your product feed. Not only does this allow for more opportunities for sales, but you are expanding your audience and reach significantly and helping to get your product indexed by the major search engines. Some of these sites require payment, while others have no charge associated with them.

Let your site shoppers know that you mean serious business.

Important pages to have:

FAQ – Avoid having to answer the common questions via email and direct shoppers to your FAQ page that answers those questions right away.
Return Policy – Not necessarily required by law, but showing that you have a return policy helps boost customer satisfaction and alleviate some of the confusion. Tips on writing your return policy include avoid threatening words such as “We Refuse… or We will not be responsible…”, but rather keep it simple and clear as to what your policy on returns entails.
Privacy Policy – Make sure that your site visitors are aware that you do not intend to resell their contact information. Some site visitors are extremely interested in how you intend to use the information they collect. Being straight forward and honest with your intentions will help ease the shopper and encourage them to complete the sale online.

Quality images &/or video

The quality of the images on your website is very important to help sell your product.

I highly recommend hiring a professional photographer for the quality images on your website. However, in the event you are going to take pictures on your own, here are a few quick tips to help you out:

Use lots of light, but not direct lighting
Try to avoid shadows on your product
Use a white background
Take all product shots at the same time, using the same lighting and background
Use photo editing software such as PhotoShop to resize the images for web-use

Quality video is just as important. Video helps site shoppers to get a feel for how the product can be used, or hear live testimonials on the product. Post the videos on a number of video sharing sites such as YouTube or Vimeo. Then share them on your social media networks.

Social media sharing buttons

With all of the sharing going on right now, why wouldn’t you want social media sharing buttons on each product page? Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, Email to a Friend are all important to have tied to every product page for ease of sharing.

Utilize these social media channels to your advantage

Facebook – Create a Fan Page for your business/ecommerce website. Facebook allows you to post images of your products and include a link in the description of the image that can take them right to that product page.

Twitter – Create a profile and include a link to your website in the bio line. Utilize hashtags and lists to fine likeminded individuals who are interested in your products.
Google+ – Create a profile and then a page for your business. Post images of your product, links to your product, online reviews of your product. Find individuals to follow and “Add to Circles” who can endorse, use, or promote your product.

Be upfront about additional costs

Don’t share the cost of shipping as the last step in the process, include those details right away. Someone may be really jazzed up about buying your product, and then when they get to the last page find out its $50 to ship. They may be very disappointed to leave the site without finalizing the order. Letting the shopper know upfront what the cost associated with shipping (and other costs) is will help alleviate the shopping cart abandonment.

Ask for the Sale

Adding those little “Buy Now” or “Add to Cart” buttons is important to your website. It’s easy to use, it’s direct and helps the online shopper know what to do next.

What other tidbits have you done to your ecommerce website?

{ 16 Responses }

Peter Jones says:

Do you believe social media investment actually leads to a good ROI for eCommerce businesses? I can see the benefits for large businesses using it for building their brands but do many people really want to get dragged away from social sites to purchase eCommerce products? There may be some impulse purchases but I don't think that the conversions will be as high compared to using PPC.
- Lori Highby says:
  
  Social media can lead to a good ROI. There have been a number of studies done as too why individuals follow various businesses and websites on social media. The primary reason is usually because they want a discount or coupon of some sort. That coupon or deal that the individual receives turns into a sale more often than not. The important element of social media is planning, the same as any other campaign that is taken on for your business marketing efforts.
Roderick Coleman says:

Very true, video always helps site shoppers to get a feel for how the product can be used. The quality of the images is essential for generating lots of sale, that’s the reason companies spends huge amount on photoshoots. You have provided perfect tips to make it profitable, thanks for sharing.
Karan says:

I was recently working for a friend to help them promote their e-commerce site and including social media buttons helped some of their products go viral in a single day. For us, pinterest worked like charm and that proves how important social media integration is for successful promotion.
rohit kothari says:

i m glade you like my point :) actually this two thing always go parallel like if you have brand you dnt own quality negative marketing will effect your success and if you have quality but not brand people will not go for it which again affecting you neagatively
Jack Sander says:

Hi Lori, You are perfectly right, the quality of the images is essential for generating lots sale. We could either hire a professional photographer, buy photos from specialized sites or try to take the photos by ourselves. As you have pointed out, getting quality images requires equipment, therefore it would be better to outsource this area.
- Lori Highby says:
  
  Jack you are indeed correct. I actually wrote a whole blog post on this very topic. Check out my commentluv link to read more about professional photography on your website.
rohit kothari says:

hi Lori, nice post now a day if person have to get success in ecommerce site they have to be hyper active in social media and have to clear there vision that what exactly they want to sell to their customre and their quality should be good because now a days people are more concert about brand and quality
- Lori Highby says:
  
  Brand and quality is extremely important. And most buyers online are looking for both. Quality product and brands they recognize. Utilizing social media effectively in your online marketing campaign will definitely have a positive impact on your brand image. Definitely a valid point rohit.
Nasrul Hanis says:

Social media for sure is a powerful platform for your business! This is where your call for action element play its role to attract more prospects!
- Lori Highby says:
  
  Couldn't agree with you more Nasrul. Social media is so powerful. Whats important is to have a strategy in place for your social media marketing. And make sure that ties into your goal with your website.
Rashmi Sinha says:

Very useful information in this post, highly recommended to read. e-commerce is very profitable but tips are needed due to the level of complication. Thanks a lot for sharing these tips!
- Lori Highby says:
  
  Thanks Rashmi. Do you have any good tips to add?
Aasma says:

Nice points Lori, You must add "Call to Action" such as "add to cart" and "Buy Now" on your eCommerce website as it encourage visitors to buy products.
- Lori Highby says:
  
  What other call to actions would you add on your ecommerce website? I like to include "sign up for my enews", "contact us", and "live chat".
  - Robert says:
    
    Choosing a right Call To Action message is an art. I suggest doing some A/B testing to get the best result rather than playing around with traditional keywords like Buy it Now, Add to Cart...

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