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How to Increase Sales with Automation Improvements

 

How popular is online shopping? And is there room for

improvement? Let’s check out some pros and cons of automated

shopping and see.

 

Digital carts offer convenience for people around the globe 24

hours a day. Yet an estimated 4 percent of shoppers make

purchases, up from 3.5 percent in 2003, reported by DoubleClick,

an online marketing company.

 

And approximately 30 percent of shopping carts are abandoned,

according to recent surveys by BizRate.com, a shopping search

engine.

 

The main reasons for shopping cart abandonment are*:

 

·           High shipping prices (72%)

·           Comparison shopping or browsing (61%)

·           Changed mind (56%)

·           Saving items for later purchase (51%)

·           Total cost of items is too high (43%)

·           Checkout process is too long (41%)

·           Checkout requires too much personal information (35%)

·           Site requires registration before purchase (34%)

·           Site is unstable or unreliable (31%)

·           Checkout process is confusing (27%)

 

To decrease shopping cart abandonment and increase sales, simple

minor improvements in automation can be highly effective. Here

are some tips that work best for clients and workers alike of

OhioHelp.net, an Ohio-based company that specializes in helping

businesses worldwide with their marketing, public relations and

freelance writing services.

 

TOP TIPS FROM OHIOHELP.NET

 

1.         Calculate all handling charges and fees in with your price

whenever possible, so that you can offer no-cost shipping. And

check for specials like Flat Rate packages with Priority

Shipping.

 

2.         Don’t have people pre-register, fill out lengthy forms, wait

for email confirmation, find their password / user ID and figure

out how to log in again and continue to fill out more detailed

forms and click through a half-dozen pages. Ugh! People want to

shop, buy and go. Period.

 

3.         On EVERY page of your site, shopping cart, receipt and Thank

You or other automated reply, list complete contact information.

Include a specific person to follow up with, business phone

number and postal address (no P.O. Box) and a direct email

address like diana@ohiohelp.net  (i.e. not info@ohiohelp.net ).

Then if the Internet connection fails, the site goes down or any

number of other technical issues occurs, the shopper immediately

has concrete information for follow up.

 

4.         Set your product order numbers at one (1). In other words,

when someone clicks a purchase button, have the cart say one (1)

item purchased when they preview their cart instead of zero,

making them select “1” again.

 

5.         Include a no-cost gift in the shopping cart, with the receipt

or in the Thank You email, especially with large purchases. Let

your customers know you appreciate their business. And ask for

referrals!

 

6.         Test special product and package prices with offers on a

“Thank You” page or with a “Thank You” email.

 

7.         Accept multiple payment options when possible; credit cards,

faxed and telephone orders, print checks, money orders, echecks

and 3rd party solutions like Paypal. Note: many businesses use

American Express.

 

8.         Choose a progressive shopping cart software solution like

ProfitAuto at http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot  for a variety of

services, pricing packages and options for company growth.

ProfitAuto manages not only the cart but also your leads,

contacts and shoppers with automated “Thank You” follow up. It

also has autoresponders for pre-sale and after-sale

communications, digital tracking and delivery solutions,

importing / exporting of lists and autoresponder series,

electronic coupons, affiliate programs and more.

 

NO-COST TRIAL AND INFORMATION

 

For a 30-day no-cost trial of ProfitAuto, sign up online at

http://presssuccess.com/AutoPilot  . And download ebooks with

loads of information to help with your business from the

“Freebies” section of the OhioHelp.net bookstore at

http://www.presssuccess.com/bookstore

 

So tweak your checkout process. Make your clients and your

company happy. And ring up more sales. To learn more top tips and

receive them on a regular basis at no charge in your email, sign

up at http://ohiohelp.net  today or email diana@ohiohelp.net  .

 

 

 

* From research (Fall, 2001) by Vividence Corporation,

specializing in Customer Experience Management (CEM) products and

services.

 

 

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By Diana Barnum, president of

http://movingaheadcommunications.com  and CEO of

http://ohiohelp.net  . For more help with marketing, public

relations and writing, email diana@ohiohelp.net  or call:

614)529-9459.