7 Reasons Why
People Don’t Buy from
Your Web Site and
What to Do About It
A survey done by Ken Evoy
(author of "Make Your Site Sell"), resulted in some very
interesting statistics. He discovered the following reasons why
people did not buy products from his Web site. (People
answering the questions could choose more than one reason why they
were reluctant to buy).
1) Price 79%
2) Trust and reliability 67%
3) Credit card concerns 65%
4) Privacy issues 58%
5) Navigation difficulty 35%
6) Delivery time too long 25%
7) Overcharging for shipping (We added this one)
Ken's survey results also showed that no matter how low the
product price, there were always people who would not buy from him
strictly because of price. That means, it's very important for
sellers to calculate the most profitable price for a given
product.
It may be that a higher price with fewer purchases results in much
larger total profits or it might be the other way around, lower
prices with more sales result in higher net profits (don't forget
the extra work and costs for larger numbers of sales).
The main point here is,
it's very important to test your prices unless you're in a very
competitive market where margins are low and higher sales prices
result in few or no sales. There are ways around these problems
for the more competitive markets but that is beyond the scope of
this article.
Trust and credibility
The next reason people
don’t buy from your site is that they don’t trust you and your
company. As you may know, the Internet is a very anonymous
place. Your prospect is not going to the local store to buy
something; instead, your site is among thousands of other sites
from all over the world trying to sell him/her a product or
service. How can your prospects decide to trust you when they
hear about all the Web scams out there?
You can use the same
methods that brick and mortar stores use to overcome this
obstacle. Let people know who you are and how long you’ve been in
business. You may think that an anonymous site that looks
professionally designed but with almost no contact information is
good....but....that’s just not true. The trite marketing saying,
“The more you tell, the more you sell” definitely applies on the
Web.
People who buy from you
want to know as much as possible about you personally, about your
employees and exactly what they can expect when purchasing your
products. Put your picture and the pictures of your staff on your
site. Did you know that some of the most successful catalog
marketers do this? They put pictures in the catalog of the CEO
with a personal note to customers along with pictures of various
staff members and their biographies. Your prospect wants to know
who s/he is dealing with and anonymous just doesn’t give your
customers what they want!
Credit card security
The next issue is
security of credit card information. I’m sure you’ve had the
experience of wanting to buy a product on the Web and then feeling
a bit unsure about giving them your credit card number. You must
reassure your prospect about the extra efforts you’ve made to
secure all the information that is required for a credit card
transaction. And be sure to tell them about it on your site in
strategic places where they are making purchasing decisions.
In addition, you should
also offer every way possible for them to purchase. Some people
will never feel safe using a credit card online; do you want to
lose their business? Of course you don’t, so let them buy the way
they want to. Give them an “800” phone number, let them use checks
online or order by mail. Let them send their order by fax if
that’s the way they want to do it.
Be careful to reassure
prospects with privacy statements and security information before
they get to your purchase page as well as on the purchase page. It
never hurts to repeat things because most people don’t pay much
attention and at the moment of decision, they need to be positive
that their information is safe.
Privacy issues
Protecting your
customers’ privacy is connected to how you handle credit card
information as well as what you plan to do with their email
addresses, phone numbers and home addresses. Customers want to
know what you will do with this information. It's very important
that you let them know exactly how and when you will use it.
One policy that is found
on many sites involves telling the customer that the site owners
never rent or sell their customer information to anyone. On the
other hand, you can also ask customers on your purchase form if
it's OK for you to send them offers or to have affiliates or
partners send them emails or regular mail. That way, you can have
the option of renting or selling your lists while your customers
remain in control of their information. Thus, you can build an
opt-in mailing list that could become quite valuable.
Site navigation
The next reason why
people don’t buy is site navigation difficulty. The way to
overcome this problem is to put a navigation bar on the left side
of the page and link logical pages to each other so that the
customer can get anywhere on the site quickly and easily. It also
helps to put navigation buttons at the top and bottom of your
pages. Your site can look good but still be easy to get around
in. Ask customers for feedback to find problems that could stop
sales. Often they will be glad to give you their input to help
make your site better.
Another commonly
encountered problem related to this one is the case with slow
loading graphics and text that loads after the graphics. You
should always have the text on your pages load first. That way,
if your customer is using a slow modem and has to wait for the
graphics to load, s/he can at least read what you have to say
about your products or services in the meantime.
Shipping problems
The last reasons why you
may lose sales involve shipping. As you know, people are
impatient and want results very quickly from their online
transactions. Therefore, you should always offer several shipping
options including overnight. Even when it’s expensive, some people
will choose this option.
But there is another
issue to beware of. Some companies try to make additional profits
by charging a lot more for shipping than it actually costs. Never
underestimate your Internet customers’ intelligence. They will
notice your inflated shipping costs and this can turn them off so
much that you will lose them as customers.
In Closing
Of course, this is not a
comprehensive list of reasons why people don't buy from you, but
if you address these issues you are likely to get more sales. The
important things to remember about marketing on the Internet are
essentially the same ones that any brick and mortar business has
to deal with. Customers want to know that you are honest and that
you respect them and their privacy. When you create an Internet
business that considers these issues, you will get more sales and
build long-term customer loyalty.
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Internet marketing, search engines, sales success, web copywriting,
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Copyright 2005 Teddi McDonald
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