by John Almberg, Identry LLC, January 2007
We've been talking about why websites flop. This issue, we'll take up the #2 reason – being hard to buy from.
By coincidence, I got an email this month with a related question:
“I'm doing the marketing and getting lots of visitors,” the dealer wrote. “But they only buy once or twice, and then I never hear from them again. How can I make my website more 'sticky'?”
What is a 'sticky website', anyway? Do you need some sort of secret Internet glue?
Nope. 'Sticky' is one of those Internet words that were coined during the 90s. If you have a sticky website, it means that your on-line store is getting lots good old-fashioned repeat business.
How can you do that? It's not easy, but you need to do two things:
- Deliver product (items and price) that exceeds your customer's expectations
- Deliver process (how easy it is to buy) that exceeds your customer's expectations.
If you exceed in both these areas, your on-line business will attract lots of loyal customers. If you really wow them, they'll tell all their friends about the great website they found.
As a dealer, you know how to deliver great stamps or coins or whatever at a great price. I'll focus on #2 – things you can do to make your website faster and more convenient than any of your competitors.
Take the test!
To see how your website rates on process, take the test:
1. How Useful is your site?
Go to your home page. Does it get right down to business, showing stamps for sale, a product directory, and a search box?
Shoppers typically don't care about how you got into collecting at age 10. They do care about finding the stuff they want to buy quickly and easily. Make sure your home page makes it easier to buy.
2. Are you wasting their time?
Go to your home page. How many clicks does it take to buy something? 7 clicks is okay. 4 will wow them.
Go back to your home page. Choose a category of stamps. Can you get to that category page in one click?
Put something in your shopping cart and start to check out. Can you get to your Contact Us page in one click?
To wow your customers, make sure every page on your website is one click away from every other page.
3. Are there lots of ways to search?
Go to any page on your site. Is there a search box and product directory?
Once they find what they're looking for, do you make the next step easier by showing them similar items, such as all stamps with the same catalog number? Or items your website thinks they'll like, based on past purchases and searches?
To wow them, show them what they want before they ask.
4. Is everything obvious?
Is everything they need to buy available on every page? For example, a search box, product directory, summary of shopping cart, check out button, and contact information (phone, email, live help, etc.)?
To wow them, make everything obvious.
5. Is it fast?
Fire up a dial-up connection. Go to your website and try to buy something. Does each page load in 8 seconds or less? If you want to wow your dial-up collectors, they should.
If you've got a broadband connection, it's easy to forget that something like a third of your customers still hear a dial tone before they log on to shop.
Collectors won't come back to your site to re-admire your graphics. They will come back to buy, but only if your site is fast and convenient.
6. Do you show them what they've bought?
Go to any page on your website. Can you access your shopping cart in one click? Good. To wow your customers, show the cart or a summary on every page.
Seeing the cart gives your customers a sense of security. They can see what they've bought and that they haven't accidentally added a $4000 item to their order.
Show them the tax and shipping charges, too. That way, there won't be any nasty surprises when they get to the checkout line.
7. Do you encourage personal contact?
Go to any page. Is your 800 number easy to spot? Is there a 'Click for Live Help' button? Nothing frustrates shoppers more than websites that hide their phone numbers and make it hard to contact a real person.
If you make it easy to contact you, great! To wow your customers, encourage them to contact you, and then wow them with great customer service.
Wowing customers with personal service turns customers into advocates.
Wrapping Up
There's lots of other reasons for website flops, so next month, I'll continue this series with the #3 reason: No differentiation.
Meanwhile, please send any questions or comments to john@identry.com, or visit us at www.identry.com. And have a great month Selling Stamps on the Web!
