Tips for turning browsers into buyers

Selling successfully to people who browse on the Internet has many of the elements of ordinary sales and marketing, but there are some subtle differences. For a start, the demographics of people who shop on the Web can be quite different from those who stick to bricks and mortar retailing, unless you happen to be selling hi-tech equipment or gadgets.

The Internet is a good sales medium for products where you can make a judgement based upon sight or sound, but poor where smell, taste or touch are important. If you need more than sight or sound to sell, you'll need to build trust - customers will need to have confidence that fruit will be ripe, clothes will fit and so on. You can build trust by establishing a reputation, or by reducing the risk to the buyer by offering no-quibble guarantees.

The key to sales is offering what the customer wants, at a price they are happy to pay. In your e-store, the buyer cannot easily ask questions of you, so you need to provide all the information they require to make a decision. It's very easy to drive someone away on the Web -the rest of the world is only a click away - so minimise the barriers to buying.

Don't ask them to log in or supply any details before they can look at your catalogue

There will be plenty of time to get their name and address once they've decided to buy something. It's sensible to offer regular customers some form of recognition, like showing their name, but if you ask for it too early, it's like an over-familiar salesman. Most buyers will leave your site rather than fill in a form.

Don't use Flash, large images, front-doors or other gimmicks

If you really need a short introduction, then offer a 'skip intro' link. Otherwise, 80-90% of your visitors will leave without opening the door. The rest will watch the animation and then leave. Ask yourself what's more important - impressing people with your technical wizardry or selling them something?

Make it easy to find your products and services

If you have a home page, have a clear link such as 'Shop Here' in large letters. Don't rely on clever graphics or animations. Flashing and blinking images and text can be distracting.

Make it easy to recognise what you sell

Have pictures of the sort of products you sell in each category - some of your buyers may not speak your language, but they know what they want to buy. If you sell branded goods, use the brand logos (get permission) to reinforce your credibility and to speed people through. Link logos to the relevant sales section.

Keep it simple

Make sure it's obvious how to add something to the shopping basket and use common metaphors. If they can't see how to buy, they won't -there's always another store to go to.

Provide good searching

Provide attribute-based searches as well as keywords. If someone is looking for a four-door car on your site, they don't want to have to guess if you called it 'four-door', '4-door' or '4dr'. Create a drop-down list of the common attributes of your products and supplement your normal keyword searching. Make sure that searching is fast and accurate.

Keep your site up-to-date

If goods go out of stock, take them off the site or mark them as 'Temporarily out-of-stock'. Make sure your terms and conditions explain what happens if you do run out. The Internet is very good for disposing of 'dead stock' at discount prices, but keep this in a separate section from your regular items, where it can be updated easily.

Show special prices and your fastest-moving goods on your entry page

Provide hot-links through to the main part of the catalogue, but avoid having a 'Buy now' link on the entry page. It's better for customers to have a look round at other items, just in case they buy more. However, every item in your main catalogue should have a 'Buy and checkout' link for the buyer in a rush. If it's difficult to buy, they'll be gone.

Offer to keep the name and address of buyers - you can use a cookie on their browser to avoid security issues

This will allow your customers to check out without having to type all their details in again. They'll appreciate it, and it's an incentive to shop again. Give them the option to not store the cookie - they may not be using their regular computer.

Make your promises and guarantees clear and unequivocal

Include your guarantees in the checkout process, even if they appear elsewhere on the site. You need to inspire confidence in buyers. If you ever have an issue, just make the refund -unhappy people tell two or three times as many other people as happy ones do.