© 2000 by Kurt Geer
Do you wonder why the industry average of conversion rates of
a customer buying on web sites is only 2 percent?
Have you tried to purchase anything online from some of
the Big Boys? I have a feeling that it's a game with them
to load all the graphics they can and slow down their
sites to be the slowest loading sites on the net. Once you
get the site to load they make it almost impossible and
frustrating to try to purchase from them.
What about the consumer who is ready to buy, if they find the
product they are looking for when they hit the site ? Why do some
sites make it so difficult? You have to get out the magnifying
glass to figure out how to purchase,find the product, and surf thru
6 pages to purchase.
Click====>gone!
Once you do purchase from them on the special that ends at
midnight tonight, for a saving of 10 percent and it doesn't
arrive with the other products that were purchased at the
same time, it really gets frustrating to send an email to
customer service and get a reply that the shipping deptarment is
looking into it, and not getting back to you with an answer
for two weeks. The kicker is that the site wasn't updated
soon enough to take the out of stock product off the site
before I was lucky enough to purchase it.
I am to the point that if a site does not have a phone number or
contact email I will not purchase from them, period! In the last
year there have been a few problems with products that I have
purchased online and trying to straighten them out with the
company has been next to impossible. One of the only ways to get
any satisfaction is to stop payment thru the credit card company
that you purchased the product with.
Granted some folks are to scared to purchase online for fear
Their credit card info will be stolen or sold. These people
are going to be a real hard sell and won't convert until they are
ready to do it themselves, and some of these people may never
purchase online.
Look for sites that have Verisign, Icop, Etrust or Paypal on the secure
server pages when you decide it's time to purchase something
online.
If you think that I am just blowing off steam your right, but
I do believe there are a lot of people who agree with me. Check
out Smart Business Mags article comparing and testing 20 of the
major sites from eToys to Amazon with testers in the Dec 2000 issue
http://www.zdnet.com/smartbusinessmag/stories/all/0,6605,2646457,00.html
Side Note- Last I heard eToys stock price was $.28 a share
from a high of $86 early in 2000, and they are looking for a buyer.
The 2 percent Conversion Rate really needs work before the
magnificent projected numbers that Juniper, Forrester and
other Advertising watchers are predicting by 2003 or 2004.
Of course with more user-friendly sites, things could change
and the 2 percent could easily double or more if the larger
sites take a lesson from some the smaller ones.
One of the reasons that some of the smaller sites don't
convert customers is trust, they are unknown to the average
consumer. This can be overcome by getting the
customer back to your site, by offering something that will
bring them back and stay or stick to your site. One of the
best ways to overcome this is to get their email address
when they hit your site, and give them a reason to come back.
I do have to say that a lot of the smaller or unknown sites
really do make it easy to buy from them when you decide it
is time to purchase their product. The smaller Internet Marketers
are blowing the socks off some of the Big Boys when it comes to
Conversion Rates. Their guarantees and customer
service really does stand up to scrutiny when you call
them on it. How else would they survive if they didn't?
Click====> SOLD
http://www.planetfeedback.com/
http://www.epinions.com/
http://www.bizrate.com/
http://www.ecomplaints.com/
Sources:
Business 2.0
Smart Business Mag
SiteSell
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