Has this situation happened to you? You made your dropshipping store, did your marketing, and even targeted the right audience. However, still not getting the sales you had imagined? Don’t worry. It’s common to have fewer sales than traffic. Many dropshippers also went through this stage. Here’s what should work on:
Analyze User Data
Before starting to optimize your store, we should diagnose it first. We commonly use Google Analytics to analyze consumer behavior. It allows you to see how many people left your site while on the products page and how many abandoned a cart. You can also see how many people proceeded to the checkout and left from there. This data can be used to improve the website experience.
If someone left your site on the product page, maybe it was because he couldn’t find an “add to cart” button. You could fix this issue by putting a much larger, appealing “add to cart” button. As for the abandoned carts, you can set up automatic emails for those customers. The emails should convince them to checkout by offering discounts. Check our previous video here for how to reduce the cart abandonment rate. Once we have diagnosed where went wrong, we can start to work on it.
Improvements to Your Website
1. Mobile Site
The website experience can vary vastly from a computer to a mobile device. As mobile devices provide the most traffic, make sure your mobile site is easy-to-navigate and appealing. Use the inspect website view to see how your site will look on a smartphone. Alternatively, open up your site on different models of tablets and smartphones to see if your website is working correctly, especially for image size and website layout.
2. Homepage
The homepage is the first page a visitor will see. It should be pleasing yet straightforward. A professional-looking brand logo and a top-quality banner image should cover most of the page. Make sure to use colors that go along with each other for better visibility.
A good homepage has minimal yet meaningful text. Add a Call to Action (CTA) on your homepage along with a short description of your newest product/service. You can add promotional text on the sidebars of your page. It may contain discount information or other important notices. Ensure that this does not take away attention from the main page.
3. Product Page
Your product pictures should be the main character of the product page. Have at least four images displaying your product from different angles. These pictures should be high resolution and not blurry. Customers should be able to zoom in to have a detailed view. To get quality photos, you can hire an expert photographer or maybe request a photography service at CJ Dropshipping.
The second thing your product page should focus on is a good title. Your product’s images should be under a heading in a large, bold font. Headings should be easy to read and contain only the product name. To convince your customers to buy the product, you need to have punchy product descriptions.
The long speech will only tire your customer; try to add pictures or GIFs among the text. Descriptions should express to the customer what value your product provides and what pain point they could avoid.
Adding customer reviews is very important. Sharing experiences of previous buyers will give the current audience courage and confidence to purchase your product. Tell customers how much of a product is in stock. Show them which sizes are available.
It will force them to take action as they will see their favorite products selling out. Although a product page contains important information, make sure to express it in short phrases and one-line sentences.
4. Easy Checkouts
After the homepage and product page, the next important page is the checkout page. The checkout page should never force customers to “sign-up.” It should require as little information as possible. Customers can easily reach the checkout page anywhere and anytime.
What’s more, the checkout page should seem professional and have a similar design to the rest of your site. Besides, offering variants of payment methods like Google Pay and embedding trust badges on your site will also help. We have talked about that so many times. That’s another must.
5. Easy to Navigate Website
Your online store is like a physical store. Once your audience lands on your site, you need to ensure they can find what they are looking for. The header and footer of your site accommodate the navigation. Try to make the header as simple as possible.
Have short menus in the header section. They should expand to a range of categories and sub-categories. It will allow users to find products with ease. Once the navigation is easy, users will stay longer when browsing your store.
The footer of a website is also as important as the header. That’s the place we usually put for policies, like Return and Refund Policy, Terms, and Conditions, etc. Your privacy and refund policies should be stated plainly and directly.
These will save the customers from confusion and reduce the workload of custom service. Ensure your navigation buttons are working and are able to direct users to the correct pages. Ask other people like friends or coworkers to browse your site and check if they can easily navigate your site.
6. Live Chats
Having a live chat service on your website is another way to communicate with the masses. You can set up these chat sections with apps like Facebook Messenger. Consumers will be able to connect on-site. It will allow you to connect personally with everyone and answer their questions.
Furthermore, you can also automate chatbots and automatically reply to any DM. This can be useful when customers leave their carts. Your automated chatbot will message the customer and convince him/her to return to the shopping cart.
In addition to the shopping experience, what else can you improve?
1. Share Your Story
Use the About us page to fill in your advantage. Share your brand ideology and narrate a short, engaging story of what got you started. State what you stand for. Explain your story in a way that the audience connects with you. By the end of the About page, your customers should be certain that you are the right people to buy from.
2. Use Social Media
Stay active on social platforms that your audience uses. Your audience will likely go through your social media and decide whether to buy from you or not. Have appealing images on Instagram profiles and link these profiles to your website. Also, actively engage with customers on Instagram DMs (direct messages). It will make a strong bond between the customers and support teams. As customer issues are solved, they will be more likely to buy your product.
3. Land on Relevant Pages
Advertising services on platforms like Facebook and Instagram does not mean the job is done. You need to transform that traffic into sales. To do so, you need to be sure that audiences reach what they click on.
For example, if you posted about your sneaker collection on Facebook, the link present should take the clicker to your website’s sneaker collection page. It should not lead to the homepage or any other page as that would be irrelevant. Traffic will not convert to sales. Instead, the user experience will be compromised.
4. Retarget Previous Customers
Getting new customers can be difficult when targeting previous ones is easy. You can do so by messaging them according to their previous browsing sessions on your site. This can prove effective as messages have a 98% of the opening rate. You can also target this audience with advertisements. Retargeting older visitors will keep you in their mind they are likely to return.
Last Words
Although it can be difficult to convert traffic into sales, work on the common problems mentioned above to improve sales. It may take some time. You might need to work on all the principles mentioned above, or maybe just a few. Either way, you will eventually reach the sale goals you always dreamt of or go even higher!
