5 Ways to Build Your eCommerce Business on Facebook

In our last post, we talked about the increase in online shopping on social media sites and how more and more merchants are setting up Facebook stores.  

"According to Forrester Research and Shop.org, implementation of social shopping sites for retailers will grow from 15 percent in 2010 to 47 percent in 2011," says Kevin Gralen, founder and CEO of ShopTab, a product that helps merchants create shops on their Facebook pages.

To bring more people to your Facebook store and page, you can implement some effective social networking strategies. Practical eCommerce presented some good tips in a recent blog entry.  We've covered most of them in various posts, but it's always good to get a reminder.

Check out Practical eCommerce's 5 Pointers for Using Facebook for Your eCommerce Business. 

Turn Abandoned Shopping Carts Into Sales

Online hardware store Everyday Warehousers recently brought web developer Judson Cooper onto its staff to help improve the store’s design, sales and conversion.

One of the first things Judson looked at was the web storefront’s abandoned shopping carts.  “He discovered that in February alone, we had $40,000 in abandoned shopping carts,” says owner Ralph Smith.  That amount astounded Ralph, so Judson is now doing what he can to turn those carts into sales.

“I mostly found that people were feeling uncomfortable buying online,” says Judson, “so I optimized and cleared up the checkout process.” 

For example, the system had a few shipping discrepancies that Judson is resolving. “We’ve had people pick USPS and the system defaulted to standard shipping, or the shipping calculator allowed them to pick $22 shipping as opposed to $7,” Ralph explains.  “We’re not in the business of making money on shipping, so we want to make sure we’re charging shoppers the correct amount.”

Judson is also making Everyday Warehousers’ privacy and security policies more prominent.  “We now have the policy and SSL certificate at the top of the web page, where customers input their information, so that they can easily see them.”  He’s also working on getting a premium SSL certificate, so that the web storefront has the corresponding green icon at the top of its browser. 

Finally, offering shoppers a phone number as a store contact has helped raise conversion. “It made a big impact on sales because people love to know that they can call a real person,” says Ralph.

Lengthen the Hot Sales Season with Post-Holiday Promotions

The holidays are finally here, the shipping deadlines have passed, and it’s time to take a deep breath and relax, right?  Well, enjoy that well-deserved break, but once the weekend has passed, it’s important to make sure you have your post-holiday ducks in a row. 

Many shoppers like to cash in on post-holiday clearance sales, so take advantage of those potential profits with the following tips:

Conversion Tips: Display Fewer Categories On Your Ecommerce Site

Take a look at your list of categories on your web store. If it takes you several minutes to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the list, you have too many. You don't want to confuse your customer or overwhelm them with too many categories. Ultimately, the number of categories a shopper is willing to scan through varies according to the types of products you sell.  In general, we recommend no more than 30 or so product categories (not including sub-categories) on a storefront.  This keeps most of the category links 'above the fold', simplifies the navigation and makes it easier for the buyer to scan the page.

For new ProStores merchants, we recommend using one of the Build Your Own and Contemporary themes when selecting your store theme. The left navigation menu on all storefronts using these themes will display up to 25 top level categories (which can be expanded and collapsed) plus a “More Categories” link. An “All Categories” page will display top level categories and up to 4 subcategories plus a “More” link and search results per page will be limited to 100 products.

Conversion Tips: Add Product Reviews To Product Pages On Your Web Store

Research has proven that customers are more likely to purchase a product from your store if you include customer reviews. If you want to increase your on store sales, then start allowing your customers to leave feedback about the product they are purchasing and showcase these reviews to other customers when they buy! Reviews generated by your customers will also drive more traffic as you optimize your store for natural search with fresh content.

For ProStores merchants, we've integrated with PowerReviews Express so that you can quickly and easily implement customer reviews.

Be sure to check out this article from ecommerce-guide.com which gives tips on soliciting product reviews. ProStores merchants like Curry Simple and Peppy Parents have been using PowerReviews and have used email marketing newsletters like those from Sales in a Click (a ProStores-compatible tool) to help solicit reviews from their customers.

drawing of free merchandise, announced to our newsletter list -- where the entry is writing a product review for something purchased. That's been very effective.

Conversion Tips: Add Reputation Builders

One of the many obstacles to converting a shopper into a buyer is lack of trust. Show your potential customers that you are a credible, legitimate seller by displaying trust marks or reassurance logos such as SSL images, safety icons and accepted payment logos and Better Business Bureau seals. You can find the most recent logos on official web-sites of PayPal, MasterCard, Thawte, Better Business Bureau, etc. for download and usage.

For example, if you signed up for an SSL certificate, the company you used may provide you with a snippet of code that displays an image link that lets your customers know your site is secured by them.

You can add that snippet of code in ProStores by going to:

Store Design > Design Settings and click Theme Builder to add reputation builders to your store theme.

Conversion Tips: Provide guest checkout

Improve conversion on your site by making it easy for your buyers to checkout from your store anonymously.Some shoppers prefer to make purchases without being forced to create an account or give their personal information.

Merchants can still obtain the necessary information to authorize and fulfill orders. Anonymous customer information is saved on the invoice but it is not saved as a customer record in the customer manager area of ProStores.

To do this in ProStores, go to Store Settings > General Preferences and select the Allow both checkout options (registration/sign-in and guest checkout) option in the Shopping Cart and Checkout Options section.

Conversion Tip: The Store Logo

Imagine arriving at a brick and mortar store but there was no sign out front. Or perhaps there is a sign but it looks like someone drew it on with a marker. What would be your impression of that store? Would you trust it? Would you go in? Most importantly, would you buy something from it?

This is the way you should be thinking of your store logo. We do still see some online stores that are up and running but do not have a logo - or they have one that is the wrong size or is illegible. A logo is important for creating your brand - your identity - and is often the first thing a shopper sees and uses to help him or her decide whether to go further and shop your store. A logo should enhance your online store, but not overpower it, so that customers can focus on your products.

If you're a ProStores merchant  and you don't have a store logo, be sure to add one. Just go to Store Design>>Design Settings and click the Logo Change link to add a store logo. If you don't have one already, you can create one using the Logo Generator in ProStores. You can also have one designed for you by either a Prostores Certified Designer or by taking advantage of LogoWorks and LogoMaker's special offer (save $50 on a professionally-designed corporate identity package from Logoworks or get 25% off Logomaker's do-it-yourself logo design) which you can find by going to your ProStores Control Panel.