Does Your Shopping Cart Have a Squeaky Wheel

Have you ever gone grocery shopping just before a holiday? The
aisles are packed with people pushing carts, shelves need
restocked, all the checkout lanes have long lines...not a fun
experience.

Just like in-person shopping, making online shopping easy and
painless is key to getting customers to purchase from your
store. Advertisement Let's examine the internet shopping process
from start to finish exposing some places in the process that
your store may have a squeaky cart.

Make the Product Easy to Find Offer a search capability if your
store has a large number of products. Most buyers don't have the
patience to wade through 20 pages of products to find what they
want.

Share Availability Early On Now that the customer has found the
product, let them know that it is in stock and ready to ship.
Right on the product page or when they place it in their
shopping cart let the customer know their purchase can be on its
way soon. Don't wait until after they've placed the order to
tell them it will be another 6-8 weeks.

Streamline the Order Form Limit your order form to the basics.
Shipping information, credit card or payment information, and
the quantity and order number are all it takes. This isn't the
place to conduct market research or ask for loads of
information. Keep the order form short and simple. For future
purchases, keep the customer's data on file so they can fly
through the ordering even faster next time.

Handling Your Shipping (and Handling) One big reason many people
don't shop on the internet is that they have to pay for
shipping. Offer a variety of shipping options to the customer so
that she can decide how quickly she needs the item and what she
is willing to pay to have the product delivered. Resist the
temptation to add large handling fees to the shipping costs.
What looked like a great online deal at $19.95 isn't nearly as
attractive when shipping + handling brings the total cost to
$29.95.

Keeping your online order process simple and straightforward
will enhance your customer's satisfaction and the likelihood
that they will visit your store again.