In this series we have been talking about the implications of opening an online store. In the first four parts of it I wrote about the importance of marketing (SEO, SEM and Social networks), customer service, means of payment, inventories and storage. In this article I will write about the minimum items that each product should have on our online store, according to my point of view, in order to make much more easier for our customer the decision process of buying our goods.
We have to start by understanding that physical stores and online stores are very different. On the first ones the client can observe and touch the good he is going to buy an even in some cases he might use it before he buys it, while in the second one he can not do any of this processes. Therefore we should enable some “helps” so that the client understands the product and decides to buy it. In this article I will mention two elements that I think that are essential for this process.
The first “help” I wanted to mention are pictures. However today we find many options. First, a grate range of picture qualities exists. The better this quality is the best understanding and view of the product the client will have, which may lead to a sale. Second, depending on the type of product we are going to have to show different kind of images. For example if we are selling a sauce an image of the can is enough but if what we are selling is clothing we will not only have to show a picture of the product but also the apparel worn by a model and maybe from different angles. Finally I would like to mention that today with the ease of producing videos for the Internet, in some cases it is a good idea to complement the pictures section with a video.
The second element I wanted to write about is descriptions. Regardless if what we are selling is a product or a service it is essential for our customers to be able to read a full and detailed description of it. One of the giants of retail sale online is Amazon who is known by the excellent description they make about the products they are selling. We should take them as an example and present to our customers a full description of the product and a great deal of information about it. In this way they will be able to decide in an easier way if they should buy that product. The richer this description is we are going to be suiting in a better way our clients and generating more sales.
Image taken from Flickr.com