Never let your shoppers leave half-way through the buying process – again!

Today’s customers are finicky. They want to find what they’re looking for – fast. If they don’t get it on your site, they’re simply going to go elsewhere! So what’s the deal on making them stay and buy?
Here are 10 great tips to never let your customers leave without buying something!!

Ten best kept secrets to retaining customers – and making them buy!

1. Email address: Most e-commerce sites have a prerequisite to register with a user ID instead of email address. This is a big mistake. People tend to remember email addresses much better than a user ID. Make customers visit your site more often, and more conveniently – with their email addresses!
2. Payment process: Usually when it comes to paying and placing orders online, the process tends to be very tedious and lengthy. Not only do customers have to enter the mailing address for delivery, the mode of delivery, credit card details etc., they also need to confirm the order before sending it for processing. Dividing this complex process into smaller portions will enable your customers to remember the steps better. Plus it increases their chances of buying on your site!
3. Knowing where you are: Very often the entire process of payment processing involves many steps. For an average consumer it can be frustrating if they have no idea how much time it is going to take for completing the process. Therefore, always make it a point to inform customers which stage of the process they’re in. Makes things much easier for them!
4. Simplify, simplify, simplify: We cannot stress this enough. As it is payment processes are complex – why make it even more tedious? Simple things like entering the expiry month on the credit card in numerical format (instead of the actual month) can do wonders for your business. Many websites ask for details that aren’t even necessary! Please don’t make this mistake – try making it as simple for your customer as possible!
5. Answering questions: During the process of placing an order and paying for it, customers might have several questions cropping up in their minds. Things like – why do they need my telephone number, or why are they asking me for an alternate email ID etc. can arise. Try and act as if you’re a customer and analyze what sort of questions customers typically ask. Then place answers to these during the order placing process on the same screen. This makes customers feel like you’ve really given thought to helping them out. Plus it minimizes the calls you’ll receive to your customer care centers!
6. Mandatory fields: It can be extremely frustrating to fill out a lengthy form and submit it – only to return to it with an error saying ‘all fields are not filled’. Right at the beginning you need to inform your customers which are the mandatory fields.
7. Registration: Most e-commerce sites make registration compulsory before anyone can place orders. However this just restricts your sales. Many customers may not be okay with registering on your site. Forcing them to do so will just limit your profits.
8. Security: In spite of the Internet revolution most customers still find giving out sensitive credit card information online – quite jittery. Therefore you need to assure them that your site is SSL certified, has encryption software and that shopping is safe on your site.
9. Overview: Before the final stage of placing an order online, customers need to have an overall view of their order, so they can confirm if the details are correct. Things like date of delivery, mailing address as well as modes to track the status of delivery online etc. should be provided.
10. Email: It is a good idea to send an automated email to the customer’s Inbox as soon as an order is placed. Apart from mentioning all the required details like order number, mailing address etc. the email should thank the customer for purchasing on your site.