1. Good photography - Showing a product online has changed through the years. In the beginning, all you had to do was have a title and the price. There was little compition in selling your one type of product. People noticed the void and started filling it. Wether you are a retailer or a manufacturer, you got into your line of work because you saw a need and you filled it. So did thousands of other people. With the space being filled more and more every day, it is now starting to get crowded. Lets face it, everyone wants a piece of the pie. The million dollar question is how do you get more pie!
The answer that I know is show your product in the best light possible. This is both a visual thing as well as a textual thing.
I am biased, if you have a physical product, the then most important thing is make it look great online. Remember, I am a visual person, I am a photographer, and I am a web monkey. Your web users want to see your product in as good of light and the ones walking down the isles in a store. How much time and energy is put into packaging design? Then why are you just slapping a picture on the internet and hoping it sells.
The mindset that you as a manufacturer needs to remember is that the online buyer is the same as a brick and mortar buyer. They want some of the same things out of their shopping experience. This is not one of those actions where they want a suprise when they open that shipping box in a few days. They want to know what it is that they are getting. Showcase the product, make the user comforatble about their purchase. If you as a retailer do not have good product photography from the manfactuer, either get great photographs or demand them from the manufacturer.
2. Good detail - Remember the devil is in the details. Each and every web customer is getting more and more savie every day. They are sponges that want more and more information. They want to feel that they know everything about your product. Give them more photography, more detail and more copy so that their comfort level is reached. In no way is this instruction to write a dictionary about the product. Tabs and deliniated infromation is always a good idea. Use rollover zooms on images, 360 product views or other methods to show large amounts of visual information on the same page. You do not want a grey page when the customers sees it. Instead, you want all of the information one click a way and well ordered.
3. Easy of Operations - That ties straight into number three. Easy Opteration. The last thing you want to do is have your customer confused about your site. They want to enjoy their shopping experience. Do not go head over heals on the unneeded bells and whistles, KISS. Easier said then done. If you know the information that you want to show, but you do not know the best way to show it, find a great interface designer. That is what they do every day. A good way for me to look at it is the dash of a Shelby Cobra has the same functions as a Mercedes S class, but on has a little better design.
4. User Interaction - Remember that if they do not understand the interface, they can not interact with it. You want your customers to feel like they are in your brands experience. You want the same feeling that they get when they walk into a great brick and mortar store. Mood music aka musax. I remember working at a grocery store while in high school. That was when I learned about Cold and Warm light bulbs. One day I had to get the ladder and change a few bulbs in the store. At the time I never thought about it, but the bulbs are different at different places of the store. Warm bulbs do not make good looking Milk, but cold light bulbs do not make fruit appitizing. This same level of thought needs to go into your whole store.
5. Merchandising - That brings us to the front of the store. In the case of online stores, it is not a sign post, or a tile floating around on the internet, but instead your ranking in search engines, that gets the people to your door. The content that your write about the products is how the search engines find you store. Then on every product because you never know how the customer is going to get to you, is your front door. Always keep in mind that how they got to your little corner of the internet might not be the thing they are looking for. Related products, and other suggestions are always a great way to get the customer circulating through your store. This is not just for an up sale, but to help the customer find the things they are looking for. With this, getting your customer to refer their friends goes farther then any television spot. Think of the budget, use that to get every customer to tell everyone they know about your store. Another offer to give your customers is a limited use coupon. This makes it to where they get to send a "GOOD" coupon to a few of their friends.
The answer that I know is show your product in the best light possible. This is both a visual thing as well as a textual thing.
I am biased, if you have a physical product, the then most important thing is make it look great online. Remember, I am a visual person, I am a photographer, and I am a web monkey. Your web users want to see your product in as good of light and the ones walking down the isles in a store. How much time and energy is put into packaging design? Then why are you just slapping a picture on the internet and hoping it sells.
The mindset that you as a manufacturer needs to remember is that the online buyer is the same as a brick and mortar buyer. They want some of the same things out of their shopping experience. This is not one of those actions where they want a suprise when they open that shipping box in a few days. They want to know what it is that they are getting. Showcase the product, make the user comforatble about their purchase. If you as a retailer do not have good product photography from the manfactuer, either get great photographs or demand them from the manufacturer.
2. Good detail - Remember the devil is in the details. Each and every web customer is getting more and more savie every day. They are sponges that want more and more information. They want to feel that they know everything about your product. Give them more photography, more detail and more copy so that their comfort level is reached. In no way is this instruction to write a dictionary about the product. Tabs and deliniated infromation is always a good idea. Use rollover zooms on images, 360 product views or other methods to show large amounts of visual information on the same page. You do not want a grey page when the customers sees it. Instead, you want all of the information one click a way and well ordered.
3. Easy of Operations - That ties straight into number three. Easy Opteration. The last thing you want to do is have your customer confused about your site. They want to enjoy their shopping experience. Do not go head over heals on the unneeded bells and whistles, KISS. Easier said then done. If you know the information that you want to show, but you do not know the best way to show it, find a great interface designer. That is what they do every day. A good way for me to look at it is the dash of a Shelby Cobra has the same functions as a Mercedes S class, but on has a little better design.
4. User Interaction - Remember that if they do not understand the interface, they can not interact with it. You want your customers to feel like they are in your brands experience. You want the same feeling that they get when they walk into a great brick and mortar store. Mood music aka musax. I remember working at a grocery store while in high school. That was when I learned about Cold and Warm light bulbs. One day I had to get the ladder and change a few bulbs in the store. At the time I never thought about it, but the bulbs are different at different places of the store. Warm bulbs do not make good looking Milk, but cold light bulbs do not make fruit appitizing. This same level of thought needs to go into your whole store.
5. Merchandising - That brings us to the front of the store. In the case of online stores, it is not a sign post, or a tile floating around on the internet, but instead your ranking in search engines, that gets the people to your door. The content that your write about the products is how the search engines find you store. Then on every product because you never know how the customer is going to get to you, is your front door. Always keep in mind that how they got to your little corner of the internet might not be the thing they are looking for. Related products, and other suggestions are always a great way to get the customer circulating through your store. This is not just for an up sale, but to help the customer find the things they are looking for. With this, getting your customer to refer their friends goes farther then any television spot. Think of the budget, use that to get every customer to tell everyone they know about your store. Another offer to give your customers is a limited use coupon. This makes it to where they get to send a "GOOD" coupon to a few of their friends.
