If you already have traffic to your ecommerce store (or service business) there is one fast and easy step you can take that can instantly increase sales:  Provide instant answers via live chat as many hours as you possibly can. If you don’t have live chat on your site, read on for how you can get hosted live chat absolutely free.

Why should Live Chat make such a large difference? Because shoppers don’t buy until they have confidence that they have the answers they need to make a decision. The faster and more efficiently you answer their questions the sooner they’ll buy. Live Chat closes sales even on well-designed sites with excellent product descriptions.

Are You Getting the Most out of your existing Live Chat service? Would you like to add excellent hosted Free Chat on your site absolutely free?

• Increase your sales by having someone logged in and available.
• If you have many employees, train more of them to be able to use your chat service.
• Ensure your chat users have the resources and training required to answer quickly what they can and know what to say when they don’t have an instant answer.
• Make sure all your answers are cheerful, helpful and friendly.

Rethink the Live Chat ICON Size and Position

Where you position your Live Chat function and the size of the graphic used to draw attention to it can have a huge effect on how much it is used. I had a client who accidently bumped their Live Chat function to the top right of their page and made the icon excessively large. This occurred during a redesign and was not intentional.

Sales doubled during the short time the Live Chat icon was large and prominent. They dropped back to “normal” as soon as they moved it back to the bottom of the left column under their product categories. Until their designer’s “mistake” accidentally bumped it to the top right I didn’t even know they had Live Chat – and apparently neither did those shopping on the site!

No Live Chat? Get the Best Hosted Live Chat FREE Now

Volusion offers totally free hosted Live Chat to any Web site that desires it. The free Live Chat version allows one person to be logged into the Live Chat from any location. A small business could log out at work and then back in when they get home.

Be Creative in Manning Your Free Live Chat

• Don’t assume you can’t keep your live chat open longer hours at least for the holidays. You could train friends, family, or employees to work from home answering your live chat. The more they know about your products or services the better. Or you could log in and turn up the volume so you could answer while you’re relaxing in front of the television. The sale you make could make it all worthwhile.
• Be sure you select a Live Chat solution that allows you to log in from an unlimited number of computers. Volusion allows one person to be logged in at a time from anywhere on their free version. They charge for each additional simultaneous log-in. Even though their service is considered one of the very best, their Live Chat pricing is lower than any others I’ve checked. (And you can’t beat free for this quality Live Chat service.)

Sellers online and off have the jitters about what 2008 Holiday Sales will do.  Statistics on what has happened so far and predictions about what will happen are all over the map. Check out the quotes from recent articles below showing the wide range of beliefs about what retailers can expect. Then keep reading to find out how YOUR business can increase regardless of what the season brings for the majority.

• “Online spending for October grew at the slowest pace since at least 2001, an Internet research company said Tuesday” ~ Online Sales Growth in October 2008 slowest on record

• “To further the notion that we are in the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to consumer’s shopping habits, web sales gained even more ground on slumping bricks and mortar sales.” ~ Online Sales Grow 5.7% Reports Commerce Department

• “November 12, 2008) Retail sales are slumping and stores are closing, but the online retailing channel—and thereby online payment transaction volumes—will come through relatively unscathed, according to a new report from Javelin Strategy and Research.” A Sour Economy Won’t Hurt Online Shopping or Alternative Payments

• “Online spending growth will plunge to 15 per cent this Christmas from 54 per cent two years ago, according to a survey carried out by IMRG and Capgemini.” ~ Online Sales to Slow Down This Christmas (UK)

• “Online Shopping in Canada Continues to Surge” ~ Surging Online Sales Still Small Fraction of Consumer Spending

Are you inviting them to buy from you – or sending them away without even knowing it?

NOVEMBER 2008 PREDICTIONS on HOLIDAY SALES:

• *** EXCELLENT ARTICLE *** Nov. 20, 2008 Article posted by the Commerce Department – be sure to read this article as it explains how the high cost of oil and food has skewed the 2008 Holiday Sales Statistics. – See also the articles linked at the bottom of this link.
• Sour E-Conomy Doesn’t E-Qual Sour Grapes for E-Commerce
• Economic Depression 2008 – “Online shopping that had been expanding at over 15% every month just a few months back has taken a hammering from the current online crisis. And with the holiday season just around the corner, the situation is set to get worse and eventually bring a record loss to the business.”
• E-tailers Facing Holiday Vortex of Doom; Smallest Increase in Web Spending Ever – If a small increase is “doom” I wonder what they’d call a crash? Linkbait or true perspective?
• Strong Online Sales Predicted for 2008 Holiday Season – “While experts foresee little to no increase in overall retail sales this holiday season, they do expect a 12-percent growth in online sales, Time.com reports.”
• Holiday Shoppers to Spend More of Their Budgets Online
• Holiday Shoppers Continue to Shift Purchases Online
• Online Retail to Beat the Xmas Crunch (UK) – “As High Street retailers start to feel the pinch, online retail sales are set to rise to a staggering £13.16 billion in the last quarter of 2008.” (UK)
• New Hampshire Retailers Not Worried This Season – “A survey of its members by the Retail Merchants Association of New Hampshire finds that not all retailers in New Hampshire are experiencing the doom and gloom that many are forecasting. “Due to our lack of a sales tax, New Hampshire retailers tend to do better than retailers in other parts of the country. We have some pockets of retail that are doing quite well”
• U.S. Census Bureau E-Stats – “The U.S. Census Bureau’s Internet site devoted exclusively to “Measuring the Electronic Economy.” This site features recent and upcoming releases, information on methodology, and background papers.” ~ This site is not nearly as useful as one would hope. More current information may be there somewhere, but it certainly is not obvious where.

MARKETING REFERENCE SITES:

• Nielsen Online – Internet Media and Market Research

PERTINENT COMMENT: Did you notice that some claim ecommerce sales are up and others that they’re down. Some are predicting increases and other decreases. Reasonable people must conclude that both can NOT be correct.  “Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics” applies here. Remember that statistics can be spun to support most any position and enhance PR on both sides. I recommend everyone understand statistics.

There are two major Web design errors that can cost you up to 70% of your conversions.  I am dead serious and not exaggerating. I have personally seen an immediate decline of 70% in both sales quantity and dollar amount that stayed at that level. The cause was a site redesign that included these two common mistakes. Imagine having an existing business suddenly lose 70% of their sales!

So what are the two worst ecommerce Web Design mistakes you can make? Here they are:

1. Requiring your buyers to “register” before they can shop. Big mistake. Imagine walking into a store and being asked for ID before they will let you in. Once someone decides they want to buy from you they’ll gladly give you their personal information – and not a minute before. They just “met” you and don’t know whether they trust you yet. Don’t bar the door – there are plenty of open doors waiting elsewhere.
2. Not providing easy access to shipping costs – and the earlier in the shopping process the better. Infomercials and some eBay sellers have been sucking buyers in with cheap prices and then gouging them with high “shipping and handling” charges for decades. Shipping costs have been the number one complaint of online shoppers in every ecommerce survey I’ve ever seen. Make sure your potential buyers can determine their total price – do it for them if you can. Better that they know how much they’ll have to pay for shipping and get used to the idea while they’re still shopping than have them get sticker shock just before they checkout!

If you are making either of these two mistakes correct them quickly and then read on for many more suggestions on increasing conversion rates through improving the usability of your site.  If you are using a store solution that won’t allow you to eliminate these two issues I strongly advise you move your site to a solution that will. I highly recommend Volusion for their dependability, pricing, ease of use and more.

The most important point every online business needs to know is this: Conversions (how many people take the desired action – whether that is completing a purchase, gaining potential leads, or increasing a subscriber base) are more important by far than increasing traffic.

It does not matter how much traffic you receive if those visitors do not take the desired action.

This is vastly more important if you are buying traffic in any form. Even if you don’t directly pay for visitors and high traffic has not yet cost you more money for bandwidth, it does still increase your overhead and time.

Investing in increasing your conversion rate will pay off much faster and better than increasing your traffic.

* NEW * Special Thanks to MikeTek of UnstuckDigital for sharing an excellent post which includes graphs that clearly show the effect of improving conversion rates.  I encourage you to study the information presented there until it makes sense to you.

Conversion rates are so critical that the book Call to Action: Secret Formulas to Improve Online Results can be found on most every serious Online Marketer’s bookshelf. The most famous quote from that book by the Authors and acknowledged conversion rate experts Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg is this:

“Trying to increase sales simply by driving more traffic to a website with a poor customer conversion rate is like trying to keep a leaky bucket (your sales funnel) full by adding more water instead of plugging the holes. Instead, work on keeping more of your visitors from falling out of the funnel on the way to the close.”

The reason for dismal conversion rates on most online sites becomes obvious as soon as you know the most likely causes. Usability issues are the most common and easiest to identify and correct. Technical issues – particularly with either the shopping cart or merchant approval processes are next (and can be much tougher to diagnose).

Every issue you identify and correct will cause an incremental increase in conversion rates. The two most common ecommerce Web design errors can depress sales by up to 70%! Correct them and you can almost triple your sales.

Watch for upcoming posts in our Increasing Conversion Rates category covering those two common Web site design mistakes, what else to improve, and how to increase conversions through simple – sometimes free – changes.

POSTS RELATED TO INCREASING CONVERSION RATES:

• Are You Driving Away Your Potential Buyers With These Two Common Mistakes
• Close More Sales TODAY By Implementing This One Free Strategy
• Why Conversions Trump More Traffic Every Time
• How to Grow Your Business In Spite of Gloomy Economic Predictions
• Audio Interview with Steve Krug, Author of Don’t Make Me Think – on Web Design and Usability

RECOMMENDED BLOGS:

• FutureNow’s GrokDotCom Marketing Optimization Blog

RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON WEB SITE USABILITY AND CONVERSION OPTIMIZATION:

• *** Don’t Make Me Think by Steven Krug *** Every person involved in the design, creation, ownership or any other aspect of any Web site should own this book. It is simple, concise, to the point, and easy enough for anyone to understand – even people with no Internet or technical background. You can read a Sample Chapter from the book. Buying a copy of this book for every member of your Team will be the best thing any Web site owner ever did. You’ll never make obvious mistakes again if you keep this book handy! Have a CEO or Owner asking you to make one? Give them this book! [NOTE: Look for the second edition.]
  
• Call to Action by Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg – Not an easy read and best suited for Marketers serious about improving their conversion rates and increasing their understanding of Web site design. Covers the use of funnels to direct specific personas through a Web site to increase conversions.
  
• Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing
  by Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg – Follow on to Call to Action and #1 Best Selling book on major book lists including New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Week and Amazon.com
• Usability Books Worth Reading

RECOMMENDED CONVERSION RATE and WEB SITE USABILITY EXPERTS:

• Advanced Common Sense – hire Steve Krug himself to do an Expert Web Site Usability Review. Steve also offers a Web Site Usability Workshop.
• Future Now Inc. – Hire the acknowledged Subject Matter Experts on Conversions, Bryan and Jeffery Eisenberg. See their Conversion Optimization Services.