Nexternal Nexus v. 2.10  
 
The Nexternal Nexus is a monthly newsletter sent by Nexternal Solutions to people serious about online sales. We hope that this information is useful in improving your online business.		  
 
 
 
  • Be Forthcoming With Information & Your Customers Will Too
    		•   
     
  • Gift Certificates
    		•   
     
  • Live Person
    		•   
     

    Be Forthcoming With Information & Your Customers Will Too

    Imagine this scenario: You have launched your website and online store. Next, you embark on an advertising campaign and began promoting your site. The hits keep coming. Your number of unique visitors is ramping up and up. Shoppers are shopping. They are even putting items in the carts in their holiday shopping frenzy. Your “Add to Cart" numbers keep going up.

    You're beginning to see dollar signs everywhere. You've worked hard. You're already thinking ahead to that vacation on the beach. You deserve it.

    But, wait....

    Are you maximizing your online store's potential? All of those add-to-carts are not showing up in the sales column. Why is that? Don’t just settle for “good enough.” You deserve more.

    This phenomenon is called shopping cart abandonment. If you want to avoid these merchant blues, you need to have a strategy to reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate and streamline your ordering process. You need to organize your products so that your prospective customers can quickly find what they want. Allow them to add items to the cart and quickly check out with a minimal number of clicks and data entries. Avoid hidden extras or surprises, like exorbitant shipping and handling charges. You need to be up front with your customers and build a certain level of trust before they will entrust you with their personal data and payment info.

    Here are a few suggestions on how to do this:

  • Let customers know who you are and make it easy for them to contact you. Prominently display who and where you can be found. Don’t hide your name, address or phone number. Display this information prominently on your site. Include an “About us” section that will tell prospective customers more about who will be taking their hard-earned money and sending them a product in return. Make your phone number clearly visible and if possible, provide your customers with a toll-free number to call. Provide a live chat feature so that prospective customers can chat with your customer service reps in real time. Show some pictures of your business. Giving a face to your site gives it that human touch that makes your customers feel comfortable.

  • Use a shopping cart that is always on-screen. Doing so is a constant reminder to the customer that they have something in their cart. If the shopping cart is on another page, a click or more away, customers often forget that they have put something in their cart or are easily distracted and close their browser window or go onto another website. It makes the shopping experience more friendly and efficient.

  • Be upfront with the methods of payment that your business accepts. You probably have noticed in the brick and mortar world that stores often display the methods of payment accepted in the front window or next to the cash register. You should display the same type of information in the online world. Your homepage is the equivalent of a store front and is good place for this information. No one wants go through an entire check out process only to find that their credit card is not accepted.

  • Allow your customers to calculate shipping and tax information upfront. They should be able to do this before they have gone so far as to divulge such personal information like names, address, phone numbers and, worst of all, credit cards. Consumers do not like a surprise in their order total after they have provided their credit card. To alleviate this, provide a shipping and tax cost calculator. You might also want to make sure that your shopping cart is integrated with your shipping carrier's database so that such shipping costs are calculated and pulled in real time from the shipper's database. Such features build trust and eliminate such unwanted surprises, making for a better shopping experience all the way around.

    Cultivating a personal relationship built on trust coupled with providing your customers with the best shopping experience possible will greatly reduce your shopping cart abandonment rate. Lowering this rate will certainly lead to increased sales and increased revenues. And that is the key to a successful business.

    		•  
      back to top
     

    Gift Certificates

    It is no secret that online ordering is well suited to gift giving. Are your customers going to be purchasing gifts on your site this holiday season? We all know what a gift certificate is but do you understand how much they can increase your sales and your bottom line during the holiday season? Imagine that your nephew, Little Johnny, tells you that he wants a snowboard for Christmas. What do you do if you don’t know the first thing about snowboards? The best thing to do is to buy Little Johnny a gift certificate where he can pick out his own snowboard, right? Well, in the world of online shopping merchants and store owners, the only way to allow gift certificates to be given as gifts and redeemed for products is to offer them for sale. Thus, if you’re not already doing so, you really should consider adding this functionality to your store as soon as possible in anticipation of the holiday shopping season.

    		 
      back to top
     

    Live Person

    Increase your Online Sales…Today!

    Now that LivePerson is fully integrated with Nexternal, you can increase your online sales today by adding LivePerson Pro, the #1 real-time customer support application for small businesses, to your website. Installation is quick and easy!

    Take advantage of the Nexternal-LivePerson partnership and receive LivePerson Pro at a great price up to 40% off their regular price.

    Click Here to get started and create a FREE trial account.

    Click Here to chat live with a LivePerson Sales executive 24/7.

    With LivePerson powerful sales and marketing tools you can:

  • Sell "instantly" by chatting with your customers. Offer them special deals, up sell and cross sell.

  • Satisfy more customers. No more voice mail or busy signals! Easily respond to 3 or more customers at the same time.

  • See your visitors and their shopping cart in real time. Offer them assistance when they need it the most.

    		•  
      back to top
     

    To subscribe to this ezine, please click the link below:
    http://www.nexternal.com/nexus/subscribe

    To read previous versions of this ezine, please click the link below:
    http://www.nexternal.com/nexus

    Copyright 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be republished in whole, or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.

    Nexternal Solutions, Inc.
    785 Grand Ave Ste 216
    Carlsbad, CA 92008
    www.nexternal.com
    West Coast: (800) 914-6161 East Coast: (866) 436-8479
    		  
     
    If you have any comments regarding this ezine or suggestions for future topics, please send an e-mail to nexus@nexternal.com.

    		  
     © 2009 Nexternal Solutions, Inc.


    Receive more e-commerce articles via our XML/RSS feeds.