4 Simple Tips To Boost Revenue That Won’t Break The Bank

Most people think that increasing revenue all comes down to expensive marketing tactics, but these tips for driving sales are tailor-made for online stores willing to make small changes that won’t break the bank. Whether you’re working on your first or five hundredth sale, these tips to increase conversion rates will help give your online boutique visitors the nudge they need to go from window shoppers to loyal customers.

1. Ensure Your Brand Looks Trustworthy

You know that your products and customer service are the highest quality, but how can a potential customer know that before they make the commitment to buy from your boutique? The unease that many customers feel buying online, as opposed to from brick and mortar stores, might contribute to the fact that nearly:

68% of all online shopping carts are left abandoned.

How do we stop losing customers and revenue at the last minute? Ensure that customers feel safe and secure trusting you with their hard-earned cash.

• Have A Physical Address
  Even if you’re operating out of your home, your online business looks infinitely more trustworthy if it has a physical address published on your website, especially for the customers that are in your home country.

• Make All Contact Information Clearly Visible
  While most people will reach out to you via email or social media, having a physical telephone number for them to call (even if it’s your mobile when you’re first getting established) is a huge signifier that you mean business.

Example of a strong contact page by Digital Base - a web development company based in Belgium. Using clear text and providing more than just one way for customers to reach out. Nice touch with Google maps guys!

• Publish Customer Reviews Nothing builds confidence in your brand like positive feedback and the testimonials of other happy customers! If you have a strong interaction with your customer, consider asking them to write a short review of your product, or ask for permission to publish compliments that you get via email. If you’re on Twitter, don’t be shy -- retweet everything that mentions your brand in a good light. You want potential customers to know that other people have already taken the plunge, trusted your brand, and were pleased with the results!
  

SupaDupa store - Cravat Club, selling British made silk day cravats & pocket squares do an excellent job of collecting customer feedback by using a global ratings and reviews provider called Feefo.

• Offer A Guarantee Hasn’t a money-back guarantee helped you make the decision to purchase something before? Guarantees make people feel secure, and make it easier to trust a new company.

2. Turn Your ‘About Me’ Page Into An Email-Collecting Machine

We all know how hard it is to get customers to give up their emails, since no one wants even more inbox clutter. The old days of pushy email signup boxes are over, as savvy online customers turn their backs on anything that makes them feel pressured or overtly marketed to. However, you can increase your conversion rate and boost revenue through building your email list, what’s the most effective and least intrusive place to put your sign-up box? Surprisingly, the About page of your online boutique. We’ve already discussed the importance of telling a compelling story on your About page, as it gets customers interested in your brand. Since customers are on your About page because they’re already interested in knowing more about you, it just makes sense to pitch your mailing list there.

3. Keep The Checkout Process Speedy

In our high-speed, highly-connected world, no one wants to wait for anything. That’s part of the allure of buying online in the first place: shopping day or night, in a ball gown or in your pyjamas. To keep shopping cart abandonment from hurting your sales, we've ensured that your checkout process is simple and speedy by eliminating “optional” fields such as telephone numbers.

Classic example of a clean and professional SupaDupa checkout.

4. Offer Free Shipping

Something happens to all of our minds when we see a “free shipping” banner on a website that makes us eager to see what the website has to offer. Customers get more eager to buy when they’re offered something “free,” and shipping is the king of all free gifts when it comes to increasing conversion rates and getting customers to buy. A simple gesture like free shipping, even if they have to meet a minimum order value, gives customers peace of mind that makes them more likely to buy even if they’re just browsing.

Example of a Free Shipping offer by The Makers' Dozen- a jewellery based SupaDupa store. They've done a great job on promoting free shipping with a clear, bold, simplistic banner right on the home page - It's just too hard to miss!

• Minimize ‘Surprise’ P&P Tack-Ons
  Consider offering flat-rate shipping for any order. Of course, you’ll need to do the math to pick the correct flat-rate amount -- and of course, this won’t work if you’re selling large items like furniture -- but being up-front with shipping costs can ease customers’ fears that the price of their shopping cart will spike as soon as they get to checkout. Eliminate surprises, eliminate customer anxiety. Plus, if shipping costs the same for one item or two, the likelihood that shoppers will buy a second item as a back-up or a gift increases because it feels like “saving” on shipping.

• Offer Worldwide Shipping
  While it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to ship worldwide for free, do offer worldwide shipping and don’t be shy about letting your customers know! Customers from smaller states in the EU often go to US or UK retailers to get better deals and bigger selections, and many of them have felt the heartbreak of “UK shipping ONLY” notifications. Claim your commitment to shipping worldwide loud and proud on your website to put those customers at ease. Plus, emerging markets like China are fuelling online sales more than ever as their demand for varied, unique, and bespoke products grows. The best part about your online boutique is that it’s located everywhere, so grow your sales by thinking and shipping globally!

Example of a Free World Wide Shipping offer by Rings and Tings - a fashion based SupaDupa store.

All of these tips are just simple tweaks to your online boutique that can be done quickly and easily. Remember that the key to higher conversion rates without higher spending on marketing is always to keep your customers feeling safe doing business with you and happy about how easy it is to do just that!