We purchased from 30 online stores – here’s what we learned

In light of the current pandemic a lot of businesses are feeling unsure, overwhelmed and uncertain of what will happen to their business, income, etc..

Inspired by Denise Duffield-Thomas, Karyn and I decided we would commit to supporting online store owners in various ways, including by spending with them.

We asked people to share their products with us in a post in our group, then we went on a support shopping spree.

Why? 

  • We wanted to intentionally act from a place of support and abundance, not scarcity or fear
  • We knew that the little cha-ching sound of a purchase would spark confidence & optimism for online store owners
  • We hoped it would encourage people to pay it forward and to spread love and abundance by shopping with other small business owners.

We made a purchase from 30 online stores and while we were there we observed the following opportunities to improve: 

When someone asks for a recommendation, send them to the product page, not your home page

Heaps of people said they recommended a certain product but sent me to the home page. This is like asking a shop assistant where the soap is and they say “in the shop somewhere” as opposed to “isle 10 just past the tissues”.  Don’t make it hard for people to find what they are looking for and to give you money.

On that, if someone does happen to land on your home page, make it easy for them to find what they are looking for. Think of your menu like isles in a supermarket. Clearly categorise and communicate what you sell and where people need to go on your site to find it.

 

Limit distracting pop ups

Turn off pop-ups that distract your customers’ attention. For the most part, pop-ups are simply annoying and don’t increase your chances of making a sale. Just because you can have them, doesn’t mean you should.

 

Ask for people’s emails, but don’t send people away from your site

Capturing an email address is great because not everyone is going to purchase the first time they visit your site. By getting their email (and their permission to send them marketing communication) you can continue building up the relationship with them until they decide to purchase from you, or unsubscribe. If you are going to offer an incentive in exchange for someone’s email address:

  1. Make sure the incentive is good. “Subscribe for the latest updates” is not enticing.
  2. Don’t send people away from your website to get their code. A lot of sites said “thanks, check your inbox for your code”. What you’re doing here is basically sending people away from your website to a place filled with other brands’ offers and marketing communications.

Here are 2 websites that I thought offered particularly good incentives in exchange for my email: https://psimvegan.com.au/ and https://tribeskincare.com.au/

 

Don’t deter people with shipping

Free shipping is the best so if you can, offer free shipping. Or at least have a free shipping threshold where people have the option of qualifying for free shipping if they spend over a certain amount. We have an entire blog dedicated to shipping if you’re curious to learn more about the psychology of shipping and how it can impact your online stores’ conversion rate.

If you are going to charge shipping, communicate it early. There’s nothing worse than spending time browsing a site, picking out an item, adding to cart, initiating checkout then being hit with surprise shipping costs, especially if the cost of shipping is almost the same as the product you are buying. It’s just annoying. Clearly tell people what they can expect to pay for shipping upfront and all throughout your site.

A surprising number of sites had “local pickup – free shipping” selected as the default shipping rate. This doesn’t show until the final checkout so you think you’re getting free shipping until all of a sudden you aren’t. Super annoying and an unnecessary obstacle.

 

Keep it super simple

Remember not everyone knows as much about your product for the first time. When designing your product page try to step into the shoes of someone who has never seen your brand or product before. What do they need to see to be enticed to buy?

  • Don’t try to over complicate things. Communicate what you sell, who it’s for and why they should buy it in a clear, simple, easy-to-understand way.
  • The standard works. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel when you’re designing your site. Consumers are used to websites being laid out in a certain way. If you try to be too different people won’t know where to look. Be different in other ways, like your images and language, not the layout of your site.

Images are everything!

Images are one of THE most important elements of your online store. Include a mix of product-only and lifestyle images (images that show your products used in context). Make sure you show every angle of your product and if you sell clothes, tell us what size the model is wearing. Oh, and keep your images all the same size. You don’t want people noticing little discrepancies and taking their attention away from you and your products.

 

Make sure you have a Pixel properly installed on your website

A Facebook Pixel is a free little piece of code that you can install on your website and it allows you to retarget people like magic after they have been onto your website. 76% of websites we purchased from either didn’t have a pixel, or had that was not paired with a catalogue.

 

Make sure you have a privacy policy

Exactly 50% of sites we purchased from didn’t have a privacy policy. Your online store needs to have a privacy policy and in most countries is governed by law. Shopify has a free privacy policy generator that makes it easy to create a privacy policy for your website.

 

Aim to make your packaging instagramable

You want your packaging to be Instagramable. People love a good unboxing experience and when your packaging is a little bit special it makes the experience more engaging, memorable and sharable. Of course, you want to make the packaging, wrapping and materials that your product comes in beautiful and on brand, but by adding something a little extra goes a long way. https://bytaralouise.com.au/ popped in a lollypop which was super cute, memorable and put a big smile on my face.

Also, make sure your packaging aligns with your customers’ values. Consider environmentally friendlier packaging options.

 

Focus on repeat purchases

As well as acquiring new customers we also want to focus on repeat purchases and loyal customers. Selling to an existing customer is much easier, quicker and cheaper than acquiring a new customer.

Send follow-up communication. So often people put so much effort and energy into acquiring a new sale they forget that the purchase journey doesn’t end at the checkout. Don’t forget to continue on the communication with customers after the sale.

 

Share the love & keep moving forward

The more success you have the more positive impact you can have on your life, your family, your community and the world around you.

If you are feeling helpless at the moment, the best thing you can do is to support someone else. On the other hand, if your store is experiencing success, as a lot are at the moment as more people move to online shopping, share the love and support another business. It will literally make their day.

We hope this feedback will help inspire and motivate you to improve your online store. Comment and let me know if you’ve found this helpful and what areas you are going to focus on first.

PS: We have also created this eCommerce Thrive Guide. In this guide we illuminate proactive, positive actions you can take to strengthen your business now, and into the future. Click here to access the guide now. 

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

Top 5 mistakes online store websites make & what we recommend instead

Your website is a critical element to the success of your online store. And so often we see people driving traffic to a site that isn’t ready for it. 

We call this, not being Traffic Ready. 

It’s like turning on a tap without having any buckets in place to capture the water, or at best, having very leaky buckets. 

So how do we get Traffic Ready? 

We do this by reviewing and auditing your website through a quantitative and a qualitative lense – and making updates based on our findings. 

We’ve done over 200 online store website audits and we see the same mistakes coming up again and again.  

Here are the top 5 mistakes people make on their website.

Mistake #1: Not having crystal clear messaging 

When someone hits your site you have a few seconds to make a good impression, and for them to take that next step. 

They need to know that they are in the right place, immediately. 

When we live and breathe our products it’s so easy to forget that not everyone knows as much as we do about them. It’s so easy to end up with messaging that’s not clear and a little bit diluted. Often you are so close to your product and your brand that you totally miss the most important messaging because you think that it’s obvious. 

What we recommend:

Make sure your image and text let people know exactly what you sell and why they should buy from you within 3 seconds of hitting your site, without scrolling down. 

We have also created a 3 second test which you can access in our free group. 

Mistake #2: The focus is on the logo

We often see the logo take front and centre. When your logo is front and centre, it takes up a lot of valuable real estate that could be used to showcase your value proposition and products. Now, I’m sure your logo is gorgeous, but people aren’t coming to your website to buy your logo. People come to your website to see what’s in it for them. 

What we recommend:

Reduce the size of your logo and left-align it in your menu bar. This way your logo is still seen, but it won’t take up space that could be used for sale-generating information. 

Mistake #3: Using default headlines

Default headlines 

There is nothing worse than seeing the default headings still in use on a website.

What we recommend:

Don’t be generic when it comes to the headings used throughout your site. Get creative and use call to actions that are in line with your brand. 

Mistake #4: Not having a pixel installed 

The Facebook pixel is a free peice of code that allows you to create and target audiences based on the actions people take on your website. Without a pixel you can’t retarget people on Facebook. 

What we recommend:

Even if you aren’t running ads now, install the Facebook Pixel so you are collecting this powerful data now. 

Mistake #5: Having pop-ups that drive people away from the site 

We often see pop-ups that offer an incentive in exchange for an email address. The problem that we have with this is the message that follows the email entry.

It’s usually something like “thanks, please check your email to receive your code”.

This is another way of saying “thanks, please leave our website and go to your inbox. The same inbox that is flooded with offers from other stores where you may get distracted and never come back to our store again”. 

What we recommend:

Keep people on your site. Sure send them an email too. But let them access the incentive without having to leave your site.  

Final word 

Use these most commonly made mistakes to do an audit on your own site and see if you are making them too. And if you are, take action now to resolve them. 

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

Are your prices on your online store too low?

When you compete on price it’s a very fast race to the bottom.

Bargain Hunters are Only Loyal to Price

If someone bought from you due to your low prices, they’re likely to buy from someone else the minute they find a cheaper alternative.

As soon as there is a cheaper option, you lose that customer.

And, in the world of eCommerce, there will always be a cheaper option.

You get what you pay for

Another fundamental reason we don’t compete on price is fundamental human behaviour. 

“You get what you pay for” has been so deeply ingrained in our psyche that if it’s cheap, we expect it to be nasty. 

Healthy profit margins are essential

Profit margins are another seemingly obvious reason we don’t want to compete on price. 

Less money per unit, in turn, means you need to sell significantly more items to make the same profit you did before you slashed your prices. 

Huge companies who turn over hundreds of thousands of units can afford to make very small profit margins. 

It takes time, energy, effort and most importantly money to run an online store as a proper business. And running a business is already difficult enough when you’re making a healthy profit. 

People pay for values

People will pay extra to buy a product that aligns with their values. 

What we buy tells the world something about who we are. Buying an expensive handbag tells the world “I can afford this” (even if they can’t). Buying ethically made products tells the world “I care”. 

People pay for rare 

When something is rare, it is perceived as more valuable. Think gold, gems and natural resources as examples.

Can you create a limited edition variation of your product? Or perhaps partner with other brands, designers or artists to create limited-edition collaborations. Could create a version of your product with a specific colourway to celebrate or support an event, cause or charity close to your, and your audiences, heart? 

Final word

Competing to be the lowest-priced retailer is a fool’s game. One we don’t want to play.

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

How to get more new customers to buy from your online store

Getting new customers is essential for the growth of your online store. 

Someone who has never purchased from you before is literally taking a leap of faith that your product is as good as you say it is.

New customers are taking a chance on you. Can you take a chance on them? 

There are a few ways to encourage new customers to take that leap of faith and buy from you for the first time. 

  • Incentivise them by offering something for their first purchase. This could be a discount in the form of a percentage or dollar amount off their first order. A note on this one – it must be enticing. Do not offer 5% off as that will just look stingy and you might as well not offer anything. 20-30% is enticing.
  • Offer highly reduced trial kit for their first-time purchase. Or even a free sample pack if you sell a consumable.
  • You need to have a really good money-back guarantee. And I mean good for the customer. If you don’t have faith that they will love your product, whey should they?

  • Shipping is one of the biggest barriers that stops people from buying online so have free shipping or a free shipping threshold. 

It is always going to cost you more time, effort and money to get that first sale. That’s why it’s important to understand what the lifetime value of your customer is, and how much you can afford to spend to acquire a new customer. 

Click here to find out how to calculate the lifetime value of your customers and cost per acquisition budget. 

Of course, once someone has taken a leap of faith to purchase from you for the first time you need to give them a fantastic experience and focus on keeping them as a customer.

Not only does this encourage them to be loyal, it also gives them a reason to tell your friends how great you are – which in turn leads to more new customers. 

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact. 

What is the lifetime value of your customers – and how to improve it

Running a successful business is a marathon, not a sprint. 

When it comes to your customers, it’s really important to understand the difference between a quick win and a long term game plan. And why online store owners need both. 

The first thing we need to understand is how much a customer is worth to your online store. 

This is the lifetime value of a customer. 

We work this out by multiplying the average order value with the average purchase frequency. 

Average order value is the average amount people spend with you in each transaction. 

Average purchase frequency is the average amount of times they purchase something from your store. 

Of course, some customers will be worth a lot more and some a lot less. And this is where the marathon vs sprint analogy comes into play. 

If you focus on quick wins and only focus on how many sales you made that day, week or month, you could end up attracting a bunch of low-value customers. 

If you focus on the long game, you focus on getting loyal customers who have a higher lifetime value. 

Getting new customers

Once you know your lifetime value of a customer you can start to think more holistically about getting a new customer to your store. 

You can also work out how much you can afford to spend to acquire that new customer. As a rule of thumb, it’s usually about 5-10% of the lifetime value of your customer.

Sometimes 5-10% is almost all of the first sale and this might sound ridiculous to you. However, when we understand that business is a marathon and we are in it for the long term we know it’s worth it for the lifetime value of that customer. 

Increasing the average lifetime value of your customers

As well as acquiring new customers we also want to focus on repeat purchases and loyal customers. Selling to an existing customer is much easier, quicker and cheaper than acquiring a new customer. 

And by focussing on our existing customers and increasing the amount and frequency in which they spend, we can also increase the lifetime value of a customer. This will then give you more to play with to acquire a new customer. And the cycle continues. 

5 must-read books

“Are you green and growing or ripe and rotting?”

This quote by Ray Kroc is one of the sayings I have pinned to my wall.

I love feeding my mind with knowledge and reading is one of my favourite ways to do this. My bookcase is filled with biographies, business and marketing books. I read almost every night before bed. I listen to audio-books while driving or just whenever I can.

I guess you could say learning and growth is one of my highest values. Just one look around my office will reveal some other quotes that show this:

  • “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus

  • “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” —Dr. Seuss

  • “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” Mahatma Gandhi

Whether you’re an avid reader or looking for a book to kickstart your learning library, here are 5 books by powerful women I respect, admire and have learned a lot from that you might enjoy:

1: Thrive, Ariana Huffington

In Thrive, Arianna Huffington, the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post and one of the most influential women in the world, has written a passionate call to arms, looking to redefine what it means to be successful in today’s world.

 

2: Everything is Figureoutable, Marie Forleo

Whether you want to leave a dead-end job, heal a relationship, grow a business, master your money, or just find two free hours in your day, Everything is Figureoutable will train your brain to think more positively and help you break down any dream into manageable steps.

 

3: Daring Greatly, Brene Brown

Researcher and thought leader Dr. Brené Brown offers a powerful new vision in Daring Greatly, the #1 New York Times Bestseller and TED talk hit that encourages us to embrace vulnerability and imperfection, to live wholeheartedly and courageously.

 

4: Girl Wash Your Face, Rachel Hollis

In this challenging and inspiring new book, Rachel exposes the twenty lies and misconceptions that too often hold us back from living joyfully and productively, lies we’ve told ourselves so often we don’t even hear them anymore. I also recommend her book, Girl Stop Apologising. 

 

5: Get Rich Lucky B!tch, Denise Dufflied-Thomas

Karyn introduced me to this book and I loved it. It’s weird and frankly bewildering that the most talented women in the world are often the ones struggling to make fabulous money from their talents. In Get Rich, Lucky Bitch!, you’ll get the tools and inspiration you need to go to the next level of wealth – whether you’re starting from scratch or itching to break through the million-dollar mark.

 

Admittedly my library of books is packed in boxes because of a recent house move. I can’t wait to get them out and put them on display again. I will no doubt have more books to add to this list as I unpack the boxes and the learnings and lessons come flooding back.

xo 

Comment and let me know what books you have in your bookshelf, kindle or audio library.

Written by Megan Winter

Megan is an award-winning marketer and has worked with some of the fastest-growing eCommerce brands in the world.

Megan loves helping ethically-produced, heart-centred, soul-driven online store owners to make more income and achieve more impact.Â