How to Give Visitors a Reason to Buy from Your Website

If you build it, they will come—but only if it’s worth their while. No matter how beautifully designed or meticulously constructed your website may be, it’s not likely to drive sales unless you give visitors a reason to buy from you. After all, why should they risk giving you their hard-earned money without some assurance that your product or service is something they cannot get anywhere else?

That said, the key to successful e-commerce (or any kind of commerce) comes down to one thing: conversion. In other words, how do we make sure visitors can see exactly what we have to offer and choose to purchase it from us?

If you’re launching an online store as part of an wider e-commerce strategy for your business, the tips in this article will serve as a useful first step toward reaching your conversion goals.

Set the Scene

The first thing you should do is set the scene for your store. Why does the product or service you’re selling exist? What problem does it solve? The questions above may seem elementary, but they’re essential to setting the scene for your store. In other words, you have to paint a clear picture of what your brand is all about, what your products are, how they solve customers’ problems, and why they should buy from you in the first place.

You can do this in a number of ways, including:

Using your homepage to explain what your business does and what sets it apart from competitors
Writing an “about” page that details the journey that led to the creation of your product or service
Putting together a “product description” for each item for sale on your store
Creating customer testimonials that showcase how your products have made a difference in people’s lives.

Keep It Simple

If you want to increase conversions, you’ll have to get rid of the urge to show off. You see, one of the most common mistakes e-commerce stores make is trying to explain everything about their brand in the store itself. This, in turn, leads to a cluttered, messy, and confusing experience. Instead, you should aim to keep your store as simple as possible by focusing on the following elements:

Product images: These are the first thing customers will look at when they visit your store, so make sure they’re of high quality. If you can, invest in professional-grade photos that showcase your products in the best light possible.
Product copy: Remember: less is more. Make your product descriptions concise, clear, and to the point, and avoid making unnecessary, redundant statements.
Navigation: Your navigation bar should direct customers to wherever they need to go, whether that’s back to your product pages or to the “shopping cart.
”Trust badges: Make sure your store comes with trust badges to build confidence among would-be customers that you’re a legitimate business.

Show Off Your Products

If you want to increase conversions, you’ll have to make sure your product pages are as beautiful as possible. This means putting as much effort into designing your product pages as you would a website homepage. The following are some essential elements you should include on your product pages:

Product images: As mentioned above, you should use high-quality photos on your product pages.
Product copy: Like your product descriptions, product copy should be concise, clear, and to the point.
Navigation: Your navigation bar should direct customers to wherever they need to go, whether that’s back to your product pages or to the shopping cart.
Product variations: Keep in mind that not all of your customers will buy one item; some may want to buy in bulk or purchase more than one product at a time.
Shipping details: Customers have to know how much the product costs and how long it will take to get to them.
Trust badges: Make sure your product pages come with trust badges to build confidence among would-be customers that you’re a legitimate business.

Create a Sense of Urgency

People buy things for a number of reasons, whether it’s because they need them, want them, or can’t live without them. In other words, they decide a product is essential to their lives, which is why they’re likely to make a purchase.

However, they’re not always in the mood to do so. You can encourage customers to purchase from you right now by creating a sense of urgency in your e-commerce store. In other words, you can prompt them to buy now before the sale ends, the product goes out of stock, or some other circumstance presents itself that forces them to wait. You can do this by:

Creating limited-time sales: If your product has a limited shelf life, you can create a limited-time sale to create a sense of urgency among customers.
Sending out time-sensitive discounts: If your product has a certain price at any given time, you can send out a time-sensitive discount to prompt immediate purchases.
Creating limited-stock items: If you offer a certain item for sale with a limited stock, you can create a sense of urgency by putting a “sold out” label on the item.

Show Users What They’re Buying

Nobody wants to purchase a product when they have no idea about what they’re actually getting. In fact, a lack of product details is one of the biggest reasons people abandon shopping carts.

That’s why, if you want to increase conversions, you need to be upfront about what your products are and what they’re made of. This means including product details such as dimensions, materials, warranties, and other pertinent information.

You can also put together a “product comparison” feature that lets customers compare your products to those of your competitors.

Build a Pleasing Visual Experience

Make sure your site is easy on the eyes and easy to navigate. You don’t want your customers to be frustrated or confused by your website. Instead, you want them to be able to easily browse your products and make a purchase as quickly and effortlessly as possible. It’s better to have a simple, clean, and easy-to-navigate site than a beautiful site that visitors can’t figure out how to use.

Utilize Trust Signs

One of the biggest challenges facing e-commerce today is the lack of trust between customers and brands. How can you combat this lack of trust? By using trust signs and trust building techniques on your product pages.

One of the easiest trust signs to implement is the customer review section. Customer reviews, especially positive reviews, can greatly help build trust between your customers and your brand.

If you don’t currently have customer reviews on your site, it’s never too early to get them. You can start by asking customers if they’d be willing to leave reviews for their purchase or for your products. You can also look into getting an account with review apps like Trustpilot or Feefo.

Ask for the Sale

Last but not least, let’s not forget the most important part of any sales page: asking customers to buy.

Let’s face it: Not all customers will decide to buy from you on the first try. In fact, you’ll probably lose some sales simply due to the reality of human trust. The best way to combat this is to get as many people as possible through the conversion process, but you can’t force a sale on someone who isn’t ready to buy.

You can, however, do a few things to increase the likelihood that customers who are on the fence will make a purchase. One way to do this is by using automated email follow-up sequences. These can be as simple as emails that prompt customers to finish their purchase. For example, you might send an email a day or two after the initial inquiry that encourages the customer to make their choice. This can be as simple as a gentle plea to “make a decision today” or a reminder that you only have limited stock.

It's worth saying it again: to make sure you don’t leave any sales on the table, it’s important to actively ask your customers to purchase from you. This can be as simple as including a call-to-action button on your product pages. While you don’t want to be overly salesy, you do want to make sure that your customers know exactly what they’re supposed to do next. Your call-to-action button should be clear and easy to understand. It should tell customers exactly what they need to do to make their purchase and complete the transaction.

To Sum Up ...

The best-looking e-commerce store in the world won’t drive sales if customers can’t find what they’re looking for. To that end, it’s important to make sure that your product pages are easy to navigate, easy to read, and easy to find.

For example, if you sell clothing and accessories, you’ll likely want to organize your products by category, brand, or type. It’s also a good idea to include filtering options, like size and color, so that customers can easily find what they’re looking for.

Finally, you should consider including reviews and user-generated images on your product pages. Not only does this give customers more insight into the products you’re selling, it also helps to boost your SEO.