What is a compelling product? It’s something that your customers want to have – whether it be for their use or because they plan to resell it. The product has intrinsic value, and people are ready to pay the price.
When you add a compelling eCommerce product to your online store, it doesn’t matter what type of business you have. You can make sales on autopilot more often and increase your profit margin.
To improve eCommerce conversions, we’re going to describe eight ways to create a compelling eCommerce product that will transform a dull product into a hot seller.
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1. Create a product people want to buy
This seems obvious, right? You have to create something that people are already willing to spend money on, but it’s very important for your sales success. Even if you’re creating an information product, there has to be some clear call to action for immediate purchase.
Most people think that the product is the most important part of building your online business, and it might be if you’re selling physical products like clothes or gadgets. But even in this case, you need to create a product that people want first before they can drop a lot of money on a single item.
2. Differentiate yourself from the competition
As we mentioned, you need to offer a product that people want to buy. That doesn’t mean your product needs to be better than all of your competitors’ products, but it has to stand out in some way (otherwise it’s not unique, and nothing is compelling about it).
So how can you stand out? You can add accessories or custom features to make your offering different from the others. For example, if you’re selling t-shirts on an online store, why not throw in free shipping? Or if someone buys 5 t-shirts at once, they get 1 for free.
You could also compete with price instead of adding value. If you sell t-shirts for $15, you could offer free shipping so people can buy more. This will push your competitors to also offer free shipping if they want to keep up with your conversions.
3. Create scarcity or exclusivity
People are motivated by what others can’t have. They want the best products out there, and that’s why it’s compelling when you tell them that this is a limited edition item or something that isn’t available in many places (it’s exclusive).
On the other side of the spectrum, people want things because they’re scarce. If everyone else has access to something but they don’t, their desire increases exponentially (think about diamonds for example – almost every woman wants one).
Creating exclusivity doesn’t mean limiting production; it means limiting access to your products. You can do this through time-bound promotions, by only selling on selected days, or creating different bundles so some are more attractive than others.
4. Add value where people are looking for it
Most of the time, people have a pre-defined idea about your product before they get to your site. Maybe you sell apparel or electronics, but they start comparing your prices with other stores’ prices right away. How do you beat them?
You need to add features that are relevant to what people are looking for specifically when buying these types of products. If you’re selling consumer electronics, make sure your specs and descriptions are correct and up-to-date. If you’re selling clothes, make sure the sizing charts are accurate so people don’t have to go through the hassle of trying them on first.
5. Reduce their risk of making a bad purchase
This is important if you’re selling expensive items that cost hundreds or thousands of dollars. You always need to show how customers can get their money back if they aren’t satisfied with their purchase – create great user reviews, give guarantees, offer easy return policies, etc.
People are afraid of buying things on new websites because they don’t trust them yet. Social proof will reassure them that other people already tried your services and recommend them (by sharing testimonials on your site). We know this sounds like shameless self-promotion, but social proof works if you do it right. Don’t just ask random people on the street to say something nice about your brand; get testimonials from popular people who can give you some exposure.
7. Show how much money they’ll save
If your product helps someone save money in general (e.g., because it’s cheaper than buying everything separately) or saves them a lot of time or effort doing unnecessary work, then make sure you show this to them! People are always skeptical when their favorite brands start offering new products, so make it easy for them to understand why your newest offering is better than what they already have.
8. Give them an incentive to take action
The moment you get to your checkout page, tell people exactly what you want them to do. Make it very clear that they should add the product to the cart and make a purchase, and give them an incentive for doing so (e.g., “add to cart and save 10%”). You could also offer some freebies if they start buying right away (e.g., if it’s a holiday, you can say: “get these 3 products before everyone else does!”) This results in higher conversions because once people add the product to their carts, they’re much more likely to go through with the transaction.
Zara Raza is the Marketing Lead at Sunvera Software. Sunvera is a local software development firm based in Irvine, CA, providing intelligent software solutions for small and mid-sized businesses as well as entrepreneurs and startups.
