Omsetgo.com - E-commerce industry has been growing rapidly for the past few years. Amazon.com in the United States, Alibaba.com in China, Tokopedia.com and BukaLapak.com in Indonesia have been one of the pioneers in respective countries. The growth is supported by growing consumer demand to purchase products online. In Indonesia, Instagram is booming as a platform to buy and sell products and services. Out of various products and services, fashion products such as clothes, shoes, and accessories are the most popular. In Indonesia, we have thousands of online shops selling these products whether in Instagram, Facebook, or their own website.

The main problem a Fashion E-commerce is usually Cart Abandonment.

Definition (from Webopedia): Abandonment is an electronic commerce term used to describe a visitor on a Web page who leaves that page before completing the desired action. Examples of abandonment include shopping cart abandonment, referring to visitors who add items to their online shopping cart, but exit without completing the purchase.

Currently, the average cart abandonment rate in the world is 67.91%. It also means that 2 out of 3 online transactions are not successful. (Source: Wikipedia)

These abandonment does not just happen in website e-commerce. It also happens in Instagram, Facebook, and other channels. There is a lot of cancellations in Instagram's purchase online. This causes a lot of E-commerce shops to create rules such as "CANCEL = BLACKLIST", to hinder potential customers from asking questions if they are not sure. This may be good to filter only serious customers, but this would also cause the shop losing many potential customers.

Here are the top 8 things to focus on to reduce cart abandonment in an E-commerce website:

1. Clear pricing

Most E-commerce shops using Instagram do not show their pricing. There are reasons behind this. Sellers do not want competitors to know their pricing nor they want potential customers to compare price with other shops. Sellers allow potential customers to directly chat them via LINE, WhatsApp, or BBM. This way, only the most interested prospects will directly chat the sellers. Directly chatting has a high commitment to buying.

However, this filter has made sellers lose a lot of potential customers. There are many people that would love to know the price before chatting for inquiries.

Especially on a website where users and the platform interact freely, clear pricing is very important for users to able to make a purchase decision. Without clear pricing, users will doubt the legitimacy of the website.

2. Product descriptions

Product descriptions such as available sizes for clothes and shoes are very important. Even if the users are interested, they cannot make a decision to purchase before they are convinced that they can wear the products.

Other than size information. Potential customers also want to know what the products are made of, why it is different and worth buying, what the story behind the product is, etc.

3. Stock availability

It is important to clearly tell users about the availability of a particular product. If a user doesn't know it, he/she may continue doing actions that give him/her no results and waste time. That is a bad user experience.

4. Shipping cost charges and duration

Shipping charges have to be clearly stated and easily changeable to other currencies (for international buyers). Users do not like hidden charges that occur when they are going to pay for something.

Shipping information is important to tell users when it will arrive at their homes. Sellers can also mention how long it will take for products that are out of stock to be sent to the customers if they want to purchase it.

Offering free shipping can be a very good way to persuade users to buy. Everyone loves free stuff. About 58% of potential customers abandon the cart after seeing shipping charges. This is especially true for low-priced items, customers would feel that the shipping charge of 7 dollars does not worth their money for a 15-dollar product. FREE Shipping is king. Sellers can offer free shipping if customers purchase at a minimum amount, such as 80 dollars total purchase value.

5. Photos

Photo Credit: Bro.do

Photos with models wearing the products are effective to present the appearance of the products. High-quality photos represent high-quality products. People love to see visuals before they buy. Photos from multiple angles are also useful to make customers understand how they will look if they wear the product.

6. Offers and discounts

Photo Credit: Forever 21

Users love to get value. Offers and discounts with limited time are effective to make customers purchase immediately. However, sellers need to make sure that the offers and discounts procedures are clear and seamless. Sometimes promotions are not straightforward and require customers to do certain things such as sharing an image with certain hashtags or mentions. Many potential customers might not understand the procedures and become disappointed when they find out they are not eligible for the promotions. Simplicity is the key to creating a successful promotional campaign.

7. Video tutorial for innovative products

Video Credit: Darcy George

For sellers with relatively innovative or new products, showing a video tutorial is the best way to demonstrate how to use the innovative product.

Photos of the steps are good enough for printed media. However, a video is still more effective to communicate methods to the audience, especially in a website and social media platforms.

8. Website load speed

Users expect everything to be quick and seamless. If an E-commerce website loads slowly. Users will feel that the website is not powerful enough and assume the store is not professional.

Slow website load speed also lowers trust and momentum for potential buyers to purchase. It is important to test the load speed of an E-commerce website time to time, especially after adding many new products to the website.

We can test our website load speed with Pingdom Website Speed Test Tool or GTmetrix Website Speed and Performance Optimization (It also provides recommendations on how to improve it).

About OMSETGO Digital Marketing Specialist

OMSETGO is all about increasing your sales. OMSETGO is a Digital Marketing Specialist with expertise in Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, and Data Analytics. We have seen many businesses that have spent huge budgets in various media without being able to really understand the success rate of their campaigns.

We believe there must be a better way. OMSETGO utilizes the best technologies to assist our clients to gain high Return on Investment (ROI) for their marketing campaigns.

Reach us now: omsetgo@gmail.com

Getting people to join insurance is not an easy task. The current way of getting leads has been about persistence and network.

The current ways to generate leads for an insurance company:

1. Cold call: Get phone numbers and call directly to offer.

Cold calling is a technique whereby a salesperson or in this case insurance agent contacts a prospect that has not been informed about the product or service before. The phone number is not given by the prospect himself/herself. The salesperson or insurance agent is a stranger for the prospect.

2. Referral: Get to know someone from someone you already know.

Reference from a previous customer is a powerful tool to generate new leads. Word of mouth is one of the best marketing tools a company can have. This is achieved with high-quality products and services delivered by a company.

3. TV, Radio, and Printed Media (Magazine, Newspaper): Marketing efforts to help insurance agents in selling the packages.

Media channels that have been successful for the past decades. These include TV, Radio, Magazine, Newspaper, and other media. It helps in building brand awareness for an insurance company.

Problem

Cold calling is good for those who are interested in buying an insurance. It is uncomfortable for people that have no interest at all, potential customers want privacy. Cold calling may harm a brand, which is not a good thing as insurance is in the business of trust.
Referral is the most effective way to generate qualified leads right now. An approval from a friend of the prospect means a lot in the closing process. However, this process sometimes still requires a long time. There are too many information that a prospect does not know. A prospect can't decide when he or she does not understand enough.
TV, Radio, and Printed Media (Magazine, Newspaper) have been around for a long time. It is a good way to increase brand awareness of an insurance company. However, there are a lot of things that can't be measured with these channels. How many people actually see your advertisement? Who are they? What do they do after they see the advertisement?

Solution

1. Let customers commit their own information

We shouldn't do cold calling. It would be better to let prospects submit their own email and phone number to allow us to call them.

The insurance company's website has to have enough explanation about the selling point of the insurance products. It needs to state its unique value proposition.

There are often times when insurance agents need to spend a lot of time just to be able to arrange a meeting. It would really help the customers if they can read the information online in the website.

Once customers are interested, they would want to know more details about how much they need to pay per month, what are the interests, what benefits they can get, how long is the duration of payment, etc.

Photo Credit: CekPremi

This is the time we should allow them to submit email and phone number to get more information. An example above is a form that offers web visitors information to know more if they submit their personal information. An insurance company can create an email or a phone number subscription method to allow users get detailed information about certain insurance policy documents.

An insurance agent can then call / email the subscribers and arrange a meeting. This way, the customers have slight information about the insurance company and would welcome the insurance agent's call and request to meet. They have previously committed their personal information on the website.

2. Automated Referral System

Referral is one of the most powerful marketing tools for an insurance company. We can create a system to generate referral automatically.

Everybody that are looking for an insurance product or financial product usually compares several companies. Someone who wants to save money in a bank usually compares the benefits and interests of the particular bank with other banks. This also happens for insurance products.

Photo Credit: HaloMoney

An example above is a website that allows visitors to compare credit cards. An insurance company can let users compare their products easily. However, users need to share to their social media accounts such as Facebook or Twitter to be able to view the complete data and download it. By giving value to customers, we automatically gain referrals from the Facebook or social media shares.

3. Utilize measurable marketing channels.

The days of TV, Radio, and Printed Advertisements are over. Everyone is consuming online media more than ever.

Targeting customers using online marketing channels are more measurable and effective. The insurance company's website can utilize various marketing channels such as Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing, etc.

We can reach millions of specific audiences that match our potential customer's profile. All of these can be done through understanding data and utilize it. For example, we can target mothers with kids that are looking for education insurance for her children.

By increasing website traffic with relevant visitors, the insurance company can generate leads and gain referrals from the visitors. It also raises brand awareness of the company and helps insurance agents to close more deals. Eventually, increasing the sales of the insurance company.

About OMSETGO Digital Marketing Specialist

We believe there must be a better way. OMSETGO utilizes the best technologies to assist our clients to gain high Return on Investment (ROI) for their marketing campaigns.

Reach us now: omsetgo@gmail.com

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