The go-to checklist to optimise your online shop – Part 1

Optimise Your Online Shop – Part 1

Simply putting your products online does not guarantee that you are going to sell and make the profit you are after. We have put together a checklist of a few areas you can focus on to optimise your online shop and get those orders coming in.

1. Featured products

Make sure you reserve a highlighted area on your homepage where you have a few featured products listed. Whether they are popular items or products on sale, it will give your visitors a great call-to-action and ensure that they are aware of what sort of shop they have just entered.

2. Search bar

Any online shop with more than 20 products should have a search option. This is an extremely popular mode of shopping for many people and should therefore be made visible and easy-to-use.

3. Engagement

It is imperative to get your visitors a reason to keep returning to your site. An effective way of managing this is to offer some sort of blog/newsletter sign-up and to ensure your social media links are prominent and correctly linked. A nice way to bring these links up is by making use “scroll triggered boxes” that draw attention to them.

4. Categories

The way you set up your categories is immensely important on an e-Commerce website. The speed at which a potential client can get to the product they are looking is key. It also always makes a visitor feel more confident with your brand when they understand the search process. So, name your categories carefully, make use of smart sub-categories and really think about their navigation.

5. Introductory blurbs on your category pages

Don’t just give your categories a relevant name, also give them a short and concise description. This will give the customer a brief insight into the category and give them the confidence they are in the right place. It also really helps with your SEO.

6. Product thumbnails optimise your online shop

Visitors to your online shop shouldn’t be bombarded with endless text describing your products. They want to look at nice things at the end of the day. A clear and stylish thumbnail picture is a great way of providing information about a product without having to explain it. A good thumbnail image on your category pages also makes it easier for customers to scan through your range and creates a better chance of them clicking through to the end product.

7. Calls to action on product overviews

An example of the above is to enable a client to add a product to their cart directly from the category page. In essence, when a client hovers over a product in the category page they will have the option to choose the size or colour, add it directly to their cart and check out. Easy peasy. The quicker you give a visitor the chance to make a purchase, the better.

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