Have you been busy improving your website and your odds of making the sale?
Doing business online – like doing business anywhere – requires thought, planning, patience and a bit of trial-and-error. Of course, they key is to keep the “error” part down to a minimum, or at least make a quick path correction when something does go wrong.
This next tip is about avoiding the most fatal error that will prevent the sale 100% of the time.
Tip #6: Make Sure Your Shopping Cart Works
You’d think this would win an Obvious Award, but never assume something is working just because it was working yesterday.
Software is much like a car. You drive your car every day and it works perfectly. Then one day you get behind the wheel and there’s a strange knocking. You ignore it, and next thing you know you’re stuck in the middle of the interstate with smoke billowing from your hood.
Bugs can creep into software even when you think everything is working perfectly. Just as you can keep your car in good shape by maintaining it and servicing it regularly, you should have a regular testing and maintenance plan to ensure that your cart is functional across browsers and operating systems. And when bugs do pop up, squash them immediately.
It doesn’t matter how wonderful your site, product, shipping policy or checkout process is. If customers run up against an error when checking out – if your cart is just not working because you haven’t been paying attention – that sale is simply not going to happen.
Test it, test it, and test it again. Ignore your cart at your own risk.
Have you ever tried to buy something online only to find out the cart wasn’t working? What did you do? Were you determined enough to call customer service or did you just give up?
Read More In The “Close The Ecommerce Deal” Series
- Tip #1: Make Sure Product Information Is Clear
- Tip #2: State Shipping And Delivery Information
- Tip #3: State Guarantees And Refund Policies
- Tip #4: Be Sensitive To Security
- Tip #5: Make Checkout A Snap
- Tip #6: Make Sure Your Shopping Cart Works
- Tip #7: Follow Up
