If you want to sell online, do what online sellers do

I work face to face with a lot of artists locally here in Fort Lauderdale, and frequently talk with them about their online experiences. One of the most common complaints I hear is “I have a website, but nobody ever buys anything from it.” Well, my goal today is to point out a few reasons why you may be struggling to sell online, and how you can do better.

I always like to look at websites which are successful at what I’m trying to achieve for guidance. So, for selling a product take a look at Amazon.com, Ebay.com, and for creative sales - Etsy.com.
Here are some lessons to take away and implement on your own art or photography site:

Make it obvious from the outset that you have products available for sale:

Look at the home page of each of the above mentioned sites - there are items for sale right there on page one. This doesn’t necessarily mean that I’m going to purchase them, but it does tell me that this website sells stuff. Make sure to have at least one item obviously for sale on your home page. That means the price and “buy now” button must be viewable immediately. Oftentimes when I review an art or photography site I’ll think it is simply a portfolio site until I get a few pages in, and then I discover that there are items for sale. But I’m a patient visitor - often on the website to give some advice on improving it. Regular traffic may not be so forgiving, and can leave without ever knowing that you offer something for sale.

Make transactions as painless as possible:

Getting people to click on the “buy now” or “add to cart” button is only half the battle. The last thing you want to do is have them abandon your checkout process because it’s tedious. If you don’t want to pay a monthly fee for a professional merchant shopping cart account then use a reliable system such as Paypal which has options that only charge per transaction. You simply place the “Buy Now” buttons on your site.

Get rid of “call for pricing” or “call now to purchase” on any items on your site. When was the last time you called Ebay or Amazon to buy something? Everything should be clickable and purchase-able online with no hassle. Otherwise you will lose valuable potential clients. Of course, make your contact information readily available for people who do have questions, but don’t lose the potential to capture impulse buys.

Organize your products logically:

There are many ways you can do this, and it will depend on your specific product line, but make sure you do it.

You should group similar or related products together. As an artist you may place all of your limited edition prints on one page, and open edition posters on another. The goal here is to make things obvious and not to confuse your visitors. Remember, confusion makes for a quick exit from your site.

A quick related note: The chances of making a sale to a customer on first visit to the site are very slim. You decrease the chances of scaring away prospects by keeping your lower priced items up front on the homepage.

Make sure to present a well rounded view of what’s available on your site, but that doesn’t mean you have to lay everything out with prices on the home page. Entice visitors further into the site with good deals and sale prices on the home page.

Increase sales by offering upgrades and complimentary items at checkout:

Once you start having more sales and interest from your site visitors you should upgrade to a shopping cart with the ability to upsell at checkout (I recommend www.EasyWebAutomation.com or www.1ShoppingCart.com) Just like checkout at the grocery store, use this feature to showcase lower priced impulse buy items. You can also feature higher priced related items that visitors may have missed on the main site. For example, a photographer may offer a frame to someone who buys a canvas print of their portrait. Or an artist may have small open edition prints available at checkout.

The important thing to keep in mind is that web traffic appreciates simplicity over almost anything else. The easier you make your site to navigate and buy from, the less likely your precious visitors will leave and go elsewhere.

Thanks for reading!

This article is copyright ©Chris Kennedy, 2009.

Chris Kennedy owns and maintains PrintThatImage.com, a specialty printing site for giclee prints, fine art printmaking, gallery wrap canvas prints, and promotional products for professional artists and photographers. His office is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.