6 Ways to Create a Virtual Buying Experience

Even before the pandemic, there was a clear shift in how many of us were shopping. A nice day perusing the shops downtown or strolling through the mall is fun and exciting, but the convenience of the virtual buying experience has changed the entire landscape of shopping for good. Thanks to the digitization of the buying experience, consumers now expect more when shopping, such as easier checkouts, different payment options, and delivery services from small businesses.

These changing expectations make it crucial to stay ahead of the game. Here are some of the best tips and tricks to ensure your business offers a buying experience that your customers will love and keeps them coming back for more:

1. Make it mobile-friendly.

Some people still spend time perusing the internet on their computers, but you'll find that most people surf the web on their phones, especially now in the digital age. If your website doesn't translate well to a mobile device, you could lose a large group of customers who expect convenience and accessibility when making purchases. A hard-to-navigate site will instantly turn consumers away, and they aren't likely to return.

Fortunately, one of the easiest ways to cater to consumers is to meet them where they are. By making your site mobile-friendly, you're showing consumers that you care about their buying experience and that your business will be able to meet their needs.

2. Add a live chat option.

If you have the personnel to do it, adding live chat is a wonderful way to boost sales. It's common for consumers to be interested in a product but hesitate before making a purchase because they have questions or don't fully understand what's included. Having a live-chat option could provide the necessary answers to their questions and help you make several more sales simply because consumers feel confident buying from your business.

3. Check for errors.

Before your site goes live, you should spend adequate time proofreading and checking for any clunky grammatical errors. Websites with spelling mistakes and grammatical errors come off as unprofessional and can quickly turn a consumer away. With so much competition out there, you don't want to lose sales because of a silly spelling error.

4. Ensure easy navigation.

Your site can look amazing and have the best products in the world, but if it's hard to navigate, you'll lose customers. A website should be intuitive and easy to follow. For example, you need to predict your customer's needs and design your website accordingly.

Remember, there are so many websites out there and attention spans aren't what they used to be. If your website is difficult to navigate, a prospective customer might leave before they even see what products you're selling.

5. Include high-quality photos.

If you have a great product, you'll want pictures that match. That means you want clean, clear, high-quality photos of your products from every angle possible. Consumers should be able to zoom in, zoom out, and zero in on what they want to see.

Blurry or poor quality photos can take the shine off of that product you're so proud of. You should be just as pleased with the pictures of your product as you are with the product itself.

6. Provide shipping and payment options.

This tip comes straight from an Amazon.com marketing strategy. By giving customers different options for payment and shipping, you're incentivizing them to buy your product. The best shipping option is free shipping, as many shoppers who land on the checkout page often decide to skip their order entirely when they see how much shipping costs.

However, giving customers the choice of different payment options can be a nudge in the right direction toward some of those bigger ticket items. Having more payment options is beneficial for consumers because they get what they want. They're also good for your business because they trigger more streams of revenue and help you reach a wider audience.

Jason Streiff is president of Streiff Marketing. Streiff Marketing has deep roots in the Amazon seller and vendor space and helps brands succeed on Amazon Retail and Amazon Marketplace.