The purpose of a business-to-consumer (B2C) website is quite different than for a business-to-business (B2B) model. There are many more people than company owners, so there is naturally more competition in the B2C world.
B2C e-commerce sales worldwide top $1.2 trillion. The number doesn’t include stores without an online presence. B2C commerce is big business, whether you’re selling digitally or offline.
If you want to compete with the new companies opening every day as well as established ones, you must focus on creating the most amazing website possible.
Consumers have limited time to spend shopping for a company to give their business to. If your site is clunky or outdated, they are likely to bounce away and find a competitor. Here are eight critical features to add to your B2C website to improve your conversion rates.
1] Create Interactivity
If you don’t engage your users the minute they land on your page, you risk losing them to hundreds of other activities. You must grab their interest immediately and keep it.
One way to do this is by giving them engaging tasks. For example, clicking on an arrow helps them scroll down the page. You can use arrows, buttons and videos to guide the buyer through the sales funnel.
2] Add Comparison Options
When a customer lands on your page, they often have a general idea of what they might wish to buy but need help with the specifics. Adding filtering options allows them to reduce the number of choices available.
However, they may want to compare options side-by-side before making a final decision. Add a feature allowing them to compare two or more items, so they can make up their minds.
Dell offers the ability to compare several different models of computers next to each other. You can clearly see the costs, features included, and pros and cons of each model. You select the ones you want to view and can change them around as needed or as you narrow your shopping selection.
3] Use Targeted Calls to Action (CTAs)
Do your CTAs match the goal of your page? If the user lands on your site and the purpose of that page is to get them to sign up for a mailing list, the only CTAs on the page should point the consumer to a signup form.
Know what your goal is and tweak the language of your buttons until people respond. You can easily conduct some split testing to see which one works best for your audience.
4] Speak to Buyer Personas
Spend time getting to know who your typical customer is. Create buyer personas based on demographics, past buying behaviors and psychographics. The more you understand your audience, the better you can meet their needs. Survey current customers to discover new pain points and what they respond best to.
Garage Door Specialists realizes it has a couple of different buyer types. Some want an estimate on a new garage door, and others need service on an existing one. It offers two clear CTAs at the top of the page, targeting the two buyer personas.
5] Detailed Product Images
The more detailed product images are, the easier it is for consumers to make up their minds. They aren’t looking at the item in person, so they need to see if from all angles. You should take shots from every side, above and below the product. A 360-degree video is an excellent way to highlight the product and make the experience seem real.
6] Search Feature
People often land on a B2C site looking for something specific. When you add a search option, you allow them to skip the steps to get from the landing page to the product they want.
However, make sure your search function works well. You want to use tags people are likely to search for through their natural language patterns (NLP). A search for a white shirt could pull up hundreds of options. Add filtering to allow narrowing of choices.
BBCrafts offers a search option right at the top of its home page. Type in what you’re looking for, and you’ll get a list of results. You can further refine the options by filtering down by price, product type or even review ratings. One unique feature of this site is that a pop-up box shows you what other people order as you’re on the site.
7] Include User Reviews
People have no reason to trust your business. They may have never visited your website before. If you can show them that their peers ordered a product and liked it, then you encourage them to give you a try.
Make sure the reviews are honest by allowing anyone who has ordered the item to post a review and not altering them other than for foul language. Use a star system to rate the products. Let users sort items by review rating.
8] Optimize Your Shopping Cart
The Baymard Institute found that the average online shopping cart abandonment rate is 69.57% based on 41 studies. Anything you can do to make your checkout experience simpler will improve your rates.
Add features that allow for easier completion, such as integrating with Google, Apple Pay or PayPal. Collect emails so you can follow up if the person abandons the cart. Make the process short and sweet before they decide to bounce away and not order.
9] Improve the User Experience
To improve conversions on your B2C website, you should look for any little adjustment you can make that creates a positive experience for the user. Ask your customers what they’d like to see changed on your site. Track what elements visitors use and what they ignore.
Remove the clutter. Simplify processes wherever you can and seek continual improvement until your website meets your customers’ needs.
