While it may be more of a challenge to convert new prospects in today’s tight economic times, you can still boost your bottom line by capitalizing on your existing customers.

Below are some easy and cost-efficient strategies for raising the average value of your orders:

1. Use cross-sells wisely. Whenever possible, make recommendations based on what your customer has added to the shopping cart, a proven way to capture impulse sales. Low to moderate price points typically work best, although the most important factor is relevance. For instance, if your customer purchases an outdoor teak furniture set, you might suggest teak wood cleaner, outdoor cushions, and a patio umbrella. Ideally, cross-sells should be dynamically presented based on a combination of the customer’s ordering history, the product’s relevance to what’s in the cart, and the product’s popularity.
2. Offer gift sets. By packaging together several complementary items—for example, two DVDs, some gourmet popcorn, a bottle of wine, and a cozy blanket—you’ll provide customers with a handsomely packaged gift set. When strategically bundled, everyday items suddenly become deluxe and giftable indulgences.
3. Highlight discounts. Now more than ever, consumers are on the hunt for bargains. Emphasize price reductions at every step along the shopping process: category pages, product pages, and also on the shopping cart. When customers are reminded of discounts throughout checkout, they’ll be more likely to act on cross-sell merchandising.
4. Give service a boost. In addition to encouraging customers to add more items to their shopping carts, another effective strategy for increasing average order size is offering ancillary services like extended warranties, white-glove delivery, and follow-up support. While these types of services won’t apply to all items, they can be a source of lucrative source of revenue for larger appliances, electronics, and PCs.

By supplementing your shopping cart with these customer-focused strategies, you can cater to your existing clientele and help increase your average order size, offsetting the economic struggles many ecommerce stores are facing.

Regina Baker - Ecommerce Solutions Expert

Regina Baker is the co-creator of Wahmcart and the Ecommerce Solutions Expert for Group Mastery.  She created Wahmcart as a full ecommerce software solution for work at home moms without the huge price tag. She's dedicated to educating the small business individual (sole proprietors) and companies with ecommerce solutions that will allow them to work smarter, not harder while at the same time providing an affordable solution that the “average” person can afford.   More about Wahmcart

Whether you sell tee-shirts or televisions, your prime goal as an online retailer is to turn browsers into buyers by driving them to your checkout process. The path to (and through) the shopping cart should be a smooth one, with none of the virtual bumps that could potentially cause items to be tossed out and left somewhere along the road.

With today’s widespread market research and usability studies, most designers of eCommerce sites have a firm grasp of effective strategies for keeping customers on a clear, focused shopping path. Even so, there are still a surprisingly large number of websites that commit grave errors in the design and implementation of their shopping carts.

Below are a few of the most common (and easily avoidable) mistakes:

1. Calling it something else. Your site’s sole point of entry into the checkout process is no place to risk confusion by getting overly fancy or “cutesy” with terminology. Resist the urge to be different by calling your cart a bag, basket, or some other alternate label. Just call it what it is, and consider adding an identifying graphic to reinforce it.
2. Hiding the “Add to Cart” button. This should be the easiest action for a customer to take, and should require little to no thinking on their part. Make sure the “Add to Cart” button is in a prominent place on the product page, and that it’s in the same location regardless of which item is being viewed. If you have long, text-heavy descriptions that extend below the fold, you might even consider including two “Add to Cart” buttons (as long as you do so on every page, for consistency).
3. Forcing customers to register. In keeping with the “smooth cart path” strategy, requiring customers to fill out a registration form prior to adding an item to their shopping cart can be conversion suicide. While you definitely want to make it easy for customers to create new accounts, it should never be implied that it’s a condition of purchase.

The last thing you want to do is to cause confusion with your potential customers.  Make it simple for them to purchase from you instead of your competitors.

Regina Baker - Ecommerce Solutions Expert

Regina Baker is the co-creator of Wahmcart and the Ecommerce Solutions Expert for Group Mastery.  She created Wahmcart as a full ecommerce software solution for work at home moms without the huge price tag. She's dedicated to educating the small business individual (sole proprietors) and companies with ecommerce solutions that will allow them to work smarter, not harder while at the same time providing an affordable solution that the “average” person can afford.   More about Wahmcart