Is your Website Ready for Google Shopping (Part II)

It’s quickly approaching and to herald the arrival of our Optimise Webinar E-commerce series our final blog takes a look at part II of what your website needs to be ready for Google Shopping. We’ve covered a lot of the gritty details, but, there is more you need to consider before you can be happy with the knowledge that your website is ready to take on the world of E-commerce. If you consistently keep the consumer in the forefront of your mind, you might already be aware that certain aspects such as the speed of your website, its responsiveness and the quality of the content are all equally important, but more on that a bit later.

Firstly, you need to make sure that layout and design of your website is as user-friendly as possible. If it isn’t easy to navigate, conversions are going to be more difficult to achieve. The easier you make it for the consumer, the better conversion rate you’ll have. You should always use clear and succinct language. Images and graphics also need to be of a high resolution. If they’re not clear, people will make the connection that the site is not of a high quality. You can guarantee people will be less willing to part ways with their hard earned cash if they’re not convinced your website it trustworthy. Also make sure the website is free of clutter. Don’t needlessly bombard your customers with information or images which aren’t relevant.

The design and layout of your website inherently also impacts on how your ‘check-out’ flow is structured. You want to create a transaction experience which is seamless from beginning to end. There must be a logical progression of information which is essential to the sale. The information which is typically required goes as follows:

Personal Details > Address > Phone number > Payment Information

Anything more than the above is simply frustrating for the customer and will deter them from completing the check-out process.

Then there is the matter of the speed of your website which was mentioned earlier. In an age where attention spans are shrinking, speed is everything. You just have to look at the evolution of sport (think ‘20/20 Cricket’ and ‘Fast 4 Tennis’) to see this in society. There are even jokes that people should not get married until they have seen the other person deal with slow internet! If your site is slow to load, people will assume it is not working and will look elsewhere.

Along the same lines of the attention deficit phenomenon, whether or not your website is mobile responsive is a huge aspect you absolutely must incorporate. If you only take away one bit of advice, it’s this. More than ever people conduct searches via their mobile devices, even when they’re sitting on the couch at home and they could easily turn on their PC. People are not afraid to make purchases off their mobile devices either. If you’re not mobile responsive, be prepared to feel the pinch.

Website content helps with your Google Shopping for the data feed, but it’s also for your customers to read. The less questions or doubts people have about the product or service you’re trying to sell, the more likely they are to buy. You won’t have the chance to answer their questions so your website is the only way you can ensure their questions are answered. Remember as well, price is what often wins the Google Shopping price battle. If you are able to promote a product for less than your competitors, you will be more likely to get people clicking on your listing. Often, rotational prices are a good way to go. If you couple this with remarketing, you can quickly move a lot of stock.

Lastly, the dreaded abandoned shopping-cart; poor, lonely items which have been thoughtfully put together, only to be forgotten and left waiting for a home. It’s a sad story to be sure. So what to do about it? This is the best time to look at Remarketing. If you are not able to bring these people back in to purchase the items they have previously put in the shopping-cart, investigate their behaviour through Google Analytics. Are they leaving your site to look for coupons? Do they leave to ‘price shop’ on 3rd party listings like eBay? You need to find the behaviour and fix the root of the problem and, Google Analytics will give you the answer. Another thought is to include a ‘guest’ check-out option as it’s been shown to increase conversions.

So this brings an end to our Optimise Webinar ‘The Insider’s Guide to Google Shopping’ blog series. To make sure you get the most of it, you’ll want to register for the Optimise Webinar itself. It launches on Wednesday 25^th February at 10:30 am AEST. Click here to enter your details to register for free! You don’t want to miss it. With the numbers in favour of E-commerce, the next logical step is to get involved.

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