The ever-growing popularity of online shopping is great news for eCommerce business owners. The number of e-shoppers is growing, with more internet users taking to online buying. This trend will continue for at least a couple of years, say experts. This view is supported by hard facts. E-commerce sales are predicted to soar to almost 1.4 trillion dollars by 2015. Besides traditional eCommerce countries like the USA, the UK and Japan, the E-commerce boom is expected in Europe in such countries as France, Italy, Spain, Russia, Turkey and Poland. Consequently, the competition between online merchants will become really fierce. Forward-thinking E-commerce business owners will have to make sure that their online stores are buyer-appealing and customer-oriented. Here are a few tips to improve the sales effectiveness of your site.

HOME PAGE FEATURES JUST ONE PRODUCT OR SERVICE

Offering fewer products in one place with more copy describing those products translates into higher sales. Focusing on just one service or one set of related products, it is possible to present a key set of benefits in a sufficient detail. Moreover, visitors' questions or doubts can be dealt with in an exhaustive manner.

REPOSITION YOUR OPT-IN OFFER TO IMPROVE YOUR OPT-INS 

An opt-in offer is the tool for collecting your customers' e-mail addresses and building your e-mail list, which allows you to regularly keep in touch with your subscribers, build relationships of trust and loyalty, and sell them your products or services. Place your opt-in offer in a prominent position on your home page. Remember that the top left of a page is where visitors' eyes are often drawn first. Do you have a long sales letter? Try placing your opt-in offer within your second "page" of text--after you've grabbed your visitors' attention by identifying a problem they have and established your credibility by providing them with your credentials, experience and testimonials from satisfied customers.

SWAP POP-UPS FOR HOVER ADS

Pop-ups have been a very useful, online marketing tool for years. However, majority of Internet users detest them. Quick to respond to their needs, Google, AOL, Netscape and others developed pop-up blocking software to fight pop-ups. Hover ads were created to fill the void. They do not scroll with the web page, "hovering" over it and usually obscuring the content. One of the e-store sites reported a 162-percent increase of its sales as a result of adding hover ads. Presenting an opt-in offer or a special limited-time promotion right in front of the site's visitors, hover ads are great tool to boost sales.

HEADLINE PRESENTS A VARIETY OF BENEFITS 

A good headline highlights a problem faced by the site's target audience, emphasizing the main benefit of advertised product or service in solving the said problem. Introduced in the headline, the problem should be described in more detail in the first few paragraphs on the home page. Then it is time to introduce a given product or service as the solution to a presented problem.

SENSE OF URGENCY

The sales copy should compel the site's visitors to buy now. The best place to instill this sense of urgency in the target audience is toward the end of the sales letter, near the call to action. Here are examples of the most effective ways to create a sense of urgency:

• Offering a limited-time price discount where visitors must buy before a certain date in order to qualify for the discount.
• Offering additional bonuses for free if visitors buy within a certain time frame.
• Offering only a limited quantity of your products or services.
• Offering a limited quantity bonus.

VISUALS SPEAK (AND SELL) VOLUMES

Making products look more realistic and almost tangible, images are a powerful sales tool. But sometimes revealing what the product is too early in the sales process can kill the sale. First highlight the product benefits and value, and only then reveal exactly what it is.

Sources: http://www.entrepreneur.com; http://quartsoft.com
Photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/