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So you’ve gotten visitors to your site, through email marketing or SEO! Great job. But getting them there is only half of the battle- this is an ecommerce site, so the next step is to entice your customers to purchase.

A common complaint from customers of brick-and-mortar stores is that the cash registers are “too hard to find”. In those stores, however, there are at least salespeople to ask for directions or assistance! On the internet, customers are pretty much on their own, so it’s important to make the ‘cash registers’ (Shopping Cart/Checkout) as accessible as possible.

Show and tell

So where is the checkout? What is the sale price? Don’t make your customers have to guess or search for the call to action; rather, answer their questions exactly, and better yet, answer them before they even ask. The best way to do this is with a clear call to action (CTA), be that a link, a button, or even just text that explicitly outlines a customer’s next step. It’s important to tell people what to do so they don’t spend their time trying to figure it out for themselves. So make it easy for your customers to take action.

Best practices

• Place CTAs above the fold. Don’t make customers scroll.
• Use distinct, contrasting colors to make your CTA pop.
• Increase the size of the button so it is easy for customers to click.
• Use white space to your advantage. Make your CTAs stand out by adding white space around them.
• Use simple direction language. “ADD TO CART,” or “ADD TO WISHLIST” are common refrains that you might hear on eCommerce websites.
• Convey a sense of urgency. Words like “BUY NOW” instead of “ADD TO CART” can urge users to act immediately.