Website Usability

Touch Down on the Second Date: Buy Now Section Usability Tips

After focusing our attention on the Download Section Usability Tips, in this second article of the Route 66 for Selling Software series we are trying to share some tips on how to touch down on the second date. We focus on ways to optimize your buy button in order to get more software sales.

The more serious relations you have with your customers, the faster and healthier your online business grows. You should always reach for the famous win-win and obvious situation: the customers get the software they want, you get the money for it and none of you experiences regrets.

The Buy Now section within your website is the trigger section for starting these long lasting relationships with your customers. It's true that not all of them will work, but all of them should be treated with the same importance and energy, in order to make it happen.

Here are the 6 usability advices regarding the Buy Now section on your website.

1. If the buyer decides to buy from you, don't make it hard for him to give you the money

• Make it smooth

There is a point within the user's life when he inaudibly states: "I will buy this software". Ideally, the very next second, the licensed software should be in his hands. The more time lapses till the user actually buys the software, the more he is going to think about it, therefore bigger chances for him to have second thoughts or change his mind.

• Make it easy

From your business point of view there are many reasons why you would ask a user to login before buying a product. You get to know when he returns, what are his favorite products, how he navigates through the website and so on. But the bottom line is that from the user's standpoint there is not even a single reason why he should login before getting to the shopping cart. Login credentials are mostly helpful for the user on retail stores where the users returns frequently so he doesn't need to fill in forms every time he wants to purchase a product, but even the creation of an account should be optional.

Since some forms need to be filled in, so that you know where to send the product, make sure they are as easy to understand and fill in as possible. That also means providing solutions for potential errors so you always help the user in his shy attempt to get it done with the purchase. Never let error messages written by programmers scare away your customers! Let your marketing department deal with this issue and continuously A/B test the error messages until you are sure they don't send customers away.

• Make it fast

Just like on a second date, the customer wants to get it done fast. Why so many steps when all he wants is to give you his money for a great experience with your software.

Leave the menu and any other navigational items out of the purchase process. It would be like taking the customer on a date at a football match, and trying to get all his attention. Wouldn't it be better to take him to a close park where nothing or nobody will compete with you.

Don't hide anything from the customer. Deceiving him from the beginning not only will throw him away but will also give you a bad reputation. "Consumers are quick to walk away from online purchases when merchants don't fully disclose critical information, particularly related to cost", says Arturo Perez-Reyes, professor of e-commerce at the University of California, Berkeley.

• Be friendly

Customize your shopping cart as much as possible, and where possible, even for different segments of customers. Treat returning visitors different from new ones, or customers coming from your trial from the ones coming from partners or search engines. And a great idea would be to A/B test different methods for different segments... After all it's all about that touch down and getting the revenue for your products.

2. Marketing is good only when it's useful for the customer

Being contextual means to be accurate. However, there is a place and time when marketing is out of place. Once the user clicks the checkout button on the shopping cart, all marketing should stop until the end of the process.

There are many more or less creative ways to market your products and reach for getting more money from your customers. Well, as Copyblogger put it: WIFM is Dead. Long Live WIFY! (what's in it for me versus what's in it for you)

So, why use cross-selling or up-selling if the user doesn't really wants it. Forcing things at this stage of your relationship is not the best thing to do. Don't force the user for dinner if he only wants lunch. However, if the user gives you hints of being interested in a long lasting relation on all levels, be sure to show him the benefits of it.

On the other hand, there are many websites that focus too much on marketing during the shopping process but forget about it at the end of the process. The "thank you for ordering" page is one of the least taken advantages of for marketing. Think of it like the after cigar. A smart line from you now might mean everything for a long lasting relationship.

3. The best buy button for your website

You've probably noticed that some websites are nicer than others. And that some websites are so easy to use and so pleasant, that you really want to buy something from them. Well, we believe that the secret lies in their user oriented design. That means that they always have in mind their users' profiles, preferences and feedback when designing their pages.

• Name your button

Buy now. Purchase now. Buy. Add to shopping cart. Order now. Add to cart. Add to bag. Shop now. Add to wish list. And the list may go on. Which one is better for you? Well, we don't know but you may find out with A/B testing: try one button for a while, see how that works, then switch it with the next one and so on, until you see which one gets the highest conversion rates.

Need inspiration for your buy button? Check out this article for an older post presenting 111 buy buttons.

• Shape your button

When users decide to buy, it's their moment on your website and it's the climax of your relationship. You want to make it worth while and you want to make them feel good while doing it. Give them space, a pretty design (consistent with the rest of the website) and a friendly word.

• Place the button

It has to be somewhere visible, above the fold and large enough not to be missed by anyone. The call to action button has to be surrounded by the product image, details and reasons for buying.

4. Be honest and avoid charge backs

You don't want your customers making charge backs; nevertheless, you cannot take this possibility away from them. As previously written in an article on ecommerce platforms too many charge backs lead to VISA/MasterCard closing your merchant account and probably you can imagine the effects on the overall credibility of your website.

If your offer is so great that is convincing your customers in an instant, but it's all based on lies, then the phenomenon of cognitive dissonance comes up. This basically means that the customer realizes he/she has been misled and regrets his/her action and wants to take it back. You cannot stop that, because the money back guarantee is a proven efficient marketing technique, its absence causing you more harm than protection.

So, be honest, let your customers know exactly what they are buying and convince them, for real, that the product/service you are selling will meet their needs. After all, they should be the ones pushing the button, not you.

5. How to avoid shopping cart abandonment

Being honest also helps you avoid shopping cart abandonment. As you can see in the graphic underneath offered by emarketer.com , the most common reason for this abandonment concerns an amount of money not anticipated by users.

Besides honesty, from a usability point of view, there are a lot of aspects that need to be taken into consideration regarding your shopping cart abandonment. In a previous article on Avangate website, we tried to comprise a hefty sum of tips on reducing the shopping cart abandonment, hope it will be useful in this situation as well.

6. Security

Last but not least, customers need to feel secure about any transaction on your website. Just like in a relationship, you need to make your partner feel secure and convinced of the long lasting, prosperous and trustful relation ahead.

You need to have a Security Certificate that certifies the https connection, which in time became compulsory. You also need to make sure that the security certificate is not expired. Users in the point of entering their credit card details to buy your software that see this error will immediately lose the trust built so far, that took them to this stage. You may also want to add to your website a security certificate, just to make sure that they fully trust your website's capacity of secure transactions: VeriSign and Hacker Safe are the most common providers of these sort of certificates.

Another problem that needs to be avoided is the occurrence of html errors inside a https page - that cannot be understood by most of your customers.

Make sure that everything goes smooth by providing a one click away terms and conditions and privacy statement.

Conclusion:

The buy action on your website may be optimized so that conversion rates grow in your benefit. It's what we call getting the touchdown on your software selling website, but as you already know, it's not the end of the game, nor of your relationship with the customer. Customer support and all the after-sale actions that you perform are equally important. But our 66 Route to selling software ends here.

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