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In This First Issue:
1. Selling Tip -- Communication makes customers comfortable.
2. Selling Tip -- “In stock” matters.
3. Feature Update -- Order Tracking.
4. Feature Update -- Yahoo! Shopping search and you.
5. Selling Tip -- Customer ratings: it’s a good thing.
Selling Tip Communication makes customers comfortable.
In these early, important days of e-commerce, we’ve found that one of
the biggest concerns of prospective online shoppers is the feeling of
lack of access to people behind the scenes. Many folks who’d like to
shop online fear that they’ll never be able to speak with an actual
person, should a problem with their order arise. There’s an easy
solution: good communication.
Raise consumer comfort level (and in all likelihood turn more
visitors into actual customers) by providing complete contact and
order information on your site. Clearly post the following storeinformation on an easy-to-find page (such as your "Info" page):
- Email address.
- Phone number.
- Physical address.
- Shipping charges.
- Return policy and satisfaction guarantee.
- Privacy policy (if you have one).
- Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about your products and site.
Again, this information should be easy to find; you may even choose
to include it (or at least a link to it) in the “Final text” field,
so that it becomes available on every page of your store. Put
yourself in the shoes of a potential customer. By making this sort of
contact information easily accessible, you are showing the human face
behind your web site. Visitors who see that you are available to them
will be more comfortable taking the plunge and ordering from you.
(And once they've ordered, use the Order Tracking feature (see below)
to keep them coming back!)
2. Selling Tip In stock matters.
Speaking of good communication, here’s a related idea. Many people
choose to shop online because it is convenient. After all, online
shopping avoids the hassle of a drive to the store. No long lines:
you find what you want, click on a button, fill out your order
information … and presto, the item is soon on its way. But, how soon?
Implicit in this convenience is the idea that goods sold online are immediately available. Customers tend to get frustrated (even
annoyed) if there is a delay in the shipping of an order.
So, why not tell customers exactly when a particular item might be shipped? (Use the Availability feature in your store editor.) A
number of successful online merchants (including Amazon.com) manage
their customers’ expectations this way. It’s all about good
communication and making people feel comfortable shopping online.
3. Feature Update Order Tracking.
Did you know that you could give your customers the ability to monitor the status of their orders online? It’s true. Order tracking
is easy with Yahoo! Store all you need to do is update the shipment
status for each order, and we'll do the rest send an email to the
customer and update their order status page. Include a tracking
number, and your customers can see where their packages are at that
moment!
If you want to keep customers up-to-date on their orders, simply do
the following:
In your Store Manager “Orders” section, select the specific order
you’d like to update. Then, on the individual order page, look for
the drop-down box that allows you to establish a shipping schedule.
(Called “Tracking Information,” it includes options such as “Shipped”
or “Will ship in 2-3 days” and so forth.) Set this tracking
information so that it accurately reflects the current order status.
You can also enter a tracking number if the order has been shipped; if the order has been broken into multiple shipments, there's an
option for that, too. Click on “Update” and 1) an email notification
will be sent to the customer, 2) their “order status” page will show
this new information.
For more information, please see http://store.yahoo.com/tracking.html
(Instead of manually entering each order’s status, there is an option
to update the Order Tracking status automatically, via email. For
more on this advanced feature, see the specs at
http://store.yahoo.com/uptracstatau.html.)
4. Feature update Yahoo! Shopping search and you.
As you know, products available in Yahoo! Stores are included in the
search results of Yahoo! Shopping (http://shopping.yahoo.com/). But
did you know that there are things you can do to improve your store's
ranking in the search results?
Yahoo! Shopping search results are “ranked” by a number of factors.
Obviously, the most important factor is relevancy. Relevancy is
determined by looking for matches between product names and
descriptions and the search words entered by users/shoppers. But, in
addition to relevancy, good customer ratings and product images also
have an effect on a store's ranking.
How can you improve your search results? Make sure your product
names are descriptive. Try to write full captions that are as
informative and accurate as possible, using words that a customer
might use when searching for the product. Also, if you don’t already
have them, include images for each item. And, participate in Customer
Ratings, our next topic…
5. Selling Tip - Customer Ratings: it’s a good thing.
If you’re not already participating in a Customer Ratings program --
well, you should be. It’s an easy way to get fast feedback from your
customers, and to improve your ranking in Yahoo! Shopping search
results.
Highly rated stores receive a "Top Service" icon in Yahoo! Shopping
-- a gold star that appears next to each product in the search
results. In addition, a high rating adds points to your ranking,
which can make your products appear higher up in the search results.
What to do?
Go to your Store Manager and click on "Enable Ratings," then click
"Publish" under Order Settings. Once you've enabled the ratings
system, each customer who places an order will be invited to evaluate
and rate your service on a scale of one to five. They’ll receive an
email inviting them to participate by filling out a simple online
form. It's entirely voluntary. And, besides helping with search
results, the feedback you get from customers can help you to build a
better online business.
For more information visit http://store.yahoo.com/rating.html
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