# 5 Tips That May Improve Your Online Store



## Coty (Oct 15, 2008)

Here's another of my tip articles that I've written up for my blog. This time I talk about 5 tips that I think could be used to improve online stores. If you already have these implemented then great! If not, then you might want to think about them. Of course, all of this is coming from a consumer and somewhat interested in tees and social networks. WARNING: I've got no experience selling tees. But I do visit a lot of online tee shops, so these ideas are based on my experiences as a consumer!

1. Large Previews. One of the things that annoy me the most about online stores are small previews. If I can’t get a nice large view of the product then chances are I won’t buy the item. Thumbnails are too small to get an idea of the detail of the design. Threadless uses nice and large preview images for each of the shirts that they sell. They use previews that are 640 pixels wide - this is a nice size, anything larger might be overkill. 

2. Actual Product Shots. Photoshop mockups are great and look nice but what’s even better are actual shots of the printed item to supplement the mockups. You can do this by doing you own photo shoot or you can make it interactive by encouraging buyers or fans of your brand to send you their photos. Another idea would be to set up a Flickr account for your brand and have a Flickr group so that your customers who are Flickr users can upload their photos directly to your group. 

3. Make Your Site Social. Comments are great to building a community. Why not have the ability for users to make comments on individual product pages. iTunes does this quite well by allowing members of the iTunes community to comment and rate tunes that they purchase. Wouldn’t it be great if you could leave a comment and even rate tees that you purchased on the product page of the design you loved? 

4. Top Sellers List. Having a section that lists the top 5 or 10 designs in your store is a great way to sell even more of your most popular items. People tend to gravitate toward items that they know are popular. These can either be based on sales, ratings or a combination of both. Having a Top Sellers or Popular Items list points these customers in the right direction! 

5. Out of Print Gallery. Indie tee designs are pieces of art and they should be treated as such. I often wonder what out-of-print designs from my favorite designers looked like. Why not have a section set up that showed off your designs that people can NO LONGER buy. Make people want what they can’t have! This will make people want to buy items that you currently have in stock (in fear of them being sold out and gone forever) and will provide word of mouth (they’ll start talking about your old stuff that they can’t have).

Do you run your own online store and have tips that you would like to add? Feel free to mention them in the comment section below! Think these ideas suck or wouldn’t work - let me know why!http://www.cotygonzales.com/2008/10/15/5-tips-that-will-improve-your-online-store/


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

*replies*

I have to agree with everything but the "make it a community" 

In my opinion, retailers should be retailers and they usually can not create or FORCE a community. HOWEVER, customer reviews and comments are always nice.. just not the whole forum thing. SOO many online retailers have lame forums where one guy posts every so often. Every one of the sites that i built for online retail (shirts or otherwise) have had the ability for customers to review and rate. 

Top Sellers and Specials are DEFINITELY a must!!! Even if they arent really a "special price" featuring items is a good way to get customers to look.

The one thing i would add is DONT OVER DO IT!!!
Some people add SOO many "extras" to their site that it is overwhelming and clutters.. All that FLASH drives me CRAZY.. who wants to see the same animation OVER AND OVER.

And the other thing i would add is
ADD CONTACT INFO TO YOUR SITE!! So many online retailers figure email is good enough to provide for their customers to contact. they feel no one will ever call them.> WELL, even if no one EVER called them, by putting a physical PHONE NUMBER and ADDRESS you will make the customer feel like you are a REAL and LEGIT business instead of some guy trying to make a quick buck.


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## Coty (Oct 15, 2008)

Thanks for the reply lindsayanng! I agree, Flash drives me crazy as well. And the tip on the contact is a no-brainer as well but so many people don't do it just because they have an email there.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

you would THINK its a no-brainer, but i am active on a few web design (specifically e-commerce) forums and people who ask for feedback on their sites, about 80% of them have NO contact info and JUST an email. I would never purchase from ANYONE who didnt have a phone number and physical address


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## marcelolopez (Jul 16, 2007)

It is true. I do have my address in my *return* page.
I have not phone number for my business yet. But I think that is very important.
It gives you more credibility.


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## lindsayanng (Oct 3, 2008)

If you dont have a phone number for a business yet, USE YOUR HOME!! especially if you do MOST of your retailing and marketing online. it will be the ONE thing that could make or break a sale! I dont know what your website does, if you can order and pay online or not.. but i would NEVER order something from someone with just an email addres. It is too easy for people to ignore emails, or say they "didnt get them" so when/if my package got lost in the mail, the business owner and VERY easily say "i never got your email" or i can call them and even if they ignore, i can leave as many messages as i want and have PROOF that they should have gotten my calls. 

There is a company called RING CENTRAL where you can get a customized 800 number that will ring to whatever line you tell it to.. So you can have ALL your website calls directed to your cell phone through Ring Central. You also can have very professional sounding voice mail and such.. Like 
"thank you for calling (your company). For sales, press 1. For support, press 2. They dont need to know that 1,2 &3 all go to the same person.. You sound professional!!

You can also set it up to say different things at different times of the day.. So if you dont want any calls at night, you can set it to mention your business hours, etc. 

VERY professional sounding


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## stuffnthingz (Oct 1, 2007)

You can get free phone numbers from www.K7.net, I have used them for years I also pay for a postal address at a local mailbox place. It runs me about $150/year. I will not purchase from a website that does not provide full contact information so made sure that I had this information at the ready when I started my own e-commerce site.


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## marcelolopez (Jul 16, 2007)

stuffnthingz said:


> You can get free phone numbers from www.K7.net, I have used them for years I also pay for a postal address at a local mailbox place. It runs me about $150/year. I will not purchase from a website that does not provide full contact information so made sure that I had this information at the ready when I started my own e-commerce site.


That's great, Thank you, I just signed up, and have a business phone number !!

This look very different now


www .mywebsite.com
Tel 206 888 5672

thanks


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## Coty (Oct 15, 2008)

Great tip on the Phone Numbers! I'll be sure to add that to the updated list. I may do a "Part 2" post with all of the suggestions that people have left here and elsewhere! 

Thanks for the tips fellas!


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## Adam (Mar 21, 2005)

Very good Coty. Great to see tips from a consumer level as we, the vendors, more often than not can't see past our own noses. 

It would be good if you had some explanation as to why these tips matter so much. Sometimes things are just common sense, no brainers, but things like larger thumbnails have only really started coming into play since broadband connections are more the norm. 

Seeing a design on a real-life photo makes the consumer feel much more secure in their purchase. They can see that actually real people have bought from this site. Customer photos are probably much more effective than models to create that trust and reassurance that we all need when shopping on the net.

The importance of being social is selfishly more important to the vendor than the consumer. It gets people using the site more, the stickiness becomes more much great and your brand becomes viral. When a viral, social aspect, is combined with buying products then you're on to a win.

Top sellers list: Yes totally agree. Many people are reluctant to show these because they don't want competitors to see them but if ultimately if you don't show the visitor what's hot on your site they won't have as much interest. It also shows you are selling stuff.. which is reassuring to the person who is just about to part with their money.

Your out of print gallery idea is a pretty cool one.


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