Numerous studies have show that the order page is the main page where people bag out of completing a web based transaction. They can get cold feet, confused, and distracted at this critical point in the sales process. It's your job to help them complete the order form and submit it.

There are several things that can ruin a sale for you.

• Worry that the site is not secure.

• Pre-buyer's remorse

• Other reluctance to put a credit card number in a website.

• Confusion

• More familiarity with other ordering methods.

Security
I'll combine the bullet points about worry that the site is not secure and general reluctance to put a credit card number in a website.

Security on the Internet has been a big issue blown up by the media. Certainly it is an important issue, but hardly the desperate situation outlined by people who have never sold anything online.

What this means to you as a merchant is that you must put in the normal safeguards, keep an eye out for suspected fraudulent orders and then go on about your business of selling.

The general public, however, looks at this a little differently. Since they believe security is so important you must ease their fears about ordering from you. The first step in this is to smack them in the face with your security measures when they hit the order page. I do this in two ways. 1.) My shopping cart displays the Verisign logo which is a pretty trusted symbol. 2.)

On bigger ticket products, I provide an extra security statement and a pop up box that emphasizes the security  issue even further. You can see an example of this by visiting http://www.antion.com/speakervideo.htm and clicking on the order button. You will see a special section of my order page pop up that has the all the elements we will be discussing about Order Page Selling.

Note: If this page doesn't show up it's because you have been testing other things in my shopping system. The page I'm discussing today would, however show up for someone who had not been playing around with http://www.kickstartcart.com .

It always cracks me up when people ask me so much about the security of my ordering process when they are at infinitely more risk when they give their credit card to a high school age waiter at a restaurant. But people are generally protective of their credit (at least they think they are) so you have to cater to their fears.

Buyer's Remorse
At your order page people are not really buyers yet. They are really buyer's when your "Thank You" page displays and we'll show you how to sell there too in a future issue.

Since people are not really buyers at your order page it is a good idea to reinforce their good decision to keep them excited about the purchase they are about to make. This is infinitely more important on big ticket products than on small purchases. A customer's worry about the sale increases significantly and in proportion to the amount of money they are spending.

On my order page I use phraseology like "Yes, I want to become a professional speaker," and "Yes, Tom I want you to help finance my speaking education." Generally you can use anything that concentrates on the affirmative and keeps them excited about completing the sale.

This is also a place to add testimonials and reinforce any bonuses you are giving.

Confusion
Making your ordering instructions hard to understand has been the downfall of many online marketers. What would seem to you to be a smooth and easy process could be totally foreign to someone who is not web savvy. It's a good idea to have people test out your ordering system without you holding their hands and telling them where to click. Have them write down the questions that come to mind while they are trying to place an order. You'll probably be surprised at what you hear. Take steps to answer those questions on the screen so people can get their order placed.

Familiarity
To maximize your sales, make every traditional method available to order. Here's what the top of my standard order form says:

To order by FAX, print out this page and fax to 301-552-0225

You can also mail your order to:

Antion & Associates
Box 2630
Landover Hills, MD 20784

For customer service call 800-448-6280 in the Continental United States and 301-459-0738 outside the US.

As you can see I give them every possible way to order and I do get lots of fax and phone orders. It's most likely that I would have lost those sales if I tried to force everyone to order on line.

One other note about order form selling is that anyone in the world can see your order form. Although mine is not available in other languages, I still make it clear that the 800 number only works in the Continental USA and that the other number is good anywhere else. If you have a significant international audience (especially from a particular country or language base) you could put additional instructions in that language prior to the order page to help make those people feel more comfortable.

Upcoming web techniques

• Pop Under Boxes

• Sell Down Technique

• Ask the expert

• Shopping Systems

• Third Party Applications

• How to make your website sell

• Web customer service

Back to September 2002 Index page