Selling a product online? Wouldn’t it be fantastic if you could see your visitors enter your site, be able to say hello to them, and offer to answer any questions they may have. You know, have a face to face just as if you were both in a real store. The advantages of simply being there for the sale are stacked in your favor versus those who are not.

Website, Help Wanted

Unfortunately technology isn’t really there yet, and I am sure for many of us, a cool advantage of buying online is the fact that you can do it in your pajamas. So as a website owner of an ecommerce site, how do you get the face time? Your turn your crutch (website) into a tool. How? By not relying on the site to make the sales. It would be nice if all sites were just cranking money making machines, but in reality they actually take  bit of salesmanship.

Live Chat

Here is a technique this sunglasses site has used, and it is working wonderfully for them. They took the “hope your order from our website” mentality, and turned it into “USE our site to order”. Everywhere on the site are two key items doing this. Phone numbers (a personal favorite), and Live Chat. Both are methods to get that face, or at least attention time, needed to make a sale. According to the site owner, their live chat has been one of their biggest helpers, and also mentioned that the customers love the feature.

I can’t imagine many questions that would be needed for a buy a pair of sunglasses, maybe if they wanted to know how durable their sports sunglasses are. The thing is though, if I did have a question, there is someone their to answer my questions, and I don’t have to play the email game waiting for an answer. My answer is immediate, just as if I were in a store.

Communications

Opening the doors to communications is a solid business model, and if it doesn’t at least help you in sales, it could at least help your credibility.