Like a bakery that attracts passersby with its scent of fresh bakes, a website has to have its appeal to entice customers. So, how do you make the most of your website?How do you attract new customers and persuade them to spend more? 
Classify products properly
A customer who comes in looking for something specific needs to find the product with ease. So, when he searches for a half sleeved, black cotton shirt, he has to see products that fit his description. Tag products right. Apart from plain vanilla search text box, offer searches based on ring searches based on size, color or product code. No one likes searching for a needle in a haystack. Offer recommendations based on customer picks. And of course, these recommendations have to make sense. A customer who buys a phone online would also be interested in accessories for the phone. So, feature them alongside.
Photographs speak for themselves
Customers are NEVER interested in buying a product online if it has no image. It could garden soil or an expensive dress. But it needs to have photographs. Have as many photographs as you can. If you have intricate designs on your products, zoom and show it to them. Invest time, effort and money in photographing your goods. If you do not have the skills yourself, get an expert to do it. If you sell apparel, get models to pose for them. If you sell furniture, include photographs of the furniture in a house.
Enable comparison between products
So, the customer is interested in TV sets? Help him research the available TV sets. Let him segregate on prospective buys. Offer a compare feature that lets him see the specifications of each TV set, neatly tabulated. This helps him figure out which TV set fits his needs. He can choose the right product for himself using the compare feature.
Bundle buys and discounts
If a customer zeroes in on a laptop from your site, make him spend more by offering a discount on laptop accessories. You can offer a bundle offer- if he buys the laptop, he gets a discount on speakers, carry case and such. This maximizes each spend. Along with this, also display a range under the caption, ‘People who bought this also bought these’. This helps the customer look into related products.
Ask for details at checkout
Filling forms is boring. It’s a huge turn off. So, save it for as late as possible. Once the customer clicks ‘Buy’, ask for details. Most sites that hound people for registration find that people shut the website window and proceed to another. And to make things simpler, minimize the number of clicks required to complete each purchase.
To encourage customer loyalty, store customer data and recognize returning buyers. Map their previous purchases. If you are an online grocer, or a pizza delivery chain, you might find that customers order for the same products periodically. So, ask customers if they want to reorder a previous shop cart.
