12 WAYS TO BOOST WEB STORE SALES

"Electronic distribution has become a numbers game," argues Todd Frostad of Digital River, a leading Web store hosting service. With hundreds of sites selling software and hundreds of thousands of transactions, he says, there's now enough statistical data to predict how consumers will act when they buy online. Frostad recently outlined a dozen marketing rules that Digital River has found can increase Web store sales--often dramatically.

*Put the BUY button at top left: "The eye's natural tendency is to scan a page from top left to lower right," Frostad points out. "Top left is the prime selling position whether you're talking about an ad, a catalog page, or a package. Lower right is second best, top right is third best, and the worst is the lower left position."

*Use animation cautiously: Although Webmasters often insist that jazzy animations get attention, Frostad says one network tools company saw its Web sales drop 15% the moment it added a simple flashing button to its home page. "Of course, if you're selling to Java programmers, obnoxious animations will probably make your sales go up."

*Don't hide the cash register: Sales drop off in direct proportion to the number of pages that a buyer has to navigate to reach an order form, Frostad says. Digital River's tracking analysis shows that Web stores that get the customer from the home page to an order form in three clicks or less typically convert 15%-30% of site visitors into customers. The conversion rate drops to 7%-12% for sites that take four to six clicks, and 4%-7% for sites that take more than six clicks.

*Avoid the word "Download": Use explicit terms like "buy" or "order online" for buttons that link to an order form, says Frostad. "A button that says 'Download' usually means something free--shareware, or a 30-day try-before-you-buy option."

*Use an eye-catching color palette: The same colors that attract attention in retail and print environments also boost sales on the Web. "Red elicits emotion and a sense of urgency," he says. "And yellow is the first color the eye notices."

*Offer multiple paths to the order form: By analyzing how buyers click though a site, Digital River found that about 50% are "ready to buy when they reach the site." The rest "decide to buy after you've given them more information, after they've gone to your technical questions and your FAQs, or browsed your product detail pages." If all of these information pages offer buttons that link to an order form, Frostad adds, "sales will increase by as much as 10%."

*Keep the customer input form simple: Another way to achieve "a small bump in sales" (about 2%) is to collect all customer information--including secure credit card data and non-secure address data--on a single form. "One shot, done, over with," says Frostad.

*Offer an 800 number option: "Consistently, regardless of product category, regardless of price point, we lose about 12% of sales on the shopping basket page just at the point when customers are asked to input their credit card information," he notes. Most of these security-conscious buyers will place a credit card order by telephone, Frostad says--though a 12% sales increase may not offset the cost of staffing a call center, he adds.

*Offer multiple delivery options: Customers tend to spend more when they're offered a choice of electronic or physical product delivery methods--and sales go up another 2%-5% whenever there's a follow-on choice between next-day or regular delivery of physical product, says Frostad.

*Focus on real buyers, not tire-kickers: Frostad says that free downloads, contests, and other gimmicks may create impressive traffic counts, but the visitors who actually spend money are attracted by straightforward product information. Banner ads and e-mail campaigns should promise "the information that people need to make a buying decision," he argues.

*Start a buyers club: Repeat customers are important, and one way to boost their lifetime revenue contribution is to create a members-only discount club--preferably one that requires a small annual membership fee. "As a consumer, if you've invested something, you've got a reason to come back."

*Remember the customer's name: "Put customer information in a database, and pre-fill the order form every time they come back," Frostad suggests. "If there's a sense of recognition from the retailer, three out of five customers will return to the point of purchase."

Todd Frostad, director of business development, Digital River, 9625 W. 76th St., Eden Prairie, Minn. 55344; 612/830-9042 E-mail: [e-mail].