Do your customers hit the back button right before they buy?
I recently went to a small business membership website aimed at showing people how to maximize their online sales. I’d heard that the site was really great and I planned to join… only I didn’t.
Three specific things turned me off about the monthly subscription and made me think that this membership website really wan’t all it was cracked up to be.
So… I hit the back button.
Are you making these three small business mistakes?
1. The security certificate on the secure order page had expired. In fact, my own browser software completely shut down the page so it looked like a dead link to the order page. If I wan’t computer savvy, I probably wouldn’t have went on to the order page. I wonder how many other people simple hit the back button?
I think this is a pretty simple thing to keep updated. It just screams UNPROFESSIONAL to me when I see this, but maybe I happened to hit this website when it’s pants were down… I gave it the benefit of the doubt and went on to the order page.
2. They didn’t offer payments with PayPal. I have most of my “petty cash” stashed in a PayPal account so that I can quickly purchase things online… that’s the way I like to pay for much of my online business expenses. It irritated me that I couldn’t use PayPal here for a monthly subscription and I’m sure other people don’t like that either.
It’s always a good idea to offer as many payment options as possible when you sell anything online… and PayPal is a pretty standard payment method.
This website now has two strikes against it, but it came highly recommended so I want to give it one more try… but now I’ve got that little yellow flag in the back of my mind that tells me to take a closer look at the website.
3. The site only offers poor and dated content samples. If they haven’t updated their content samples… you know, the stuff that’s supposed to get you hooked into joining their website… then what kind of crap is waiting behind the membership veil?
Was that too harsh?
Well, maybe it was but that’s what this guy’s site visitors are going to think too. If you’re selling a membership website, you should have samples of your very best content available to entice new subscribers, not a bunch of 2 or 3 year old articles that aren’t revelant today.
In the end, I decided not to waste my money on this membership website… anyone who would make these three killer mistakes when they are trying to close a sale clearly doesn’t know too much about online business - even though that was what their membership website was all about!
It’s too bad for them, because I was ready to commit to the subscription before I even typed in the URL.
Unfortunately, they will never know that they lost my sale and why. (Unless I decide to send them a link to this post.)
Who knows how many other sales they lose for the same reasons?
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2 Responses to “Do your customers hit the back button right before they buy?”
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Pay pal is a rip off. Did you ever think about the person on the other end having to put up with Paypal’s every day crap just to get their money?
I have a very successful online business and I will NEVER, take Pay pal. And it irritates me when people like you who do not know how it works on the other end grip and complain that the the business owner won’t “take a hit” just to sell you something.
As far as I am concerned the online business is much better off not having you as a customer, than to have you moaning and groaning that you won’t buy if you can’t have your way. Grow up! Get a life dude, this is the 21st century. Find out how to pay for the crap you order online with a credit or debit card!
If you don’t like something just move on. You don’t need to write your whole life story telling the world your problems.
As a merchant, I’m not a big fan of PayPal, but it’s a way of life for A LOT of consumers out there.
If you’re not offering to take payments with PayPal, you will probably lose some customers. Merchants should make it as easy as possible for customers to make that purchase and offer as many options as they reasonably can.
In my business, PayPal makes up about 20% of my sales… Can you afford to give up 20% of your sales simply because you don’t like PayPal?