One of my greatest marketing teachers was my dad and he often offered unsolicited advice on how to be a more effective marketer. He was a fan of the KISS principle — “Keep it Simple Stupid.”
I recently had an informal poll in the office to discover where we all learned about this principle. Many people said a teacher, a boss or parent, but most people actually referenced “The Office,” the hit TV Show where Dwight Schrute says: “Michael always says K.I.S.S. Keep it simple stupid, great advice… hurts my feelings every time.”
I think a similar principle is MIES or “Make it Easy Stupid”, but I prefer to take the stupid part out because it’s confusing — so I am going with “Make it Super Easy” or MISE.
When it comes to selling your products online it’s vital that you create a plan to make it as easy as possible for people to make a purchase. This involves enabling them through things like design, user experience, and targeting. But it’s also key to remove any possible barriers that might stop them from buying your product.
After all, we’ve all been there, we’ve clicked on a product and decided to buy a product only to abandon the transaction because the process its too complicated, the site is broken or there are hidden costs. And we’re not the only ones. In fact, the average cart abandonment rate online is 78.65%. That’s a lot of money left on the table.
This is where MISE comes in. When you’re selling a product on the Internet, you’ve got to make it super easy for people to buy your product or service the way they want to. Amazon’s 1-click buying followed this thought and that single button practically revolutionized eCommerce.
For another example, people should be able to buy your product and get free shipping. They should be able to do this quickly and easily from whatever device they’re using. And, at the same time, they should be able to continue to buy your product through distributors and physical store locations if you want to.
This is just the tip of the iceberg as far as eCommerce best practice is concerned. But to help you start to recover some of those abandoned carts here are three things that you should be doing right now to follow the MISE principle and make your customers’ lives online easier.
Are you selling a product (could be anything) and don’t have eCommerce setup? At least three times a week, I have a conversation with a business owner about selling their products online and they tell me that they are afraid to upset their distributors. This is likely a valid concern, but in five years it won’t matter because you and them are both going to be out of business — unless you start making a plan to sell online ASAP.
In a previous post, we talked about how the retail giant Amazon is a MUST for any eCommerce business. You don’t need to have all of your products on Amazon. You might just want to sell the ones with the highest margin, or those that cost the least to ship. You also need to decide which products need to be on Amazon FBA but ultimately…
…the bottom line is, customers expect free shipping when they are shopping online, and they want the option to expedite products for an extra cost if they want to. People are willing to pay for faster service and free shipping is almost a constitutional right in their minds (thank you, Amazon Prime). If you don’t offer free shipping, it is an obstacle standing in the way of customers buying your products.
So the next time you are thinking about your eCommerce remember: “MISE: Make it Super Easy”. Trust us, the easier you make it for your customers to make a purchase the more likely they are to act.
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