Placing Your Customer’s Interests First
Why does your ebook store exist? If your answer to that question is any reason other than providing a convenient means for your customers to find the exact books they will like and purchase them, you’re probably guilty of not placing your customers interests first. Yes, a by-product of running your store is the income it generates to support your lifestyle. However, if you want your business to do well, the first thing you should do is ensure your customers get the impression everything you do is for them. Here’s how.
Meet Their Needs
As we mentioned above, the real reason for the existence of your store is to curate a selection of titles your target customer will find appealing and make it as easy as possible for this person to find and purchase them. It means paying attention to the buying habits of your customers and finding titles they will appreciate based upon purchases they have made in the past. It also means creating an environment in which they will be comfortable doing so. To be truly successful in this regard, ask yourself what I can do to make it easy for customers to want to buy from me. The answer to that question will make shoppers enjoy perusing your site more frequently because they always find something they like—and they feel welcomed when doing so.
Make Things Easy For Them
Yes, this is similar to meeting their needs, however this point focuses specifically upon making your site as easily navigable as possible. “Intuitive” should be your guideword for every decision regarding the placement of your site’s features, buttons and menu items. Further, when you first begin to consider how to sell ebooks on your own website think ease of utility over creativity of design. The last thing you want is a new shopper to land on your artistically designed homepage and get bewildered by it. Your navigation should be clear. Calls to action should be prominent. Every aspect of your site should say, “We thought of you when we put this together, because we don’t want you to have to labor to do anything here.”
Sometimes you’ll get customer comments on some aspect of your operation; “It’d be really good if when I downloaded my ebook—“. “I’d really like longer excerpts to consider—“. If one of your customers is concerned enough to mention something, odds are a number of the others are feeling it too. They just aren’t saying anything. Rather than blowing the complaint off as the ranting of a whiny whinering-izer (yes, we know that isn’t a real word), realize they are probably the leading edge of a wave building up behind you. You can catch it early and surf, or you can ignore it and get swamped. Even if you’re getting no such comments, rather than blithely assuming you’re perfect, conduct surveys at regular intervals to try to learn what your customers are thinking. Consider the responses carefully and act upon them if need be.
Yes, your ecommerce bookstore exists to generate an income to help you satisfy your needs. However, if you want it to work for you, it’s imperative to ensure it works for your shoppers too. In fact, placing your customers needs first will practically guarantee your site will do so for you too. In other words, what you give is what you get. You must provide in order to receive. When you consider your desires secondary to those of your patrons, your wishes will almost always be met as well.