
You’ve got your fully functioning online store with all the bells and whistles. Your product quality is sky-high. Your product range is vast. Your web traffic is coming in thick and fast. But those coveted conversions just aren’t taking care of themselves like you expected them to.
Rest assured you’re far from alone in this situation. Sales objections plague businesses large and small, from time-honoured brick-and-mortar to digital’s cutting edge.
With a colossal, ever-expanding spectrum of options available to consumers, particularly in the ecommerce world, it’s natural for a few of the countless decision-making criteria to work against you. Taking a proactive approach to handling objections in sales – by eliminating them – is the key to making your offering as persuasive as possible.
Let’s dig into a handful of the most common ecommerce sales objections businesses are facing today to help you make converting a no-brainer for your customers.
The price isn’t right
It may not be that your products are overly expensive and don’t provide value for money – although competitive research is always recommended so you can be confident of your position within the market. Matters of price constitute sales objections for many reasons. Online shoppers can be cautious when it comes to taking a punt on a new product, and they may well use price point as the final decision-maker as to whether to take that leap.
We’re not suggesting you slash your profit margins to ribbons in the name of competition, though. Instead, why not introduce an exclusive discount for first-time customers? Something as simple as ‘10% off your first order’ can flip that switch and remove any price-related sales objections in one fell swoop.
The competition is fierce
In crowded sectors, market saturation can be the enemy of conversions. With a multitude of competitors offering comparable products to yours – perhaps at a more attractive price point or with more convenient delivery options or enhanced features – it’s only natural that this stiff competition will bring with it various sales objections.
There’s little value in chasing your competitors’ unique selling points – you need to identify and embrace your own. By establishing what separates your product range or brand ethos from that of your competitors – such as product longevity, convenience factor or even company ethics – you can begin to set your business apart from the competition and make overcoming objections an easy sell.
Your website’s slow off the mark
Site speed remains an undervalued yet vital contributing factor to ecommerce conversion rates. Slower page response times have a direct impact on page abandonment and, if your website is below par in the speed stakes, you’re leaving your business open to sales objections galore.
Leveraging accessible, user-friendly online tools such as Google’s PageSpeed Insights, you can benchmark your site speed and find actionable fixes to be picked up with your development team. By reducing load times, you’ll be able to streamline the entire browsing experience for your customers and make buying on the go quick and easy – a necessity in the golden age of mobile shopping.
The trust isn’t there
Trust plays a pivotal role in the decision-making process when it comes to buying online. With so many comparable offerings to weigh up, a sense of authority and trustworthiness is often the final piece of the puzzle that trumps any sales objections.
Building trust among your audience takes time through continuous contact, as you slowly but surely prove your worth and earn that sale. But there are a few tried and tested ways to evoke trustworthiness during a user’s first encounter with your website. Positive reviews and ratings are a great place to start, so make sure these pull through to your product pages to give shoppers peace of mind that they’re following in the footsteps of previously satisfied customers.
Delivery options are a deal-breaker
Convenience reigns supreme in the current ecommerce climate, as online shoppers have come to treat fast, low-cost shipping options as an expectation rather than a bonus. Even if your products are competitively priced, delivery options are the final hurdle that could present sales objections users just can’t get past.
Extortionate delivery costs and slow or inconvenient shipping processes are both common conversion barriers that could lose you sales that were otherwise in the bag. If this feels a little close to home, consider expanding your delivery options to include Click & Collect if possible, and offer choice when it comes to delivery days, time windows and costs.
Their money’s no good here
How frustrating would it be to find out that the reason you were losing sales was because you’d refused customer payments? If your ecommerce website fails to accept some major payment methods, the fact is you may as well be turning customers away at the point of sale. Naturally, this is one of the more valid sales objections held by online shoppers.
As well as accepting multiple currencies, it’s crucial to accommodate a variety of preferred payment methods beyond traditional card payments – from PayPal and Klarna to Apple Pay and Google Pay. The broader a range of payment options available to your customers, the more convenient it’ll be for them to complete their purchase.
At Six Circles, our Stripe integration feature takes the hassle out of handling online payments. Helping your community members to effortlessly pay for events, packages, subscriptions and more, this feature is just one of the many ways we make overcoming objections easy for members of your community.
Ready to find out more? Our holistic community engagement platform is packed with slick features and must-have tools to make growing your community a breeze. Get in touch with the Six Circles team today to explore our platform for yourself with a free demo.