A Separate Order Page
October 25, 1999
But what's all this about an order page, anyway? Why have an
order page at all? I always say that it should be as easy as
possible to get to the order page, so why not take this idea
to its logical conclusion, and simply put an order form on
every page? One reason is because many sites choose to use
some form of encryption, such as SSL, to make order forms
more secure, and these encryption techniques add to the server
load. Therefore, the usual policy is to encrypt only pages
that need to be encrypted, perhaps keeping them in a separate
directory. This is probably wise, as slow page load times are
one of the biggest threats of all to your conversion rate.
There are other reasons to have a separate order page. To use
SSL, you must obtain a digital certificate, which records the
identity of a Web site owner. Each certificate refers to a
specific domain, and using even a slight variation of that
domain can cause an error message. When I set up
SSL
for my site
The Blues Pages,
I found that if someone types in:
https://www.BluesPages.com/, which is the official name on the
certificate, everything's cool. But if they type in:
https://BluesPages.com/bluer/, then up pops a box saying,
"This certificate doesn't match the name on file," or some
such. Definitely not the kind of thing I want my customers to
see. There are a couple of other little gotchas having to
do with paths, that can tangle you up like this. By having a
separate order page, which is always referred to by an
absolute path, I make absolutely sure that the page will
always be called from exactly the right URL, avoiding any
error messages from SSL.
What if you have lots of different order pages? Calculate the
conversion rate for each one, and compare them. If the page
where you sell jam has a much higher rate than the page where
you sell lawnmowers, does that mean that people just
like jam better than lawnmowers, or does it mean that one
page is better designed than the other? Who knows? But if
you experiment a little, changing one thing at a time and
measuring your results, you might just find a way to sell
more lawnmowers.
This brings up an important point about using data to try to
improve sales. Just about any information can be interpreted
in different ways. Think of the stock market - if a particular
stock goes up, it could mean that it's going to the dogs, or
it could mean that it's due for a turnaround, since every dog
has its day. Whether you're trying to improve the click rate
of a banner campaign, or boost your conversion rate, the point
is to experiment until you find out what works.
Of course, some companies don't choose to take orders online
at all. Many a Web site is designed not to steer people to an
online order form, but to convince them to pick up the phone
and call a sales rep, or perhaps to send an email message
requesting that a sales rep contact them. This doesn't
necessarily mean that the company isn't Web-savvy enough to
set up online ordering - they may feel that they're better
off taking orders the old reliable way. This may be
for a good reason or an evil one.
The evil reason is that they want to get you on the phone
and give you a sell job. Instead of providing the consumer
with objective information about their products, and letting
people use their own judgment to choose between competing
products, these smooth-tongued sharpies want to unleash their
never-fails, super-duper spiel, complete with highballs,
lowballs, removing objections, and all the other tricks of
their nefarious trade.
Of course, there are a few scrupulous companies out there,
and some of them feel that their products are too complex to
be sold without direct human contact. Insurance and other
financial products, as well as any product or service that
involves a lot of customization, are examples of markets in
which a bit of one-on-one time spent learning about the
customer's specific needs can add greatly to customer
satisfaction (and thus to a better "retention rate,"
also known as the well-loved "repeat business," perhaps the
subject of the next article).
Enticing the Customer to the Order Page
They're lookin, but they ain't buyin!
The Salesman vs. the Order Page
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