Ecommerce mistakes you should avoid

Remember that visualisation of product overcomes buyer’s fears

I wanted this blog to show the online shop owners out there just one example of an important buying journey that a customer can go on before purchasing…the importance of ‘visualisation of product’ to overcome fears that act as a barrier to sale.

Last night I wanted to buy an arm strap that I could pop my mobile phone into when I went running. I like to listen to my running playlist when I’m out on a run but I’ve had to hold the phone in my hand so far, as my running gear doesn’t have pockets. I’ve joined a running club now so I thought I needed to up my game and treat myself. I also needed to buy one for my daughter as she runs too and has a birthday coming up.

There are a lot of different phone holders for runners out there, so I did what everyone does and started with Google by typing in ‘arm phone holder’. I saw some stiff looking ones, and ones that allowed you to punch the keys on the phone while you were running, but I didn’t need any of that, I wasn’t going to answer calls, just hold my phone securely and jack in some earphones.

Then I saw Ronhill Running Stretch Armband appear in a John Lewis Google Ad (with a photo – excellent!) and knew that’s what I needed. So I clicked on it and went through to the product listing on the John Lewis website. So a good first start, they supplied to John Lewis who invest in great Google Shopping Ads and it had taken me straight to the product I wanted.

The product page described the arm band as “ideal for storing mobile devices, nutrition, and essential items while on the road” so it fitted the bill perfectly. Unfortunately it had one photo and I couldn’t really tell where the phone went. There was a stitched seam on the arm band but I wasn’t sure if that was the pocket. Did the phone just tuck under it next to the skin? was the seam the fold where the phone went in maybe? I couldn’t quite tell. I didn’t want the phone next to my skin as I didn’t trust it wouldn’t slip down. I wanted to see ‘visualisation of the product’ i.e. a photo of a mobile phone tucked into the pocket on an arm, to assuage my fears.

The John Lewis website has reviews though (again excellent) so I read through the four very positive reviews, but they were short and didn’t really answer my fear, which is ‘where does the phone go on the arm band?’. One of the reviews did advise me that ‘small is very small though’ so I thought that was great advice, i’d better look at the size guide to see if I needed a small for my daughter but maybe a medium for me. But no size guide given. This disappointed me as I wanted to buy it from John Lewis as they do click and collect and I can walk to John Lewis from my office, so I was already imagining myself testing it out on a run this Friday.

 

 

 

So I Googled the Ronhill website as I thought i’d get all the answers there, from the actual company themselves. I found the product on the site only to see they only had one photo too, the same brief description and no size guide – although they did have a tab for size guide but it was empty. I also saw they did the armband in ‘marl’ colour which was nicer than the black, so I was still very much moving forward to buying.

So by this point I was determined, so I looked on YouTube for a product review of it in case that showed where the phone went, but there was nothing there. I gave up and closed my laptop.

The next day I emailed Ronhill direct via their web contact page with my questions but have yet to have any response. I will be buying another brand now.

If you need any advice on underperforming ecommerce, feel free to call Daneswood for advice: 01392 248 365