Anybody who operates an e-commerce website can tell you that pulling in the right traffic is very difficult but this is a menial task when compared to getting that traffic to actually convert into sales. This article focuses on various quick and simple methods that you can deploy in order to not only boost your traffic, but help it convert also.

It does not matter what you are selling, or who you are selling to; the principals behind e-commerce remain the same. The only point I will state before continuing is that you should always consider your specific audience and try to apply it to every change you make. There are no blanket policies here and your customers are the ones you are working for after all.

Add the product cost to the page title tag

Such a simple change can have a huge impact. Consider this – a user is searching for "Logitech USB mouse" and they see two similar results – one with and one without a price in the title. Which one do you think they will click? Because users tend to scan for important information (and believe me, cost is very important!), the listing offering a price is the one most likely to be clicked on first.

Obviously if the user is comparison shopping and you are one of the most expensive, it’s unlikely you will end up with the sale, but this is a great way of getting the user to your site first.

Add social bookmarking and social sharing links

Another devilishly simple addition you can make to a product page is to add the option of sharing. The web is a social place now and users expect to be able to post any page they want to Facebook, Digg and Twitter, etc... Not including this basic form of interaction can cost you a lot of traffic over time and as we all know – traffic means sales.

One of the best services I have seen that provides easy to implement sharing links is Add This, which is a simple cut and paste solution that allows you to drop sharing links onto any page in seconds (and it’s free!).

Offer delivery and returns policies on every page

I once used a piece of software that allowed me to view my user’s behaviour in real-time; effectively “spying” on them. After months of study and research on running a successful e-commerce website, nothing was more of an eye-opener than watching a real-life Human visitor use my website in a real-life environment. The user did not know they were being watched, but I could see every page they visited, and how long they stayed there.

Around 80% of the users who added an item to their basket visited the delivery and returns policy page at least twice. They did this because delivery costs and times are important to them, as is their eligibility to return the item if they did not want it. This was an eye-opener because prior to this, I paid very little attention to these important policies that users seem to value so much.

Make sure you include links to them on every page and thus, your company’s policies will be transparent, which users appreciate.

Offer a company blog

This one requires a little bit more effort than the previous three but as a business you will vastly improve your communications between yourselves and the consumer if you operate a blog. Consider its correct usage – blog about industry related things; news, events and share valuable, relevant information. Don’t use it to just push products and sell to the reader else they won’t stay around for long. Put yourself in their position, if you were a customer of your site, what would you be interested in reading about?

A blog creates an informal sideline to the business where users can speak to you directly. It also serves as a great little SEO tool if it’s well maintained.

Write unique copy

This is a winner for both users and search engines; unique copy means that users will have not read the same description elsewhere (manufacturer copy is so clinical anyway) and search engines will think you’re one of a kind!

Think about it – what makes your smart leather jacket stand out from everybody else who is selling exactly the same smart leather jacket? It’s unlikely you will be able to get a custom photograph so all you can do is change the way it’s presented and this includes enticing, content-rich copy.

To summarise – think like a user

Honestly, as designers and developers, the very worst thing we can do is think like designers and developers.

Take a practical approach to enhancing your website by keeping the end-user in mind and you will notice an increase in both traffic and conversion rate.