The Key to Selling on the Web – Reduce Risk

This article makes some very good points, and compares the product presentations of two web pages. The takeaway is this:

Does your Web site tell the full story? Does your sales pitch do the same? What about your newsletter? Or your brochure?

It's time you went back to the drawing board and audited your communication. When you give them the full story, you'll find customers coming to you in droves.

Best of all, when you tell the full story, you invariably reduce risk and increase anticipation of ownership. Which causes customers to buy from you even when you charge higher prices.

I haven't thought much about reducing purchase risk as a business strategy, but it makes sense. Many customers are uneasy with major purchases because they are afraid they will get the product home and not like it. Make it easier to buy and easier to return, and customers will flock to your store (or web site) instead of a competitors.

This happened to me once when I bought a pair of shoes at Sports Authority and after two weeks they developed an annoying squeak. I called the store and they said I could return them, even though I had worn them two weeks. (They had a 30 day satisfaction guarantee). So I traded them in. Now I buy all my running shoes there because I know if I am unhappy I can return them with no hassles.

UPDATE: The link above was changed to the original article, which resides at the marketing site PsychoTactics.