How to sell complex products on the Internet

Online retailers of clothes and shoes gathered during the Online Retail Forum to discuss what features of their product should be considered in order to achieve the best sales.

The discussion was attended by:

Dmitry Aksenov, Head of Digital Marketing, Sela

Julia Buckman, Marketing Director, DDShop, Big Breast Clothing Store

Irina Poddubnaya, Head of Internet Sales, Shoes of Russia

Andriyashkin Dmitry, founder of the online store Butik2.ru

Vasily Fedoseyev, Alpindustria online store

Size matters

“Size didn’t fit” is one of the most common reasons for rejecting a product in an online store. How to minimize the risk of selling a product to a buyer that does not fit him in size?

Dmitry Aksyonov: If your segment is clothing and footwear, forget about Russian and European sizes. Currently, only Chinese sizes exist, which correspond to neither. They even vary within a shipment, so the same size 40 shoes might arrive slightly different. What if a customer lives far away and can't come to your physical store to try on a model? Seriously develop sizing charts on your website: you can measure shoes in centimeters, convert the resulting values ​​to Russian sizes, and enter this data into your CRM database so it's automatically displayed on the website.

Irina Poddubnaya: In fact, when it comes to footwear, measuring foot length alone isn't enough. Other parameters, such as foot width, calf width, and even boot height, are also important. When the order quantity is small, this can be measured, but if the collection contains over a thousand items, measuring all of this—even with a laser ruler—is very expensive and time-consuming.

Yulia Bakman: We initially tried to compare sizes with other lines, but eventually created our own measurement system. Our website features a detailed chart describing the corresponding waist and chest measurements for our products. We even guarantee that if a customer takes their own measurements and compares them to ours, the lingerie or clothing will fit perfectly. However, factory error cannot be ruled out, so we measure every delivery and indicate on our website whether the item is small or large relative to our measurement system. Additionally, when photographing an item on a model, we include the model's size, her height, and the sleeve and back lengths. This ensures that the customer can compare their own figure with the model's and understand how the item will fit. Finally, we have a very active VKontakte store group, where a friendly atmosphere has developed, and customers help each other choose their size. They not only post photos of themselves trying on clothes and leave comments on the styles, but they even try on individual styles in our Moscow store at the request of women living in other cities.

How to make a client take measurements?

Dmitry Andryashkin: Maybe we shouldn't show the "Add to Cart" button to customers until they've entered their measurements?

Dmitry Aksenov: No, we as sellers do not have the right to discourage the buyer. You can force the client to click on the “Check your size” button in other ways. Experiment a little with the size of the button, its color, location and see in which configuration the button is clicked most often. The button can be placed directly below the information about the size of the thing, then the client will click on it purely intuitively.

Advertising

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Yulia Bakman: When consulting clients on social media or by phone, we always tell them that we can't provide a competent consultation without the woman taking a soft measuring tape.

Vasily Fedoseyev : We literally force customers to measure their feet because our products have their own specific features. For example, climbing boots should be two sizes smaller, while high-altitude hiking boots should be larger because feet swell at altitude. Therefore, our call center first checks the customer's insole length and only then processes the order. This has helped us minimize returns due to sizing issues. We've also recently introduced a virtual clothing try-on tool called Fitting Reality, which uses technology to simulate clothing on a person's photo. We're deliberately not advertising it yet to avoid hype and to objectively measure its demand. Unfortunately, it hasn't generated much practical interest yet.

Yulia Bakman: Few retailers use virtual fitting rooms yet because they're expensive, and customers must upload a properly formatted photo. Overall, virtual fitting rooms are more of an image-building feature for now, but they work well within the overall concept for large companies.

Dmitry Aksyonov: Having a virtual fitting room doesn't impact direct sales in any way. We have cases of such fitting rooms integrated into social media, where users post their photos on VKontakte or Facebook. I can say this is a long-term image advantage, not an immediate sales boost.

Dmitry Andryashkin: There are other ideas for getting clients to take their measurements. For example, you could encourage clients to enter their measurements in their personal profile upon registration and offer them a 5% discount for doing so. If clients have difficulty measuring themselves, you could bring several styles to choose from, as Sapato or LaModa do.

Dmitry Aksenov: Sapato, by the way, is gradually abandoning this practice, and they still force customers to purchase at least one model from those they ordered for trial. As for small businesses, they simply can't afford to deliver multiple items; the logistics service would simply ruin them.

How to achieve color accuracy?

Yulia Bakman: After we've photographed all the items, we compare the item's color to the color in the photograph and perform color correction. The photographs are processed on professional designer monitors, so the color rendering may differ from what's on users' computers. What should we do? First, provide a text description, and second, recreate the user's default computer settings on the designer's monitor and check the item's color under those settings.

How to eliminate the effect of disappointment when receiving things?

Yulia Bakman: To convey as much information about a product to the user as possible, you can show it not only in photographs but also in video form. The quality of the recording isn't that important, as long as the video shows the product moving dynamically—for example, if a woman walks back and forth on a runway, it's immediately clear how high and stable the heel is and what folds appear on the shaft. A video will allow the user to get the clearest possible impression of the product. Furthermore, 80% of online sales are impulse purchases, so to avoid disappointment upon receipt, you need to explain the product clearly and show it on different body types, not just on slender models. You should also use social media to teach them how to dress and choose what suits them best.

Evgeny (dress store): Having photos of our customers wearing the clothes we sell on social media really helps us: potential buyers see that a real woman looks exactly like this in a dress, not just like in a photo with a model, and that's not a bad thing, that's normal. Thanks to this, we've managed to increase repeat sales through social media by up to 40%.

How to reduce promotion costs?

Dmitry Aksenov: In online sales, the cost of acquiring a single customer exceeds the margin, and the cost per click on an advertising link is very high. Moreover, the average conversion rate is 3%, and with an average order value of 1,5 rubles, it's impossible to recoup costs from one-time customers. Therefore, the most important thing in e-commerce is not just selling a product, but keeping customers coming back, and ideally, bringing them friends. Therefore, even before purchasing an item online, users should be confident that they can easily return the money. Multiple payment methods should be available—not just cash to the courier, but also card payments and payments through special services where the buyer receives a receipt after confirming receipt of the item. Furthermore, online store customers should be encouraged to leave reviews on relevant resources like Yandex.Market. This should include not only negative reviews, which users often write—they're simply too lazy to write others—but also positive ones, which can dispel any doubts potential customers may have. Use all modern technologies, such as advertising technology that remembers a customer who bought boots from you in the winter and shows them ads for summer footwear in the summer, or retargeting technology that segments the audience by gender, age, location, and interests. This will reduce the cost per click from one or two dollars to three rubles per click and optimize cross-selling.

How to get rid of regular sales? In order to buy goods without a discount, you need to create emotions with the buyer and play on his feelings - take photos with images that encourage you to buy right now. There are delivery services that allow you to deliver goods to Novosibirsk in three days. It is also known that most of the citizens get paid twice a month: on the 10th and 20th day. You can send these days messages like "Today you get a 5% discount!". We also noticed that customers often open emails on Fridays, the conversion on this day is 75%.

Yulia Bakman: On the contrary, our email conversion rates are highest from Monday to Thursday, and from Friday to Monday, our emails aren't opened at all. So you need to try different methods and see which ones work best for your audience.