Electrical products – strong growth
We recently reported that online sales in July rose by 15.7% compared to June, with a sales volume of £4.2bn. This was the equivalent of a 16.8% year-on-year rise. These are early indications that consumer confidence is increasing, certainly online. High street retail, however, continues to struggle.
Electrical sales were among the most impressive, with an 11% month-on-month growth and a 19% year-on-year growth.
Legal compliance
Electrical product sales appear to be performing well, but electrical goods e-retailers need to be aware of EU monitoring of the industry. A recent report by an EU watchdog highlights that up to half of websites selling electrical goods are breaking European laws established to protect consumer rights.
The main requirement that electrical goods sellers fail to comply with is that the right to return a product within seven days is unclear. 66% of the companies surveyed were failing to highlight this.
Additionally, the report concluded that:-
- Extra delivery charge information for more significant items was either missing or hard to find on a website.
- Full disclosure about the trader was not available. Traders must publish their trading name, address and email contact details.
- Of the 14 UK websites analysed, 6 failed to comply
- Any website continuing to break the law will face fines.
Optimising your website – draw the visitors.
- Content is King. Leave no questions unanswered and provide a huge wealth of information. Research shows that consumers are researching products in increasing depth. If they can’t find the answers, they will bounce straight away from your website.
- Be human. Offer plenty of ways for customers to contact you, ideally by phone. Not only will you comply with legal requirements, but consumers also need to be reassured that they can contact you.
- Make navigation clear and group products together ensuring that you build functionality such as “Customers who viewed [this] also like [the, at]”.
- Pass on some of the “brick and mortar” cost savings to your customers; let them know you are passing on discounts, but steer away from words such as cheap or bargain
- Make sure delivery costs and terms are placed on your website.
- Try varying the positioning of key aspects such as delivery terms, offers and contact options.
- If you sell high-ticket products, let customers build wishlists to plan anbudgetad.
