Interview with Sarah Quinn, Co-founder of Talk Shop Retail.

One of the fastest ways to increase your eCommerce sales is to improve your website conversion rates. And it’s easier than you think.

In this interview with Sarah Quinn, co-founder of Talk Shop Retail, we discuss:

- Sarah’s top tips to improve how you showcase your products on your website to drive more sales.

- How to improve your online customer experience, so they spend more time on your website and become a customer.

- How to translate the in-person shopping experience into your e-commerce website, so your customers fall in love with your brand.

These are super practical tips you can implement today!

Watch, listen or read the transcript.

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If you prefer to read, here’s the transcript.

Hello. I'm here today with Sarah Quinn from Talk Shop Retail. Hey Sarah, thank you for joining me today. How are you?

Sarah Quinn:                    I'm good. Hi, that's good. Hi.

Fernanda Alberici:                        That's good. Now Sarah, can you please introduce yourself for those who don't know you?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yes. So my background is in retail and visual merchandising, and now I'm the cofounder of TalkShop and also owner of Sarah Quinn.

But we're now looking at how we can bring visual merchandising online, which is what we're going to go right into because it's a really exciting space and it's an area that we haven't really touched on much because we really haven't needed to.

Fernanda Alberici:                        That's true.

Sarah Quinn:                    And I'm really excited to talk about this topic today.

Fernanda Alberici:                        That's exciting because I invited you here for exactly that reason because so many shops now have been forced to sell primarily online. And even those who haven't perhaps been forced, not in lockdown 2.0 as I call it in Melbourne, now have to sell online because their competitors are also online.

So today we're going to talk about how to increase e-commerce conversion rates through online product optimization. And I know that you know a lot about it. So can you give us your best tips please?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yes. So it's really about how you can bring your website to life and how you can make it really be a great place to visit and that's exciting and that oozes out your plan. So really talking about humanizing the site.

So often people tend to neglect their website and think about selling without considering the customer experience.

We set up a site, we load our images on and the price and our logo. We think that that's enough, but as you said, it's hugely competitive.

People like to know exactly what they're buying, who they're buying it from, and you need to gain their trust, especially when you want to get new customers.

So this is all about bringing your site to life and making it interactive and a really nice place to spend time on.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yes, absolutely. And as I said, now if people are not selling online, they just had to go online and it became so competitive. But to just have a website is not quite enough, is it Sarah?

Sarah Quinn:                    No. And you would know me and there's so many barriers and places that a customer can become frustrated in a website.

And it's almost, I would say, between three and seven points in which they could get frustrated, shopping on a site.

And at that moment, they'll have multiple tabs open and they're ready to click to another site and have a look somewhere else.

So optimizing your product online is about minimizing that and then also making it a really clear and easy experience so that you're answering as many questions as possible on your own.

Fernanda Alberici: Absolutely. And how can they do that with a product on their website please?

Sarah Quinn:                    So there's a few really, really key areas. So the first area is being on brand. So when landing on your site, does your customer instantly recognize who's site they're on?

The challenge for you is to make your site different to other sites. So you need to use your brand values, your mission, and your beliefs. And you need really strong graphic design and a logo and colors for this.

 So, what does the customer see above the fold? Their first impression. So that's things like font, colors, photography, logo, the navigation bar, announcement bar, an attention grabbing headline. And then it's all about letting your brand shine through.

Fernanda Alberici:                        That's fantastic because usually we think about helping display, perhaps the products on the website, but don't consider so much other things like the things you just mentioned, the colors, the brand vendors, or all the things that you can use to connect with your customer pretty much, right?

Sarah Quinn:                    That's right. And I guess, if you've got a bricks and mortar shop, think of your landing page like your shop window. You're showing your brand, it's got to be clean. It's got to be neat. It's got to be new and exciting and it's got to be on brand. There's no point showing something that doesn't represent who you are and the customer becomes lost.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah, absolutely. Now in terms of products, do you have any tips on how they can show their products on the website in terms of images or descriptions or anything along those lines?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah, there's a few things that you can look out for that. So product photography, having great photos, really clear photos, showing detail in the photos. And the other really important thing to show is the lifestyle of that photo. So how can your customer use that product in their life?

And I always like to relate it back to a physical shop because I think we're all really used to shopping in physical shops.

But when you go into a shop, you might see a jacket or a jacket on a mannequin, and then you see the pants that it's teamed back with and the top underneath, and you see the shoes and in your head, you start to think about yourself in that garment and how you would wear it and where you would wear it to.

So we want to do the same online. So we call that using lifestyle images. So you're placing the product into the life of someone and they can start to envision themself and how they would use it.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah, absolutely. It evokes emotions, right?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah.

Fernanda Alberici:                        So you see the product being used, you can picture yourself in that scenario and then it's more enticing for people to buy isn't it?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah. And if you want to even go one above that, it's show me two ways I can wear that jacket. Show me a casual look on the weekend and show me something a bit more formal.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah. Absolutely.

Sarah Quinn:                    Giving me lots of ideas. You're selling me that product.

Fernanda Alberici: Wonderful. And how do you suggest people can improve the online customer experience on their website?

Sarah Quinn:                    There's so many different ways to improve the experience. As we said before, earlier, it's removing any barriers.

So any challenges the customer might have, any links that don't work, any queries. So you need to have really clear product descriptions.

So I click on the product, I see what it's called. I see all the details about it. I see where it's made. I see what size the model's wearing.

So then I know, Oh, I think I'm about a similar size to her. I see where the product's made, any questions I might have.

So I like to think about that again, back in a store experience, you're selling a product to a customer, thinking about the kind of questions that your customer would ask, all the things that they look at when they see the garment or the product.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah. Fantastic. And I entirely agree with you, not just from a marketing point of view, but as a consumer as well.

I like to know everything about the products I'm buying, especially online. Because who hasn't had the experience of receiving a product that is not quite what you thought it was, right?

And unfortunately, even if there were few experiences that you had, that you bought a product and it was not what you expected, it affects how you shop in the future, right?

Sarah Quinn: Absolutely. Yeah. We just have such little chances online of gaining customer trust. The moment we miss that in a beat or two instances, then I think we would really look at losing that customer that we did once have. So we have to make sure everything is spot on.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah, absolutely. Sarah, do you have any more tips for us today?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yes, I do. So as well as product listing and transparency and being really clear about what the customer's buying, you can also look at the way that you group and merchandise your product online.

So that's how they organize so that your customer can shop intuitively. And how can they find what they want, even though they might not quite know what that is.

So there's a few ways that you can do this. You should be using the insights and intelligence from your website.

So your sales, your analysis. So for example, at the moment we're in iso and we've seen a really big trend for loungewear at home, and you would recognize that in your sales.

So perhaps you're selling a lot of tops and comfy clothes, so then all of a sudden you can start to create a new category that might be relative to what your customer is looking for.

Sarah Quinn:                    And it's really about how you can use the same product that you have, but rearrange it in a new way that shows a different look.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah. That's very interesting because loungewear is something that you find so much now, exactly, because everybody, not everybody, but most people working from home, and sell something they used to see so much before, but it is there now.

Sarah Quinn:                    That's right. And they're seeing that big trend with tracksuit pants being really dressed up. And prior COVID, there's a little bit of that, but now, we've seen, if you pay attention to what's happening on other sites, a lot of retailers are discounting bottoms, skirts, anything formal, because they're obviously not selling it.

But it's using all of that information to regroup your product and call it new categories that are, what the customers are looking for.

Fernanda Alberici:                        In terms of regrouping your products, I remember you've mentioned to me some time ago about how people can have different groups on their website, as in perhaps what's the most popular or rearrange based on what's happening.

Sarah Quinn:                    That's right.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah. So I mean, a really great example of just what you said then, our bestselling product or our most popular products, that's a great category to have on your site if you don't have that already because I know as a customer, I can go to that section.

This is what people are loving right now from your brand and I can feel confident in purchasing that knowing that other people are buying that as well.

So then you might have tops, right? I've just taken these back to the, using that jacket example.

So you might have tops, jackets, pants, and it's really thinking about what your best-selling categories are.

So if it's winter, we'd want to see warm, cozy things in the main navigation for the way that you group your products.

Come summer you might regroup your products differently and have other categories in that main navigation tab, remembering that you want to keep that really minimal because the more choice we give customers, the more overwhelmed they feel. We want to guide them. We want to tell them what to buy.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Yeah, no, that's very true. And again, I can see that from a marketing point of view, but also as a consumer. If I see many types on the bottom, when you have like 10, 12, Oh, I already feel overwhelmed.

And I think I don't have time to go searching for what I need. I need to find quickly what it is that I'm after. So perhaps a search tool when you're on a website can be very helpful, as well, right?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah. That's a great way to jump. And then using those dropdown menus as well. So you have your main navigation tabs and then the dropdown.

So what you're really doing, essentially, to optimize your site is constantly working it. You've got to treat it like a physical shop and put the same amount of time and energy into it and into updating it, into keeping it fresh, into keeping it relevant as you would with a physical shop.

Fernanda Alberici: Fantastic. And would you recommend for retailers to have a blog on the website? Or don't you find that relevant for example?

Sarah Quinn:                    I mean, I know a blog is really good for SEO and I think if you've got something really interesting to talk about that's relative, yes, yes. What I think is really fun is to call it something different, like the latest update.

I don't know, I'm not very good at thinking of something on the spot, but something that's really relevant to your audience and to their lifestyle. Let's take an example.

If you're a retail shop and you are located in a certain suburb, maybe you've got the latest happenings and updates that are happening in your suburb and in your area or places that your audience and your customer are going to be going to new cafes popping up.

Fernanda Alberici:                        Not so much right now, but yeah. That's right.

Sarah Quinn:                    You are right.

Fernanda Alberici: But in the rest of Australia, yeah that's still happening, luckily. I always say, if you can provide your customers with tips on what's trending or how they can wear something or any information, because in the shop, you would get information, right?

You can ask questions and you would get certain information from, the shop attendant or from the sales people and you don't have that opportunity on your website, unless perhaps you have a live chat as well.

Don't know how much that's helpful or not. Some people find it annoying, some people find it very helpful. What's your view on the live chat by the way?

Sarah Quinn:                    Yeah. Live chat is great. What it says to somebody is that there's somebody else there on the other end of the line, and I've seen some really fun ones.

The first thought you might have is that I have to be there all the time, overnight, answering questions, but you don't.

Chat bots vary from being very minimal and just having your face there saying, hello, how can I help to having common responses automated that can happen overnight while you're sleeping.

But the chat bots can also let you know, Hey, we're not here right now, but leave us a message and we'll get back to you when it's back in our hours.

Fernanda Alberici:      That's fantastic. Sarah, thank you so much for joining me today.

Sarah Quinn:                    Thank you so much. Bye everyone.

Sarah Quinn, Co-Founder TalkShop Retail / Owner Sarah Quinn + Co

Sarah is a brilliant creative and retail expert with 20 years of experience in the retail industry. In that time she has managed, led, taught, and inspired retail teams and business owners. She’s merchandised everything from Trench Coats to Truffles, to Squishy’s and Fine Wine.

Experienced in boutique and fast fashion, as well as food, homewares, gifts & stationery. Sarah now brings her physical retail experience to the online world and is passionate about creating a great shopping experience in the online world as well as the physical.

She is interested in visual design, learning, embracing new technology and apps, and is fascinated by the future and consumer behaviour.

Sarah thrives being surrounded by beauty, arts, nature, music, and interesting ideas.

When she's not working, you will find her embracing the work/ life balance where she loves to spend time with her family and friends in her hometown on the Bellarine Peninsula (likely with a coffee or wine in hand).

FUN FACTS:

Sarah surfs every week (even in winter)

She loves to have fun and one of her favourite hobbies is going out dancing with her friends.

You can connect with Sarah Quinn on the links below:

Website: https://www.talkshopretail.com.au/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkshopretail/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/talkshopretail