Author: Franz Malten Buemann

As the buying power of Gen Z grows, marketers at businesses of all sizes are searching for novel ways to connect with this audience and build lasting customer relationships.
It’ll come as no surprise that social media platforms are of the best ways to connect with this generation — which includes today’s teenagers and those in their early 20’s. But marketing to Gen Zers means much more than simply posting pretty pictures and memes.
So what does it take to stand out and connect with this valuable audience in 2021?
One brand that has mastered the art of marketing to Gen Z is Blume, a fast-growing skin, body, and period care brand on a mission to break boundaries and smash taboos.
In this interview, you’ll hear directly from Janice Cheng, Brand and Community Manager at Blume, and you’ll learn:

How to build a brand that connects with Gen Z
How to market and sell on social media
The key to understanding Gen Z’s preferences on social media
Successful strategies to use when marketing to Gen Z

This post is part of the #BufferBrandSpotlight, a Buffer Social Media series that shines a spotlight on the people that are helping build remarkable brands through social media, community building, content creation, and brand storytelling.
This series was born on Instagram stories, which means you can watch the original interview in our Highlights found on our @buffer Instagram profile.

Tell us more about you! What’s Blume all about and what’s your role there?
My name is Janice and I’m based in Vancouver! I’m the Brand Manager at Blume—a fast-growing skin, body, and period care brand on a mission to break boundaries and smash taboos. I joined the team back in June 2019 as the 3rd hire and EA to our founders Taran & Bunny. Now, I’ve been in this Brand role for almost 9 months.
Why do you think your Gen Z audience connects with your brand?
Gen Zers are conscious (smart) consumers and the most connected generation ever. Growing up with social media, they want transparency, community, and look for brands that align with their values. I think Blume checks off all those boxes in a really genuine way! Since day one, we’ve been more than just our products. Blume is breaking stigma by having conversations about extremely normal, yet still taboo topics, like acne, puberty, periods, and sex ed. As I’m sure most of us know, these are “issues” that carry well into adulthood, so a lot of our audience are millennials as well.
Gen Zers are conscious (smart) consumers and the most connected generation ever. Growing up with social media, they want transparency, community, and look for brands that align with their values.
We’re also a brand that cares. We launched the thestatesofsexed.com, Future World Shapers Award (created for Gen Z change-makers), and generally produce engaging and shareable content. More importantly, we prioritize using our platform to amplify the voices of our community and speak up on issues important to us; this includes climate change, the Black Lives Matter movement, and even our pandemic response. Our audience teaches us a lot, and more than anything, they’re our friends! This is all translated through our brand voice cohesively across all channels.
Tell us about a recent social media campaign. What made it so successful?
We’re only about 2.5 years old but one of my fave moments was our in-house Blume Celebrates Skin campaign (a campaign focused on being confident in our own skin is undefined and unrestricted by our physical appearances or the bumps and blemishes on our skin). We were only about five people then (half of our team now) and it was so much fun because it came from our hearts. Quickly and organically, it grabbed the attention of Allure and Daily Mail UK. Sometimes metrics are tricky with these kinds of campaigns. Say someone comes across this campaign and finds new strength and bravery in their natural skin. Although can’t quantify feelings, the reviews and customer testimonials are invaluable to our team.
Instagram post found here.BUT! Meltdown (our best-selling acne treatment) continues to be our top community favorite and campaigns like Celebrate Skin reinforce that. Ultimately, our social media goal is to increase engagement, and this campaign accomplished that for us. We’re about to have some of our biggest campaigns this new year! So stay tuned.
Where do you find inspiration for Blume’s social media content?
Recently, a lot on TikTok (obviously), community pages like Girlboss, and also meme pages. We have an #inspo Slack channel where we share things we see on our feeds and Explore pages and what’s circulating in our own friend’s groups! Pro tip: start an #inspo channel whether just for yourself or with your team.
How does Blume leverage user-generated content to connect with its Gen Z audience?
Community is core to all we do. Beyond our products, for us, it’s about adding value to Gen Z, and user-generated content (UGC) is a huge part of that. Using UGC is more impactful than using traditional models or lifestyle images because UGC is by actual people in our community—reflecting a range of real skin. It’s the best way to relate to this audience!
Using UGC is more impactful than using traditional models or lifestyle images because UGC is by actual people in our community—reflecting a range of real skin.
Also, Gen Zers are so creative because producing content is second nature to them so partnerships together are so fun. I love looking through our tagged posts every week and seeing people embrace their shelfies and natural skin. We give them full creative freedom! So rather than believing what we have to say about our products, you should believe our community through UGC, their captions, reviews, and experiences.
Instagram post found here.How does Blume embed UGC, customer testimonials, and reviews across all its marketing channels?
We have an incredible tiny team of two that keeps the rest of the team, especially marketing, up to date with all inquiries, trends, and themes of the week. For example, our Meltdown before & after shave has always been highly effective for us because a photo equals a thousand words.
In skincare, especially clean beauty care, it’s really important for us to spotlight the effectiveness of the product and how our products actually work. We’ll use before/after photos and other UGC in ads, Instagram story features, and email newsletters. With permission, of course.
On a regular week, we try to post UGC and/or testimonials about 3-4x on our social media channels.
In skincare, especially clean beauty care, it’s really important for us to spotlight the effectiveness of the product and how our products actually work.
What are Blume’s most successful social platforms for selling and why?
Definitely Instagram—still cracking the code for TikTok. Ultimately, Gen Zers are the trendsetters and determine what’s next. Something can come and go overnight so we have to be quick to pivot, adapt and execute. We can plan all we want but our best performing posts often tend to be non-product focused ones. If we had a Meltdown post planned on a day where the world actually needs more empathy and love, we’ll swap it for a journal prompt post or check-in.
What advice do you have for brands that want to start selling on social media?
Make a list of brands that you love and dig deep into the “why.” For Blume, the core criterion for selling on social is based on value; we focus our marketing on educational content about our products and brand, community building through UGC campaigns and partnerships, and aesthetic shareable graphics.
Also, GET. ON. TIKTOK. Whether to start your brand page or just to get in touch with Gen Z culture, it’s worthwhile I promise you. Here are three easy things you can start right away: write copy like a human (not a robot), have fun with emojis, and start following people to bring eyes to your page!
Fllow Blume on TikTok here.For Blume, the core criterion for selling on social is based on value; we focus our marketing on educational content about our products and brand, community building through UGC campaigns and partnerships, and aesthetic shareable graphics.
How do you stay up to date on Gen Z trends?
Personally, I follow Gen Z brands that I admire, read lots of Glossy and Beauty Independent, and ask our awesome Influencer, Lead Eman, for the 411 on what’s cool and what’s not. I also used to scroll TikTok for 4 hours a day (lol) for simultaneous entertainment and market research.
What’s your favorite Blume product and why?
I’d like to say Meltdown because that’s everyone’s #1 and I’ve had a lot of stress acne through 2020, BUT my runner-up is definitely Hug Me, our natural deodorant. Random fact: the probiotics, our secret ingredient, has adapted to my body so well I hardly need deodorant anymore. It’s also unscented so I recommend it to EVERYONE. I might be biased but these two are also my faves because their names are so fun to play with when copywriting. 👋
Thanks for Bluming with us, Buffer friends! ❤️

We hope this interview with Janice helps you get started with or double down on your social media efforts. You can follow Blume on Instagram here!
Have any questions for Janice? Feel free to reply with your questions to the Twitter post below and Janice or someone from the Buffer team will get to them as soon as possible.

In some circles, market research is a catch-all term for asking the industry what it wants. “Do we know what the demand is for this product? Who’s even looking for our services? Let me do some market research to find out,” someone might say.

But what does that actually mean?
Here’s a simple definition of market research that encompasses all the possible goals of this practice, in fewer than 100 words:

Market Research Definition
Market research is the process of examining an industry’s buyers, the product these buyers want, and where they’re currently getting it. By engaging the right people and data, a business can use this research to position itself in the market and predict where the market will go in the future.

Market research can answer various questions about the state of an industry, but it’s hardly a crystal ball that marketers can rely on for insights on their customers. Market researchers investigate several areas of the market, and it can take weeks or even months to paint an accurate picture of the business landscape.
However, researching just one of those areas can make you more intuitive to who your buyers are and how to deliver value that no other business is offering them right now.
Certainly you can make sound judgment calls based on your experience in the industry and your existing customers. However, keep in mind that market research offers benefits beyond those strategies. There are two things to consider: 

Your competitors also have experienced individuals in the industry and a customer base. It’s very possible that your immediate resources are, in many ways, equal to those of your competition’s immediate resources. Seeking a larger sample size for answers can provide a better edge. 

Your customers don’t represent the attitudes of an entire market. They represent the attitudes of the part of the market that is already drawn to your brand. 

Here are some examples of insights you can gain from market research:

Consumer attitudes about a particular topic, pain, product, or brand
Whether there’s demand for the business initiatives you’re investing in
Where to advertise or sell to (geographically or online)
Unaddressed or underserved customer needs that can be flipped into selling opportunity
Attitudes about pricing for a particular product or service

Getting answers to these questions based on real data can help you make sound business decisions and minimize risk.
Types of Market Research
To give you an idea of how extensive market research can get, consider that it can either be qualitative or quantitative in nature — depending on the studies you conduct and what you’re trying to learn about your industry. Qualitative research is concerned with public opinion, and explores how the market feels about the products currently available in that market. Quantitative research is concerned with data, and looks for relevant trends in the information that’s gathered from public records.
Let’s talk about four different types of market research studies you can conduct, a potential goal of each one, and how these studies help you better understand your market.
Interviews
Qualitative information
Interviews are the personal, one-on-one conversations you can have with the buyers in your industry. You can conduct interviews in person or over the phone.
Your interviewees can answer questions about themselves to help you design your buyer personas. These buyer personas describe your ideal customer’s age, family size, budget, job title, the challenges they face at work, and similar aspects of their lifestyle. Having this buyer profile in hand can shape your entire marketing strategy, from the features you add to your product to the content you publish on your website.
Focus Groups
Qualitative information
Focus groups are similar to interviews, but in this case, you’re assembling a large group of people for one shared interview. A focus group consists of people who have at least one element of your buyer persona in common — age or job title, for instance.
This type of market research can give you ideas for product differentiation, or the qualities of your product that make it unique in the marketplace. Consider asking your focus group questions about (and showing them examples of) your services, and ultimately use the group’s feedback to make these services better.
Surveys
Quantitative information
Surveys are a form of quantitative research, and you can distribute them over the phone, via email, or through an online survey. A survey could cater to people who’ve downloaded content from your website or interacted with a member of your business.
Enough completed surveys can help you determine your customer satisfaction level. This denotes how happy your customers are with what you’re selling them. You might include questions like, “How well did we solve your problem?” and “Would you recommend our product to a friend?”
Secondary Data
Quantitative information
The interviews, focus groups, and surveys are all sources of primary data. Secondary data, on the other hand, is the public information — online and offline — that characterizes your industry. This includes competitor websites, social media business pages, trade magazines, market reports, and even census data published by the government.
If you examine enough secondary data, you can learn how much brand awareness you have in the marketplace compared to the companies that provide the same product or service as you.
The market research you perform doesn’t have to include every source of information described above. What data you collect will depend on the needs of your business and what you might be most interested in at the moment. 
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in July 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

Marketers have found that conversational experiences on landing pages (such as chatbots and live chat) convert three-to-four times more than a traditional landing page. Additionally, a report from Juniper Research predicts that by 2023, the adoption of chatbots across the retail, banking, and healthcare sectors will save businesses $11 billion annually.
So, what do these conversational experiences entail and how should chatbots be incorporated on your landing pages to increase conversions while saving your team time and resources?

Conversational Landing Pages
In this blog post, we’ll talk about what conversational landing pages are, what makes them unique, and how to create one of your own.
Let’s dive in.
Automate and scale conversations on your website with HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder Software.

A conversational landing page may also answer visitor inquiries, resolve challenges, share specific offers, and guide customers to whatever it is they need via chatbot or live chat.
If your landing page only includes a chatbot for visitors to interact with, you may customize the bot so it can detect complex issues that require the support of a human — then, the bot can direct visitors to live chat.
What makes conversational landing pages unique?
In addition to conversational landing pages, there are two other main types of landing pages that are used to engage visitors: traditional landing pages and hybrid landing pages.
A conversational landing page looks something like this, with the chatbot conversation filling up the entire screen for the visitor:

Source

A traditional landing page is one that engages visitors with a traditional lead generation form. The lead generation form is placed among other content on the landing page. It asks for information from visitors (e.g. name, email address, zip code) in exchange for something (e.g. discount code, subscription, or trial).

Source
A hybrid landing page combines features from both a conversational and a traditional landing page — it’s essentially a traditional landing page with a chatbot (which can be expanded or be minimized) embedded on the page.

Source
Now that you’ve seen these other two types of landing pages, you may be wondering, “Why should the chatbot/ live chat conversation be the only thing on a conversational web page?”
Fair question.
By making a contextual, chatbot conversation the only thing on a web page, you establish a personal, one-on-one feel that traditional and hybrid landing pages don’t provide. This allows you to more easily promote new offers, close more deals, and increase conversion rates. 
How do you create a conversational landing page?
When creating a conversational landing page, you’ll work through many of the same steps — or, at the very least, similar steps — to those you’d follow when creating any other landing page.
1. Set a goal for your conversational landing page.
The main goal of your conversational landing page is to engage visitors. But that doesn’t mean you can’t also set more specific targets for engagement if you’d like to — this is a good way to establish a single focus for your page in order to make it as effective as possible.
Here are some examples of conversational landing page goals:

Provide highly-accessible customer support.
Share special offers.
Convert and upsell leads and customers.
Get to know your audience on a personal level and apply that information to campaigns, buyer personas, sales, and more.
Collect feedback to improve upon your product/ service, customer experience, and buyer’s journey.

2. Tailor the chatbot to your buyer personas and customers.
Your chatbot should cater to your specific audience. With a chatbot builder — like HubSpot — you can customize your chatbot and use it to qualify leads, book meetings, and create responses to FAQs. You can also configure your chatbot so that it guides an individual with a more complex reason for reaching out to live chat/ a rep. The bot can also create support tickets and add contact data to your lists and workflows to automate tasks and save your team time.
Use HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder Software to qualify leads, book meetings, provide customer support, and scale your one-to-one conversations.
3. Use clear, action-oriented language.
The point of your conversational landing page is to engage and interact with your visitors as well as support their needs, challenges, and goals. It’d be very difficult to do this if your landing page was cluttered, unclear, hard to understand, or difficult to navigate.
So, when working to determine what text you’ll include on your conversational landing page, remember less is more — meaning, your chatbot and any other text on your page should be concise, conversational, and straightforward. This will allow your visitors to have efficient and simple interactions with your brand.
4. Design and brand your page and make it memorable.
Your landing page should be on-brand, thoughtfully-designed, and beautiful — this will contribute to a positive experience on your page for visitors. This step is also when you should ensure your conversational landing page opens in a new tab (this is how the chat will fill up the entire screen).
A landing page tool like HubSpot, which has a drag-and-drop builder and pre-made templates, makes the process of designing a landing page simple, even if you don’t have any website or coding knowledge.
Here are some other landing page elements to consider when designing a memorable page:

Font
Colors
Animations
Images
Videos
Bot/ live chat design
CTA buttons

Use HubSpot’s Landing Page Builder to create and test beautiful landing pages that generate leads and look great on any device — no designers or IT help required.
5. Ensure your landing page’s chatbot resolves customer issues and guides them to solutions.
The point of your conversational landing page is to engage visitors in a way that’s beneficial to them (and your business). To ensure your chatbot resolves customer queries and guides users to the solutions they need, customize your bot’s messaging, purpose, and goal.
HubSpot’s Chatbot Builder makes this easy — the builder allows you to select a bot template based on your goal and use the visual editor to customize the bot so it complements that goal and your brand. Customize the bot’s copy and the types of questions it asks visitors. If your conversational landing page doesn’t include live chat on it, then you may configure the bot at this time so it directs visitors with complex issues to your live chat.
Additionally, personalize bot conversations with the help of your all-in-one HubSpot CRM — the chatbot will pull contact record information from your CRM to create a personalized experience for customers on your conversational landing page. Then, after any conversation with a visitor, their contact record will be updated again with any new details.
6. Promote your conversational landing page.
What good is a landing page without any visitors on it?
To make sure your audience and customers know about your conversational landing page, promote it — share links to it on your social media profiles, add a CTA to your main landing page that guides visitors who want to interact with a chatbot to the landing page, and add a link to it on your website’s “Contact” page. This will increase engagement, encourage customers to interact with you, and efficiently and effectively provide the support your visitors are looking for — all while saving you time.
It’s also a great way to proactively inform your customers and site visitors of where and how they can interact with you and get support.
7. Test and analyze your conversational landing page.
To ensure your conversational landing page is as effective as possible, test different variations of the page to see what works best for your site visitors and increases conversions. 
To do this, A/B (or split) test variations of your page (and chatbot) — swap out and test colors, font, messaging, and CTA buttons to determine which combination does the best job of attracting, engaging, converting, and delighting customers.
Begin converting more visitors and delighting customers today with an engaging and memorable conversational landing page. 

 

 

Green marketing is advocating sustainable policies of a given organization or particular items. It covers actions promoting the protection of the environment. The consciousness of our decisions and the impact they have is rising therefore, 6 in 10 consumers find it essential that the product is sustainably made. 43% of Americans would more willingly purchase food from a manufacturer committing to sustainability and 25% of US citizens admit to willing to pay more for eco-friendly garments.

 

The trend of being green

 

In the reality of climate change, natural disasters and species extinction, there is no wonder people started to pay attention to their actions. Living sustainably and advocating companies acting for the sake of the environment became a strong trend. The assumptions of marketing based on conscious help of nature have become the foundation for creating necessary tools, useful for increasing sales, and expanding the customer base. Moreover, with the help of social media and eco-influencers, sustainable life and the support of companies acting for the environment became popular, especially amongst young people.

 

Why should organizations go green?

 

Green marketing is an excellent solution and a mix between serious global issues and a promising strategy. With an accurately chosen plan and tactic, your business can not only benefit the environment but also put you one step ahead of the competition. The demand for eco-products and solutions is living its golden age. 

 

According to the Environmental Performance Index, the leader in promoting green marketing is Europe – with Denmark, Luxemburg, and Switzerland in the top 3. The US is positioned in 24th place, which is not that bad given the size and population.

 

Consumers want to be eco-friendly

 

When it comes to being green, the first thing we have in mind is the food industry. As it is something we introduce to our bodies, we are reaching for healthier and therefore more sustainable groceries. 

 

From the Food & Health Survey of IFIC Foundation conducted in 2020, we can deduce that 43% of Americans would more willingly purchase a product from a manufacturer committing to sustainability, while 34% say that sustainable products have a real impact on their buying decisions. Moreover, 6 in 10 consumers find it crucial for production to be sustainable. 

 

When it comes to different branches of purchasable goods such as clothes and accessories, we are willing to pay more for products from companies adding to green ideology.  According to the CGS Retail and Fashion Sustainability 2020 poll with over 2000 participants, 61% say sustainability plays a substantial role in product selection. 25% of US and 24% of UK, 18-34 age pollsters said they would pay even 25% more than the original price for goods produced while maintaining environmental awareness.

 

Millennials and Gen Z as leaders of eco-revolution

 

According to statistics, the demand for environment-friendly products is high, especially among Millenials and Generation Z, and it should be. After all, they are the ones to experience the effects of air pollution, microplastic in oceans, and exploitation of natural resources. It is not only that – companies target their customer base via Social Media, so naturally, the information will reach people who use it daily. Studies show that 68% of millennials are more likely to buy a product with a social or environmental benefit.

 

Opportunity for companies

 

Generally, products advertised as eco-friendly constitute around 22% of store sales and it is estimated to rise to 25% in 2021. Considering 80% of Americans claiming they are more respectful of companies applying environmental awareness in the production processes, 92% would more willingly buy wares of the sustainable brand. That shows green marketing is an excellent opportunity for the company to expand its consumer base and increase sales.

 

Greenwashing as anti-advertisement

 

Inevitably, every hero has to have his antagonist, and so as the opposition to eco-friendly tactics, greenwashing appears. Its assumption is to use slogans and pictures related to the protection of the environment which, however, do not bring any useful actions. At some point, green marketing became so popular, that a significant number of companies started to benefit from it without living up to their commitments. Therefore brands using eco trends only as a marketing trick are more detrimental than beneficial to themselves in the eyes of customers.

 

An example of greenwashing could be popular clothing companies, often launching their own “green” lines and making an impression of being eco-friendly. Boasting about the use of sustainable materials, the companies themselves operate in the trend of fast fashion, using tons of artificial textiles and violating human rights.

 

A popular airline that used misleading data, declared itself as the one with the lowest emission, which was not entirely honest and resulted in a disadvantage for the company.

 

Joining the battle for the environment pays off

 

Although converting existing or starting a new investment, following the principles of green marketing may seem difficult or even impossible (depending on previous practices), it will undoubtedly have a positive impact on your company. However, there is a very narrow line between Green Marketing and Greenwashing that companies can cross (even unintentionally), which can result in a decrease in their reliability to the consumer. Having a quick look at the numbers above, properly conducted eco marketing can be a powerful marketing strategy. 

 

Brands based on building environmental awareness through green marketing tactics are increasing their sales. Thus arouse interest in ecology, which can directly transform into benefits for the company and the entire planet.

marketing automation

marketing automation

There are a lot of things I used to buy in person that I now buy online. I wouldn’t call myself lazy, but it’s just so much easier to carry a box of paper towels from my doorstep into my apartment than it is to carry it down the street from my local grocery store.
And I’m not alone. Whether it’s because of the larger selection, better pricing, convenience, or something else, a lot more people are buying stuff online nowadays instead of in person. Despite the growing number of online shoppers, people are still wary of the setbacks of paying for stuff online. In particular, people still get nervous about giving their personal and credit card information to online retailers.
If you’re an ecommerce business, a big part of attracting and delighting your customers will be providing them with a stable, reliable, secure, and smooth online shopping experience. That starts with creating your payment gateway.

How to Create a Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is a technological front-end component of payment processing that bridges the gap between your business’s financials and the customer’s financials during a transaction. To get an understanding of what I mean, it helps to know how payment processing works.

On one hand, the customer’s financial institution must approve or deny the purchase. On the other, your payment service provider (PSP) and merchant account need this data to process the transaction and receive payment. Coordinating these moving parts is your payment gateway.
Here’s how to set it up.
1. Open a merchant account.
A merchant account is a type of business account that accepts payments of multiple types, including credit cards. Funds from online purchases land in your merchant account after they’ve been processed, and you’ll then be able to transfer them into your business banking account.
In order to create a payment gateway, it helps to already have a merchant account set up as it will be the final destination for funds from successful transactions.
2. Choose a payment service provider (PSP).
While the gateway acts as the front-end of payment processing for a transaction (i.e. the interface that customers directly interact with), the payment service provider facilitates the transaction on the back-end, passing financial data across all the moving parts. In order to create a payment gateway for your customers to interact with, you must first set up a PSP to hook it up to.
3. Decide whether you want to build or buy your payment gateway.
You have the option to build a payment gateway yourself (custom) or partner with a provider to get one “out of the box.”
Custom builds may be able to suit a wider range of your unique needs and save on transaction fees. However, it may be costly to develop and maintain.
An “out of the box” payment gateway is quicker to set up, but you’ll want to ensure that it comes with all of the features that you need. Some may even come with PSP functionality, which saves you time during the setup.
Top gateway providers in the industry include Authorize.Net, Stripe, and PayPal.
If you plan to take payments on your website, then be sure you’re checking everything off from the list below.
Essential Features for Taking Payments on Your Website
1. Multiple Login Options
While it’s more convenient for your marketing to require shoppers to create an account before placing an order, it doesn’t always benefit your customers. You might lose people along the way if you don’t give them the option to check out as a guest. Remember: You can always ask them to create an account once they’ve bought from you and feel a little closer to your brand.

Image Credit: VWO
You should also think about offering shoppers the option of logging in with one of their social media profiles, like Facebook or Twitter. This can reduce registration friction because it makes the login process a lot faster. Make sure you add that you’ll never post without the customer’s permission, if applicable.
The caveat of allowing a social login? It’s the one connection shoppers will have to log in — and if anything changes about that connection (the terms of service for the social network change or they delete their account on the network), their ability to log into your site will change, too. So if you’re allowing people to authenticate with social logins, figure out other ways ask for more contact information.
2. Authentication/Login Layers
Customers who do have an account with you want to know that their information is safe — even if they forget their login information. To give them peace of mind, be sure to require several verification layers before you restore their login information. For example, if a customer forgets her password, your site could require various security questions before sending an email to a pre-determined email address.
3. PCI Compliance
The PCI Security Standards Council (PCI SSC) defines a series of specific Data Security Standards (DSS) that are relevant to all merchants, regardless of revenue and credit card transaction volumes.
If you host and manage your own ecommerce platform, it’s your responsibility to ensure PCI compliance at the required compliance level, which is based on credit or debit card transaction volume over a 12-month period. Most SaaS shopping carts will have PCI compliance built in.
4. Integrated Payment Processor
While you can get away with payment processors like PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, and Amazon Pay if you have a very small website and a low number of transactions, it’s much better to integrate a payment process directly into your website.
With some processors, online shoppers get redirected off your website to a pay site that doesn’t look like yours — which disrupts their experience, visually disconnects them from your brand, and can be confusing or nerve-racking and prompt them to abandon their cart.
An integrated payment solution that processes your customers’ information on your own server allows for more flexibility and customization. Plus, it’s a much smoother experience for your customers.
An integrated payment page will require an SSL certificate to ensure a secure connection. Which brings me to my next point…
5. SSL Certificate
Every ecommerce website needs an SSL certificate to protect customers’ personal and credit card information. SSL is the standard security technology that makes sure all data passed between a web server and a browser remain private.
Without it, hackers can steal your customers’ information — and online shoppers won’t feel safe submitting their information on your website. Online shoppers will be able to tell your website’s secure when they see an “https://” at the beginning of your URL, as opposed to just “http://”.
Read our article to learn how to get an SSL certificate on your website.
6. Credit Card Logos and Security Seals
Speaking of keeping online shoppers at ease, you might want to add credit card logos and security seals to your website to reassure shoppers that your site is a secure, trusted place to do business. Make them visible at least in the shopping cart and checkout phases of your site, or even try integrating them into the footer of your website.
7. Checkout Buttons
The less time customers have to spend looking for an option to check out, the sooner they’ll take action and buy. We recommend putting checkout calls-to-action — in a color that really stands out — at the top and bottom of your web pages.
Check out this checkout button example from ModCloth (no pun intended):

Want a little button design help? Click here to see get free call-to-action templates.
8. Visual Checkout Process
If you need to spread the checkout process across multiple pages, give shoppers a visual indicator of how far they’ve progressed and how long they have left to go. Again, ModCloth does this particularly well:

9. Return & Refund Policy
Shoppers don’t get to physically look at or feel a product before they purchase it online, which can make some people nervous and disincentivize them to buy. To help mitigate this, make your return and refund policy readily available. Consider making it part of the checkout process and even putting it in the footer of your website.
Be sure your policy is succinct, informative, engaging, and easy to understand. Say whether the customer will get a refund or an in-store credit, stipulate a timeframe for returns, define the condition you expect the product to be in, and disclose any fees up-front — like who will cover the cost of shipping.
10. Clear Path to Your Contact Information
Online shoppers want to know they can easily reach your company for support — especially if they’re first-time customers. If you don’t give them a clear path to your contact information, they may either hesitate to buy from you, or they may not get the support they need to complete a transaction.
Include contact information like a phone number (with availability hours), email address, street address, and social media accounts. Preferably, list this information as text (not as an image) so it’ll get picked up by search engines in local searches. Some retailers also like to offer live chat options — just be sure that you’ve integrated it with your customer records so you can build smarter marketing campaigns in the future.
11. Detailed Confirmation Page Before Checkout
Before allowing online shoppers to check out, you’ll want to take them to a detailed confirmation page before finishing the transaction. This page should let them review their cart, give them the option to change the quantity or remove items, include a final price (including tax and shipping), and indicate when the items will be shipped.
12. Optimized Checkout Page Design
The best checkout pages are functional, secure, attractive, and easy to use and navigate. The last thing you need is someone with purchasing intent getting cold feet at the last moment simply because they can’t use your system or don’t have faith in it.
13. Mobile Payments
Buyers don’t just buy on desktop. They also buy on mobile, so your payment gateway must be responsible and easy to navigate for mobile users too. If your have a mobile app, you may also need additional functionality to process payments on iOS and Android.
14. Confirmation Email
Finally, you’ll want to create a confirmation email that includes the order number, the product, payment, and shipping information, and your return and refund policy — just in case. If possible, use a real “from” email address (instead of noreply@company.com) that can be answered by a member of your customer support staff. You’ll also want to make the order confirmation page easy to print. This is the time when you can offer guest customers the option to sign up for an account, too.
Setting up your ecommerce business is exciting, even if all the details can be a little overwhelming. With a little bit of planning, you’ll be well on your way to processing ecommerce transactions left and right.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in September 2015 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.