Eight Words that Rocked My World

Since I loathe shopping in the real world, I spend a lot of time shopping online.

Not too long ago I was on Henry's Website in the middle of purchasing some camera gear when I stumbled across a touch of pure e-commerce genius. Right below the section of the shopping cart where I could enter my credit card information was a simple but powerful eight-word sentence that rocked my world. Next to an optional checkbox was written...

"Please call me for my credit card information."

Let's face it, despite the fact that we Internet marketers know transacting online is way safer than transacting offline, there are still lots of people who are skittish about revealing their credit card information over the Internet.

Henry's ingenious answer to this is to give the scaredy cat shopper an alternative way to transact, rather than risk losing the sale. This is a brilliant way for Henry's to reduce their shopping cart abandonment rate and, perhaps, to give them an opportunity to up-sell or cross-sell a highly motivated buyer. (I don't know if they do this because I didn't ask them to "call me," tempting though it was.)

What I love about this tactic is that it's so simple and so perfectly positioned right at the precise moment in time that a prospective buyer might be having second thoughts about providing their credit card details. Cool and sexy tactics have their place, yet sometimes it's seemingly 'mundane' tactics like this one that can make all the difference in increasing e-commerce conversion rates.

Henry's, I salute you!