The COVID-19 pandemic has undoubtedly impacted online traffic and conversions. It’s possible that potential customers may think your business is inactive or unable to process orders, which could deter them from making purchases. To address this, clearly communicate your operational status and reassure customers through COVID19 e-commerce essentials on your website, ensuring they understand that you’re open and fulfilling orders.

At HelpFlow, we run customer service for over 100 e-commerce stores and have seen the uncertainty in website visitors massively spike over the last few weeks. We’re getting tons of questions of “are you shut down?”, “are you still in business?”, and even “are you still accepting orders?”.

Your website visitors are assuming your business is shut down and they shouldn’t order, unless you can reassure them otherwise. In this post, we will share an easy to implement checklist of what all e-commerce stores need to do to reassure their visitors that they’re still in business so that they can get sales during this time.

COVID19 E-commerce Essentials: All Of These Are Required

In managing your e-commerce store during the pandemic, it’s not advisable to selectively apply measures. For optimal results, you should implement a comprehensive set of COVID19 e-commerce essentials, as they are designed to function synergistically.

For example…

1. We are seeing many businesses publish banners on their website that say they are still in business without any shipping delays.
2. But visitors continue to ask for confirmation via live chat before completing orders.
3. This is because many e-commerce stores have published banners saying they are not affected, but then when they lay off their team and shut down nobody updates the website.

Visitors have already been let down by other stores that are not actually in business, so it’s important that you implement all of these actions across your website at least for the next few weeks.

Site Wide Banner – “No Delays Due to Covid19…”

To reassure your customers during the pandemic, it’s effective to display a concise yet visible banner on your website. This banner should inform visitors of your operational status, such as “Operating without delays despite COVID-19.” Include a “details” link for further information, which is part of the COVID19 e-commerce essentials to maintain transparency and customer trust.

This is the first thing visitors are looking for during this time of uncertainty. While it is not enough to only publish this, it is essential that you get this banner live.

Reassure Visitors on Product Pages

A site wide banner may be noticed by visitors, but where they start to feel uncertain about your business is status is when they begin the purchase process. This starts on the product page.

Along with a site-wide banner, it’s beneficial to convey reassurance directly on your product pages, close to the purchase process. This strategy is part of the COVID19 e-commerce essentials, enhancing customer confidence and supporting informed purchasing decisions during these challenging times.

For example, adding a small message near the buy now or add to cart button’s, which allows for additional details if they hover over the notification.

Again, you are trying to be there with validation when the visitor is starting to feel uncertainty about if your business is shut down.

Emphasize Confidence In Shipping / Checkout Process

Maintaining customer confidence is key, especially during the checkout process. It’s helpful to include clear messages about your business’s ongoing operations and confirm that there are no shipping delays due to COVID-19. This approach is part of the COVID19 e-commerce essentials, ensuring customers feel secure in completing their purchases.

If you don’t currently use technology that enables you to show an actual arrival date of their shipment, now might be a good time to implement it. Providing this view into the future will give visitors much more confidence.

Be Available 24/7 on Live Chat for Questions

Regardless of what you do within the website, it’s critical that you have a human available 24/7 via live chat to answer questions.

1. We have seen clients with all of the above implemented on their website still continue to get questions every single hour from visitors asking for validation.
2. Many stores are publishing the above messages but then not updating them when they actually do get shut down.
3. This leaves visitors with an incredible lack of confidence unless there is a human to reassure them.

Here’s a typical example:

Putting live chat onto your website is easy. While you can use it to boost sales significantly, the most important element for this time is simply having a human there 24/7 to answer visitors questions about the status of the business.

Take Action Now

During times of uncertainty, it’s critical that you give visitors confidence so that they will buy from you. If you don’t take these steps, you’re bound to lose sales you can otherwise get during this crisis.

1. Configure your onsite banner right away
2. Add messaging to your product pages and checkout
3. And most importantly, be online for 24/7 live chat to reassure visitors

Need Help with a 24/7 Live Chat Team?

We’ve published a “Live Chat Blueprint” to guide you in getting 24/7 live chat configured and operating smoothly, which you can access here. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us.

If you already have live chat, but need someone to staff it 24/7 during this crisis we can help with that too. We have a team of live chat agents ready to deploy, as we already run live chat for 100+ stores. Book a Strategy Call here to discuss how to get the team live on your website asap.