6 Key Success Factors for Your Online Shop
What are the key issues that online retailers should resolve to prosper? We identified five key areas that will help you to enhance your profits.
Though you may not think that an “About Us” page is very important, many shoppers do indeed head to this page. If your shop is new to the visitor, they might head to this page in order to get a feel for who you are. This essentially means that they are checking out how trustworthy you are and if they feel safe doing business with you. Today, we will look at what makes for a great “About Us” page.
Is an “About Us” page really that important?
I wanted to take this opportunity to convince you why this page is so important in case you are still skeptical about investing time to create a beautiful, informative, and engaging “About Us” page. A survey reveals some interesting statistics about new visitors’ behaviour when landing on a new website:
- 47% of new visitors head straight to the Products and Services pages
- 33% head to the homepage before checking out the other pages
- 16% go to the “About Us” page
I don’t know about you, but 16% surprised me. Honestly, I would have thought that number would be a bit lower. Now, if you’ve been in the e-commerce business for a while, then you’ll realise this is a large number.
These are potential customers who have a genuine interest in your brand and they’ve headed to this page to be convinced whether or not they should shop with you. Don’t miss this opportunity to convince them that your business is trustworthy.
So, let’s get to it: what are some things to keep in mind when creating your “About Us” page?
Tell a story
We’ve talked about the benefits of storytelling in e-commerce before. Storytelling is engaging. It gives your brand a personality, a purpose, a life. Suddenly, your story is about what you want to accomplish and it’s no longer about making money. This is something people relate to.
In the example below, Seattle Cider Co. is showing the process of how they make their cider. Visually, this is a really interesting process (as you scroll down the apples get dropped into the barrel). The copy really drives the story home by telling the reader where they get their apples (locally) and explaining the cider-making process.
Shutterstock/GAS-photo
It can get a tiny bit technical, but even the average cider drinker will understand the basics of what happens during fermentation with their explanation. To top it off, there is a nice image of the team at the very bottom.
Speaking of team images…
Be human
You’ll want to be down to earth in this section. Surely, no one has arrived on your “About Us” page to read a biography or a cover letter. Write to your readers as if you were speaking to them. Explain things in simple way.
If you talk about yourself, use the first person. Again, the idea is to speak to them as if you were having a conversation with them. It feels more intimate and humble. This builds trust with your potential customers, where as a coldly-written biography is boring and uninviting.
You can talk about a wide range of things, namely how you got into the business and what your motivations are, but generally speaking, I recommend you to avoid too much industry jargon. Assume the reader is not an expert in your field.
In the example below, you can get a feel for the human side of Noah Kagan. In case his domain name didn’t give it away, this image should most certainly give you the impression that Noah is fun and enjoys his job immensely.
Noah does a great job of mixing serious topics with some humour and you get that with the first line of his text as he refers to himself as “head sumo”. However, in the very next sentence you can figure out quite quickly that he does his job well and has lots of experience (he was one of Facebook’s earliest employees, while also working for Mint and Intel).
Mention the essentials
Your “About Us” page is a great opportunity to fill in the gaps that the rest of your site might not. Remember that survey I mentioned above that showed off the statistics of new visitor behaviour? Well, that same survey also asked what website elements annoy buyers and cause them to leave.
Source: Komarketing.com
As you can see, the number one answer was a lack of a message (can’t tell what a company does). Shocking? Yes. When you’re so deeply entrenched in your business, you might not realise that not everyone understands exactly what you have to offer. Your “About Us” page is the perfect opportunity to really spell it out for your customers.
Click on the image to see it in more detail.
This page by Shape covers it all. Not only do they explain who they are and what they do, they cover the second point on the “annoyance chart” (their contact info is fixed in the header) as well. Not only that, but you get to (playfully) meet the team and once you scroll down further, you can see the clients they’ve worked with and even some testimonials.
Share your philosophy
Besides explaining exactly what it is that your company does exactly, there’s also room to be a bit philosophical. This can really also help build trust for your company as they’ll get to know what the vibe is at your company.
After explaining what they do, Refinery 29 wanted to break things down in terms of who they are and what their ultimate goals are. Their mission is to help women claim their power. Their essence is about individuality and inclusiveness. Their promise is to deliver optimistic and diverse stories. Their vibe is simply magical. Sure, some of this comes off a bit abstract, but the feeling they want to communicate is clear: positivity and inspiration.
This is also a chance to highlight any community activities, causes, or charities that your company participates in.
Infographic
Venngage created this infographic summarising the main points of this article:
Conclusion
Your “About Us” page is your chance to sell not only your products and services, but also the personality of your brand. If your products and services don’t differentiate themselves on the surface, take the opportunity to convince them that your brand is special and can take care of customers better than anyone else.
