E-commerce is no longer just the future of shopping. It’s officially arrived and enthroned. According to Business Insider, total e-commerce “surged” over early holiday shopping for 2013, rising by 24% for the combined Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday shopping days. Offline retail shopping actually decreased.
This makes it even more important for your e?commerce site to be as efficient as possible, and enjoyable to use. Like any information site, it’s important that the visitor/customer has a positive experience and will want to come back over and over again. Here are some tips on what to avoid when you design or revisit your e?commerce site layout:
Don’t Assume That Customers Understand Security
It’s quite possible that many of 2013′s e?commerce customers were new to online purchasing. Something reassured these newcomers that the sites they were visiting and buying from are safe and will keep their financial and personal information secure.
Don’t assume that everyone understands online security. Put a security FAQ on your shopping cart or “wish list” pages. Ask for one from your Point of Service (POS) provider. If you don’t have one, it’s worth your time to look into a comprehensive service such as the POS System by NetSuite.
Beakrstudios recommends displaying payment icons you use, including PayPal and VeriSign. These brands are familiar to online visitors, even those who haven’t placed online purchases now understand more about security thanks to your FAQ.
Don’t Force Customers to Open Accounts
Not everyone wants to open an account that stores their information, as Marketing Tech notes, and goes on to say “you can’t bully anyone into doing this.” Requiring registration interferes with a positive customer experience, and will probably send at least a few to competitors who aren’t as pushy.
Don’t Display “SOLD OUT” or “OUT OF STOCK” for Unavailable Items
This is just frustrating for shoppers. No one is impressed that you sold out of an item. In fact, some people may think you don’t pay enough attention to trends and were caught with your virtual pants down.
Instead of leaving your customer empty?handed and likely to return to the search engine, link anything that really is unavailable to a page explaining that the item is “temporarily out of stock”, and apologize for the inconvenience. Give the customer a couple of options, such as links to similar products, or to sign up for a waiting list so you can let them know when the item is available. Some services track customer request history.
Be sure to allow customers the option to opt-out of regular emails from your business as required by the CAN-SPAM federal law. More information on this law is available at the FTC’s website.
Don’t Be Coy About What You Sell
No customer should click “About Us” to understand what you are selling. Be obvious. The lack of a value proposition is #1 on Shopify’s list of e?commerce design mistakes “that could be killing your sales.”
Show what you’re selling right from the landing page. If you’re selling boots, display a museum-quality photo of boots, as Shopify illustrates. Don’t show shoes and socks unless they are also part of your inventory. Include a tagline about the product you sell, whether it’s T?shirts built to last or fine plumbing and hardware for high?end bathrooms. Depending on the product, you can also mention free shipping; this is attractive to T?shirt buyers, but not so important to people building bathrooms fit for kings.
About the Author
Keith Hart — Keith is a small business consultant and father of five from New York.
The post Missteps to Avoid in Your E-Commerce Site Design appeared first on Sazbean.