The internet is the defining factor for business labelled as ecommerce as it is the essential medium to make it work.
Following a few simple rules are all that is needed to elicit a positive response from visitors.
Don’t have too many steps in the sales process
In good ecommerce design it has been proved that there is a direct correlation between the number of clicks a person has to make in order to complete a purchase and the volume of people who abandon their shopping cart before checking out.
You need to make the checkout process as simple as possible on your ecommerce web site so that potential customers are not discouraged easily through poor navigation.
Ensure customers are aware of stock levels
Make sure that customers can check the availability of stock early on in the sales process.
Customers will soon move away from your site if you do not show them up front what stock is available. Visitors on the web can be fickle and soon find another site to purchase from.
Ensure web browser compatibility
Make sure you view your site in a variety of browsers to ensure that it is presented correctly. It is essential that you at least view your site in two different browsers to make sure most of your customers see your site as expected.
Use sensible words in your hyperlinks
Name your links appropriately using a sensible description that means something to your customers. For instance, ‘Music players section A’ is much less descriptive than ‘iPod Nano range’.
You need to ensure that your hyperlinks actually work
Make sure that all the hyperlinks work on your site and that they click through to the correct destinations. Broken links are a quick way to tell your visitors that your site is not professional.
Use simple, clean and small file size graphics
Graphics are great for illustration but you need to ensure they are optimised for the web.
This means that you have to use a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks to reduce the file size to ensure that your ecommerce internet solution does not take too long to load its pages.
This exercise becomes a balancing act between quality versus file size but usually a good compromise can be obtained.
Create a straightforward checkout process
The final stage of your ecommerce process is also the most nervous for your customer. You need to ensure that your customer is comforted that you have a safe and secure payment process in which they can entrust their personal details.
Most web hosts will offer the Secure Socket Layer method that ensures your site is encrypted to protect your customers personal details. Tell your customers about the security arrangements you have in place on your ecommerce web site in order to protect their personal information.
If you follow the tips outlined above then you will avoid most of the common pitfalls that you can encounter in developing your ecommerce web site.
Tags: Ecommerce, ecommerce design, ecommerce solution, ecommerce web site