Ecommerce Web Design

An article published in The Guardian about Ecommerce Design by Rob Ford really hits home some simple facts for web retailers of how to increase sales even during tough economic times.

The openining line starts with the question.
You have a product or catalogue of goods that you are trying to sell online. But sales are not great. Why not?

Rob Ford points out 3 areas to address if your prices are competitive.

1. Make sure your customers can actually see your products.
   Yes I agree it is amazing that in this day and age some sites have missing product images or tiny images that do not enarlge or zoom.Consider providing multiple images for alternative views.
   Yes the more product photographs, reverse views, technical specifications and sizes you can show to your customers, the more likely they are to buy from you.I have talked about this before on my article What makes a good ecommerce website?

 

2. Don’t ask potential customers to sign up or get a membership before they buy. 
   This is one of most frustrating areas of buying online! Why do retailers need you to sign up?  Often the reason is so they can bombard you with unsolicited email, text messages or leaflets. Personally I never buy from a website that asks for a sign up before purchase. (If I don’t millions of others won’t either!)

 

3. Clearly show users what your delivery charges, especially if you ship overseas.
   Be up front and display the exact transaction cost at all times. Customers are not stupid and they will notice if VAT has suddenley appeared or a hidden post and packaging has appeared. They will simply stop and shop elsewhere.

 

Keeping your prices competitive and your website ecommerce design  profesional and easy to use ensures a higher amount of purcchases and happy customers that will return and buy from you again and again.  The Guardian article states  ”As consumers shift from high street queues to online purchasing, taking a good, hard look at your ecommerce site could give you the edge that so many online retailers just fail to get.”

Now is the time to ensure your website is relevant and works the way your customers expect it.

Rob’s great article:  Web retailers: are you missing the point? can be found on The Guardian website.

To find the answer we need to look at ecommerce design as a whole and ask a few questions as we go through the process to find the solution.

Most people have shopped online and made a purchase.
Now we ask ourselves a few questions.

1. Was it easy to find the product you where looking for?
2. Was all the information you needed clearly displayed?
3. Where you informed of delivery or additional charges prior to purchase?
4. Did you feel the transaction was secure?
5. Where you shown larger images if required?
6. Was the whole process simple and easy to use?

You probably answered NO to a few of those questions!

Now that we know what is wrong with a bad ecommerce website we can create a good ecommerce website by carrying out a few simple steps during the inital design process of your ecommerce site.

1. Always ensure that the website navigates gracefully to the individual product. This is good for you and good for Google too! For example your product is a Grey Nike Football shirt. You would use Football Shirts in your main navigation, followed by the brand name then the product name. Ideally this should be displayed as breadcrumbs too. i.e Football Shirts > Nike and also in the URL so it would look like www.yourdomain.com/football-shirts/nike/grey-shirt.html
    
2. Display as much relevant information about the product as you can. Some websites only display a single line of text relating to the product. Ideally you want to see all the different options and sizes and specifications relating to the product. If there is an overload of information this can be tabbed so the customer can click on the specificatio9n they are looking for. Plus again this is great for your search engine positioning.
    
3. Always show the full billing price. If delivery,  VAT, Tax or additional price is not displayed this can be confusing and misleading for your customer. So always make the full price clear from the start.
    
4. Website Security and confidence. When a customer enters in their personal details and credit card number this needs to be carried out under SSL (Secure Socket Layer) or https. Often a pop up will appear in the browser window to let the customer know they are in a secure area along with the padlock. Another point on ecommerce is the web design and the quality of the web site design.
    
5. Show larger images in the same window. If you have larger product images show them to your customer, even alternative views of the product. Often customers need to see the back of products. Your customer is thinking of lots of questions before making that purchase, so show them everything you have to offer.
    
6. Ensure the buying process is easy. Do not force the customer to login to make a purchase. This is bad practice unless it is a membership site. A customer does not want to say “Where they heard about your site”, or even tick that box to recieve spam email. They need an instant confirmation email of the product purchased and if possible delivery details.

Do you really know your customers?

Most business owners will say Yes! When in reality they do not. Have they spoken to customers that have made purchases? Have they asked about their shopping online? Is there anything that can be done better? Making your website the best it can be for your customers is the key to online success.