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How to Design a Successful E-commerce website |
How To Design A Successful E-Commerce Website
The golden rule of website design is this: visitors to your site should be able to find what they are looking for as easily as possible.
Now that might sound simple but when you have an e-commerce website with a wide range of products, enabling people to find what they want will need some careful planning.
So
let's assume that you have lots of products and lots of different
people visiting your website - how do you know what they want? You
could guess - pick a handful of products at random and display them on
the home page in the hope that these are the products that most people
are looking for. Or you could choose the products that you would most
likely to buy.
Unfortunatley both these plans are likely to fail. What you need is a structured, targeted approach.
Step 1. Identify the key products in your range that will be most
likely to sell. These could be the same products that other people sell
but you are offering them at a much-reduced price, or they could be
unique products that nobody else can provide. These products will
usually represent the core of your business and you will no doubt have
alrady done your market research to identify them.
Step 2. Optimise your website for the keywords and the key phrases that
relate to these core products. Let's say that you sell jars of honey
and you've managed to buy a bulk load of eucalyptus honey that nobody
else is selling online. Optimise your site for your words and phrases
like 'honey', 'eucalyptus honey', 'flavoured honey', 'buy honey online'
and so on - it doesn't matter if you sell jams and chutneys as well, at
this stage what's more important is that you focus your optimisation in
one key area. Once you have built up a good customer base you can begin
to branch out and optimise your website for other key phrases as well,
but if you try to do this too soon you may find that you are sprading
yourself too thinly and that your efforts are not bearing fruit.
Step 3. Make sure that the products you feature on your home page are
the ones you identified in step 1 and optimised for in step 2. In our
examlpe scenario the first thing I would want to see on arrival at
yourwebsite would be a nice big picture of a jar of eucalyptus honey
along with a simple statement that tells me why I should buy from you
- this is where your Customer Confidence Points come in.
Customer Confidence - Trust is the Key
When people arrive at your website there are two objectives you need to
address: firstly you need to convince them to buy the products you have
for sale; secondly you need to convince them to buy those products from
you and not go elsewhere for them.
Selling the product is relatively easy - make sure you have good clear
product images (both thumbnail and enlarged images) and make sure you
provide a clear, acurate and easy-to-read description. Far too many
people rush this part and content themselves with copying and pasting a
description from the manufacturer's website or from another site -take
the time to format your description properly using paragraphs, tables
and bullet point lists as appropriate. There's nothing more off-putting
than seeing a mass of small text in one long paragraph. Remember:
reading text on a screen is tiring, so break it up into manageable
chunks.
Once you have writeen your product description, ask yourself if you
have managed to get across all the features and benefits of that
product. Using our example of a jar of eucalyptus honey we could say
one of its features is its distinctive taste and the benefit to the
customer is that it will give him or her a totally new taste sensation,
as well as being a healthier alternative to sugar.
Having promoted the product you now need to promote your company as the
only place I should be thinking of buying this product from. Now
different people will look for different indicators when assessing
whether they should buy here or elsewhere, so you will need to try to
cover all options.
Some people will look to see what kind of gaurantees you provide and
what your returs policy is like, so make sure these are clearly
displayed on your site. Others will look to see if you have a price
promise or any multi-buy offers, so careful consideration should be
given to these as well. But probably the most important factor when
seeking to build confidence in your company is that of delivery.
Instant Gratification
We live in a world where we have become accustomed to being able to get
what we want very qucikly. Gome are the days of saving up for months to
buy something we've set our heart on - if we want it we buy it and, if
needs be, pay for it later.
So let's assume that I've been browsing the internet, arrive at your
site and see this fantastic picture of a jar of eucalyptus honey.
You've told me how good value it is and why it would be good for me to
buy it. You've made me want it. I add a jar to my shopping cart and
proceed to the checkout, only to find that you're telling me I need to
allow 14 days for delivery. That's no good to me - you've enticed me to
buy something, now you need to put it into my hands as quickly as
possible. If I think I'm going to have to wait a long time before it's
delivered, one of several things could happen: I might decide I can't
wait that long and try to buy it elsewhere - even if I don't find
aother store selling the same product, don't assume I'll come back to
your site to buy it because you've lost my confidence and I don't like
waiting; alternatively I might order the product but change my mind
before it arrives and cancel the order.
The two golden rules of delivery are these:
* Display your delivery charges and options clearly and concisely
on your website before you get to the checkout. Enticing someone to the
checkout and them springing a hefty delivery charge on them may bring
you a few one-off orders but it won't help to build customer confidence
and you will be less likely to get repeat customers.
*Give your customers a range of delivery options including same day
and next day delivery. This may seem bizrre but some customers will pay
more for deleivery than the product itselfif it means it will arrive
same day or next day. Your website may have done an excellent job of
telling me all I need to know about a product and convincing me to buy
it, but if you can't deliver it quickly there is a good chance I will
go somewhere else to buy it if it means I can have it more quickly -
even if it costs me more money.
Search and Navigation
Once you have optimised your site for your key products it almost goes
without saying that you should tailor any advertising or sponsored link
campaigns to be targeted towards those products in particular.
But you still need to bear in mind that not all visitors to your site
will be looking for those products. To enable people to find any
product in your store quickly and easily you will need to provide
adequate navigation and searching facilities.
Some people are very visually oriented and will instinctively look for
a picture of the product they are looking for. Others will want to
navigate to their chosen product range using the menu (a word of
warning here: it may seem a novel idea to put the nemu on the right
hand side of the page but most peolpe will intuitively look to the left
for it and if they don't see it you are most likely to end up with
frustrated and non-buying visitors. This is a classic example of how
innovative design can interfere with functionality). SOme people
however will insist on using a search box to find what they want.
Research has shown that a fair number of people are likely to abandon a
site all together if there is no search facility.
So in order to cover all the bases and cater for all types of people you should have the following:
*Basic Search facility with an optional link to an advanced search
(this should be in an obvious place on every page of your site).
*A clear and well-organised navigation menu on the left hand side of each page.
*Product or section images in a prominent postion on your homepage
linking through to your main products or product sections.
Wrapping Things Up
Having covered all the basics of setting up your online shopping
website, you can now turn your attention to thse extra touches that
will really make you stand out from the crowd. If appropriate you could
offer a gift wrapping service or even discounts for people who spend
over a certain amount.
If you have a newsletter then ask your customers when they check out if it's okay to put them on your mailing list.
Last but not least, if someone can't find what he or she wants on your
site for the simple reason that you don't stock it, make it as easy as
possible for him or her to contact you and ask if you can help. It may
aslo be worth adding a note to your site to the effect that you will
try to order any product that you don't hold in stock. Everybody loves
good customer service and we all appreciate it when someone is prepared
to go the extra mile to help us.
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CBS Group Inc.
