The process of launching an e-commerce website can be incredibly overwhelming. With so many details factoring into the equation, it can be difficult to detect what areas of your site need to be focused on the most to ensure its success. Similar to setting up and maintaining physical brick and mortar, you’ll have quite a bit to manage, including meeting the high expectations of your customers.
Most of today’s consumers go onto e-commerce with the assumption that they’ll have access to a streamlined experience, particularly one that is easier than going into a store. In fact, their standards for shopping typically skyrocket once they head to the internet. Not only do they expect to be able to access a site with ease, they also assume they’ll have an easy search and checkout process. Sites that fail to meet these expectations run the risk of alienating customers, or worse, receiving bad reviews and poor search engine ratings. As a result, getting these aspects of your e-commerce business down pat on the first time around is vital.
If you’re looking to build an e-commerce site, building one that is user-friendly will be an essential factor to your success. Check out these are four tips on how to keep your e-commerce customers happy by providing them with a site that’s user-friendly.
Create An Appealing Design
As you design and build your e-commerce site, remember to plan your site as if you were setting up an actual storefront. You wouldn’t want potential customers to walk past a messy window display or a disorganized store. Such a display would likely dissuade most from ever making their way over to your checkout counter, let alone consider walking into your store. As you layout the map for your site, it’s important to keep in mind that customers want to be able to walk into a shop and get what they came for without ever having to go on a hunt for an item. Be sure to create an attractive webspace customers will be able to navigate with ease. To help have you headaches, choose a hosting company that is tailored to the ecommerce space. Shopify is a solid option for the e-commerce owner who isn’t sure about how to build a site but knows for sure they want to provide customers with an easy experience.
Keep Your Site Full Speed Ahead
It might be difficult to believe, but something that is as seemingly straightforward as the speed of your site can have a grave impact on your sales when things aren’t running right. Most of today’s online users give site’s no more than 10 seconds to load before abandoning their efforts and moving on to another online distraction. Even sites that run just a split second too slow can lose money because they failed to meet the expectations of their customers. As a matter a fact, a recent study revealed that an e-commerce site making $100,000 per day, could cost a company nearly $2.5 million in sales each year just because of 1-second page delays. Avoid losing money and the dedication of potential customers by ensuring that your site is running at optimum speed. Consider investing in a CDN, or Content Delivery Network, to increase the availability and performance of the services you deliver to your customers.
Don’t Pack Your Site With Too Many Product or Service Options
As you build your customer friendly site, be sure that you are striking a balance between providing customers the products they want and the content you think they need. Coming across a vast selection of products can be overwhelming for most customers and can often do more harm than good. Part of the process of building a customer-friendly site is building one that is easy to use. Avoid overwhelming your customers with information overload by keeping your catalog items low. Also, set up a search bar on your site that provides fast return of results so that they have the option of finding their items faster.
Turn Your Product Page Into a Sales Pitch
Consumers who make product services online want to make sure they’re getting as many details of a product as possible. Even though you might feel tempted to allow this part of your site fall behind as you focus on other regions, be aware that product details will be a vital part of ensuring you actually get to hold onto your sales. Remember, customers who aren’t happy with your product will have no problem with making a return or creating a bad review if they feel misled by product descriptions.
To ensure you clients have a fully fleshed out concept of your items, make sure your product details are present and easy to find. Make use of visuals such as pictures and videos to capture the attention of your customers but also to give them a complete understanding of the product they’re purchasing.
