he greatest thing about e-commerce can also be the worst thing about it—that is to say, it’s as easy to leave a site as it is to enter one. With brick-and-mortar shopping, once a customer walks in your store, you’ve got some level of control with regard to how long they stay and whether or not they buy something. When they visit your Web site, the slightest trip-up and they’re gone.
In discussing tips to make your Web site a place visitors will hang around a while, the piece of advice that seems to surface most frequently is "easy does it."
"There are plenty of things in life that are difficult to do, so one of things that should never be tough is shopping," is how Lauren Sosik explained the need to keep e-commerce simple. "I don’t climb mountains because it’s difficult to do and I certainly don’t want to start climbing them when I shop on the Web."
So then, in compiling a list of tips for retail Web sites, consider "ease-of-use" as tip number one—but not the only thing you should take into consideration. As you’ll see from the tips we’ve gathered below, first impressions, convenience, personal touches and style factor in as well.
We’ve limited this list to a Top Five, but check back with us in the months ahead as this is a topic with many levels to explore in order to really achieve consistent success.
1. The Big Easy: This may seem obvious initially, but Sosik is right. Put yourself in your customer’s shoes and walk yourself through the buying process on your site. Test your set-up and look for steps in the process that might block your customers from making a successful, easy purchase.
Ask yourself a few important questions like: How many pages and clicks does it takes to make a purchase? Can a quick purchase be made directly from the home page? Are the instructions clear and easy on storing selected items before the shopping experience is completed? You’d be surprised how many sites trip-up on the seemingly obvious stuff like this.
2. Home Sweet Home: Well, as in life, first impressions are everything but they are even more important on the Web. If they’re going to start shopping, this is where that decision will be made. Clear, easy-to-understand categories and departments are essential here—using tabs, navigation bars, etc.
Many sites fail right here—on the home page. Don’t hide your specials and sales deep inside the site. They belong right here, along with unique services, new products and holiday specials. An instance where you definitely don’t save your best for last.
A powerful and easy-to-find/use search feature is vital as well. E-commerce shoppers will look for this shortly after deciding whether or not they are going to shop so don’t fail them with this tool.
3. It’s Always Personal: Personalization is red hot and nothing gets a shopper’s attention faster than something that appears to be exclusively for them. There are a ton of tools out there that allow you to get in this game. Once the visitor registers on your site as a shopper or member you can use this information to provide a personalized greeting whenever they log on to your home page and/or various other pages on the site.
Something simple like "Welcome Kim, enjoy your shopping experience" is a great personal touch and is something the shopper will remember about your site. Also allow them the opportunity to check in on past orders, their shopping history on the site, order status and the like. Again, this builds comfort and makes the experience far more personal—it becomes "their" place.
4. Visual Literacy: Use images wisely—or in simpler terms, show off your stuff. In the imaging industry, this should be a no-brainer. Let the customer see what they can do with "their" images—allow them to drop their own images into the variety of photo gifts you sell. It’s one thing when they see they can do fake magazine covers—it’s another thing entirely when they can see their kid on a fake magazine cover.
If you’re selling hardware, let them see the products and always allow for larger views (rotating views don’t hurt either). The more details you can provide about a product, the better.
5. Wishing Well: Once upon a time, brick-and-mortar retail had something called lay-away, whereby a customer could put a product aside and pay for it in small installments while the merchant held on to the product. Offering the online variation on this theme has become a popular feature as well. Make sure you allow visitors to compile a "wish list"—a kind of storage feature that allows customers to put products aside for purchase at a later date. Some sites will even notify a customer when one of their wish list items goes on sale.
Along with building a better online relationship with your customers, this feature assures they’ll visit the site again to add to their list or perhaps check on it and make a purchase.
