Sarah Parker
The online way of selling things has been in vogue from quite a few years now. The merchants are branching out to the web world and creating sleek and seemingly accomplished websites to reach out to a newer breadth of customers that they believe would seize their offerings with a keener desire.
The fact that shopping is made possible right from the comforts of home has meant that eCommerce has shot to fame instantly. And the number of merchants bringing their business online is increasing at a brisk rate. There is a growing urgency among them to prote and sell their products online since there are some great examples to follow.
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Now, be it as it may, there is no dearth of eCommerce website owners who are going astray with the make of their website. The targets are not being achieved since customers are not having a great user-experience on the website. And this can be amounted to a host of reasons which more or less are avoidable.
Let's segue on to some typical and not so typical mistakes that eCommerce website owners are making, probably, without even realizing it:
Website Filled with Gloss and Colors, Compromising on Responsiveness
Take it easy, will you? Yours is not an online portfolio of a blockbuster web designer, it's a website which is trying to draw a truckload of visitors who would come and shop for certain products and goods they are in need for. They don't need to be overwhelmed by the riot of colors on your website and the amazingly creative designing patterns. What's needed here is a seamless user interface that can make navigation easy for the users.
More importantly, you need a website that loads on the users' browsers without unnecessary fuss and delays. A website with glossy design is likely to have a large page size. Add to that the picture thumbnails of products and descriptions. A slow website never serves the purpose, and with eCommerce websites, the patience of users runs even thinner. A responsive website that is subtly designed will work with most browsers and run near-smoothly even on weaker Internet connections.
Short Product Descriptions
The underlying difference between an eCommerce store and a brick and mortar store is that in the latter case, the customers can physically touch the product and judge it based on its material, its dimensions and so on. So, when you are selling the same via the web, you need to elaboratively chart out the details for the customer so that there is no guess work involved.
Now, if the product descriptions on your site is lacking in basic information, you can't expect the customers to trust you. When you leave your customers wondering, you can be sure as hell that they would rather prefer buying stuff from your competitor's website. And that alone is worth the price of panic.
A Checkout Process that is Unwieldy and Long
If there is a prize for “Most common mistakes among eCommerce websites”, it'd probably go to this one. Customarily, the online stores make it a pain for their customers to enter their credit card information, make payment and complete the order. What can be accomplished in not more than 2-3 steps is made to be accomplished 5-6 steps.
What's still not realized that by adding more steps to the checkout process, you are only giving your users more opportunities and reasons to navigate off. And this should hurt you the most since they had already decided to buy from you.
Contact Details that are Hard to Find
Contact details give consumers an assurance that they are buying from a real enterprise, and not one that is trying to pass off as one. It helps them be sure that as and when they have certain issues, they can contact you directly at the information available. And if you make it a task for them to look for this information on your website, you might as well pass off as non-authentic. The safest option in that case is to put contact information right there for the taking. Have it on a location on your website where it is most easy to find. It can be the header or even the sidebar of the site so that it is visible on every page.
Not Tailored for Mobiles
If you haven't received the memo yet – the large chunk of your online buyers are the mobile users who like to shop on the move. So, if you have created a website with only desktop computers in mind, you are being ridiculously off the mark. A website that fails to adapt itself to the smaller screen sizes of the mobile phones ends up putting off a huge chunk of users.
Mobile responsiveness is no longer a luxury. Making your website adaptable across the mobile OS platforms and adaptable to their screen sizes opens up new opportunities and markets for you.
Images with Uninspiring Quality
Again, it is not a brick and mortar store. You are trying to grab your user's attention through the product thumbnails. So, it would only make sense to have some high pixel pictures that are not tacky at all. The product shots should be taken professionally and it has to be made sure that you take pictures from different angles so that users can have a good look before they enter the payment details.
A Non-Comprehensible Search Feature
Every user is not keen enough to browse through the categories. In fact, a majority of online buyers prefer to simply input a query in the search box of the website in order to find what they Are looking for. In such a scenario, if you have a search box with far too many filters, it is only going to discourage your users. While you need ot be sure that the search results are narrowed down, don't make it over-complicated for the users.
There is no secret mantra to eCommerce success. But the afore-mentioned mistakes are the surefire recipes for doom. Keep them out of reach.
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