7 Tips for a Successful e-Commerce Website

1. Website Design

Getting this right is vital to online success. It does not matter what you are selling, your customers come to your website because they want to buy something. Once you have got visitors to your website, provide them with a pleasant shopping experience and you increase the chances of them making a purchase.

Make sure the website is designed to appeal to the types of customers you expect, using appropriate colours and images that make the user feel they are in the right place when they get to your site.

2. Make the Page Content Relevant to the Product

It is important that the content on each page is relevant to the product on the page. Where possible make sure that all the case studies, product reviews and feedback are related to the specific product on the product detail page. Links on a product page should move the customer along the conversion path, but providing more information that will enable them to feel comfortable choosing your product.

Some of your customers will want to know the specifications of your product, others just want to know the benefits and how they will feel using your products (customer reviews), so allow for all types of visitors.

3. Easy to Use Navigation & Product Search

The navigation should allow visitors to know where to go in less than 8 seconds. Don't make them think!. Use a navigation that makes product selection easy for the customer. Think about:

• Horizontal vs. Vertical navigation
• Category flyout navigation, refine by navigation, search tool or product selectors

4. Do Not Copy Supplier's Product Descriptions

Customers come to your website because they are looking to satisfy a need or requirement. They still need to be persuaded that the product on your site will fulfil their need. Your description should be more than just statistics about the product. Remember, people purchase emotionally and then justify the purchase logically, so the description needs to have an emotional element in order for the customer make that purchase. 

5. Customer Reviews

Buyers trust the opinion and experience of other buyers. By allowing your customers to share their experience of using your products, you will convert more shoppers to buyers. Ask for reviews after they have made a purchase, making sure the reviews include a star rating system and are applicable for each product.

6. Pay Attention to Your Checkout Process

This is one of the most important areas of a site, but often ignored by developers. On average 65% of shopping carts are abandoned by site visitors and there are many reasons why this happens, including:

1. Lack of confidence in site security
2. Uncertainty regarding delivery charges and times
3. Concerns about product return policies.

Ensure customers can access information quickly and easily during the checkout process, and if your shipping is free or you have a guarantee, don't be shy, shout about it!

7. Payment Systems

The most popular non-integrated payment method is PayPal but not everyone likes or trust Paypal therefore you should provide additional methods of payments. Getting a new merchant account can be challenging, so consider Google checkout as an alternative.

If you already have an integrated payment gateway such as SagePay, you may want to add PayPal and/or Google Checkout. Some people like to make payments this way, especially if they already have money in their PayPal account

The Next Steps

Find out more about building e-commerce sites that lead to results. We are running a Free Seminar on conversion optimisation and getting the most from your website. Click Here to book your place for 16th June. If you need help getting your website to the next level then call us for a free consultation on 0845 652 2412.