Give Your Online Shoppers What They Need

As an e-commerce retailer, one of your first priorities should be to give your website visitor as perfect an environment as possible and one which is completely conducive to consummating a sale. Unfortunately, findings of an e-commerce survey commissioned by iperceptions found that this is a perception which may be far removed from reality. Four out of ten visitors arrive at an e-commerce site to conduct research, but only 85% of them are able to complete the task successfully. Of those who arrive with the intention of making a purchase, only six out of ten actually complete this task. These are worrying figures and it pays to try to get to the bottom of this research to make sure that you are giving your online shoppers what they really need.

Fundamentally, your site architecture should be very intuitive. It must relate directly to the source, so that visitors who are arriving due to a marketing process that you have initiated do not have second thoughts about the validity of this trail. Calls to action should be very clear and apparent and you should make sure that you do not place too many obstacles in the way of allowing your visitor to move all the way to the checkout page.

Here are some considerations:
• Have you fully answered a “features and benefits” analysis of your own products or services? You should have answered any potential questions yourself and make sure that you have provided the information and any FAQs; don’t leave any stone unturned.
• Include testimonials and customer reviews. Remember social proof is very important.
• Have you addressed any potential purchasing options and different scenarios – what if the product is being bought as a gift for somebody else?
• Clearly enunciate your return policies, warranties and confirm the security of your purchase arrangements.
• Detail all “supplemental” costs, including shipping and tax early on during the decision-making process.
• Do not require customers to go through lengthy registration processes prior to making a payment!
• Give as many payment options as you can.
• When it comes to check out, do everything you can to make this as simple a process as possible. Multiple checkout pages are not a good idea, as every additional stage here increases the abandonment ratio exponentially.

Choose a trusted confidant, with little direct input into your business or experience of your site, to do a complete run through as a new client. Encourage them to give you honest and complete feedback on every element of their experience and use this information to make your site highly user-friendly.

How have you made your e-commerce site user friendly?

Matthew Toren