Improving the Ecommerce User Experience

Every year consumers increase the amount of products and services purchased online. As the volume of purchases increases, consumers’ expectations of their experience with a commerce site rise as well. Site owners’ concerns of ten years ago (i.e., secure server, automatic credit card processing, etc.) are now must haves in order to compete. To really take your commerce site to the next level, you need to focus on improving the user experience.

BarnesandNoble.com and Amazon.com are two of the most highly rated ecommerce sites for customer satisfaction. The features of these sites, the free shipping offers, suggestive selling, email follow up and more add up to an overall customer experience that is overwhelmingly positive. If you have not been to either site lately, I recommend taking a look, and see what strikes you as adding value to your overall shopping experience.

So what can you do to improve your ecommerce site? Here is a list of items that you may or may not have implemented onto your site (of course the nature of your product and/or service determines the validity of each item):

• The ability for customers to submit reviews of your products.
• Free shipping promos. Shipping is one of the biggest deterrents for customers purchasing online.
• Ability for customers to create a gift registry.
• Ability for customers to save their shopping cart for return purchasing.
• Suggestive selling by recommending products similar to products being viewed or purchased.
• Implement a loyalty program, and let customers check their status online.
• Implement AJAX and other Web 2.0 features where it makes sense in order to improve site responsiveness and a more fluid user experience.
• Utilize email for order and shipping confirmations. Place additional offers within these emails. Also, utilize personalized and relevant email to build a permission database where you can effectively communicate new product offers and specials.
• Implement a real shopping cart experience within your domain. In other words, do not use a third party service that takes the user out of your branded website for purchasing. It causes confusion and detracts from the overall brand experience.
• Break up the ordering process into manageable and identifiable components. Do not make the ordering process confusing or more difficult than it needs to be.

Once you have made an effort to improve your e-commerce site, it is imperative that you implement an analytics system for performance metrics. Look for areas in your site that users are exiting, especially in the checkout process. You are bound to gain insight on how you can improve your site even further.

To sum it up, online shoppers want a user-friendly, functional, and efficient site from a brand they trust. Maintain your brand identity throughout the entire experience and keep it simple. Give customers an experience that you would expect for yourself, and success will follow. If you’re not sure how your site compares with other quality ecommerce sites, consult with an expert and make decisions based on their feedback. Online shopping is growing constantly, and you need to keep up with advancements so your site doesn’t look like the physical equivalent of a fifty-year-old dilapidated storefront located on Route 66 with faded paint and a broken sign.

For questions regarding this article, please contact us at 949.215.1255.