| You've created a Web site for your business and you’ve worked hard to get it listed in the search engines. You've even promoted the Web address – commonly called the "URL" – in your advertising. Now, you're competing with dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of other sites offering similar wares or services. Regardless of your marketing efforts, you might still find your Web site producing less than stellar results.
The most common reason sites fail, from my experience, is lack of usability. Yet, it's not difficult to design a site that's usable to Internet visitors. The more usable your site, the more success you'll enjoy.
The easiest way to begin is to find those sites that you personally enjoy using. Forget about which are the most successful or popular. I know numerous sites that are successful simply because they have spent hundreds of millions of dollars generating traffic and overshadowing the competition, yet from a usability point of view, they're crowded, inconsistent and challenging to navigate. Unless you’re in the mega-site league, compare your aspirations to other like-sized endeavors and identify the sites that you personally feel rate favorably for:
Navigation. Does the site provide clear, easy-to-understand links? As you travel through the site, do you get lost or find that the only way to go somewhere else in the site is to return all the way to the "home" page? A usable site doesn’t attempt to channel visitors down a one-way path. It does succeed at providing a reasonably succinct menu of page groupings, and it provides explanations as to how certain processes will occur. For example, when you have finished selecting products to buy, a well-designed site will explain and illustrate the purchasing process (1. provide shipping information, 2. provide payment information, etc.). And once into the purchasing process, it should allow you to easily return to the products section to add a last-minute product or accessory you suddenly find necessary. This is one area where I think amazon.com seriously fails.
Product Information. Do your favorite shopping sites use flashy animations and abundant hyperbole to promote products? Probably not, yet so many sites appear to be written by shady salesmen. On-line shoppers are usually not impulse buyers. They go on-line to carefully research and compare. I often times visit several sites, including that of a product’s manufacturer, before making a final purchase. It’s not uncommon at all for shopper’s to compare not only prices, but how an on-line vendor presents their wares. Presentation goes a long way to creating a lasting impression in the mind of the Internet customer. Product information should be factual, concise and complete. The use of customer testimonials or ratings help a lot, too. I’ve purchased items before based in large part on the favorable ratings provided by other customers.
Company Information. Have you ever looked to find out more about the company with whom you're doing on-line business? I do. Every time. If I can't find out the who, what and where of an on-line vendor, they are forever off my hit list. It's not important to construct a lengthy corporate biography, but shoppers feel much more comfortable knowing that the vendor has a physical location, has been in business for some number of years, and that there are actual people behind the Web page. My favorite sites are not shy about showing me who owns or runs the company.
Service and Support. If something goes wrong with your on-line purchase, or you receive a faulty product, is there an easy and clear service procedure? While warranties are important in most cases, they're not much good if you can't get them honored. Before buying a product – particularly from a lesser-known provider – astute shoppers want to know how they can return a product, get repairs, or have warranties honored.
Shipping Costs. Do you buy from vendors who charge unusually high shipping costs? Probably not. I avoid sites that charge flat shipping rates, especially if those rates seem high. That usually means the vendor is charging a figure designed to cover whatever his or her actual shipping costs turn out to be. That's just being lazy. Today's Web engineers can incorporate code into almost any e-commerce site that will determine exact shipping rates from the most popular shipping companies, such as Federal Express or UPS. While it's common for vendors to add some mark-up on these costs, I prefer to have the shipping costs close to what I would be charged if I called up the shipper directly and asked for a quote.
Off-line Ordering. Some shoppers are still reluctant to buy on-line from a company unknown to them. Others have questions about a product that they would like to speak to someone about. Your site should include a toll-free ordering number. If you’re small, you don’t have to provide around-the-clock phone orders, but you should state the hours of availability clearly next to the phone number. The number should also be on every page of your site, so it’s not only easy to find, but helps to fortify your willingness to be up-front and open about your company. I often caution people against shopping with vendors who do not provide an easy-to-find phone number for questions or orders, the lack of which generally means the vendor is hiding behind their Web site and could likely be shady.
These are just a few of the many aspect of on-line e-commerce you have to monitor as you venture into this very important – and potentially lucrative – business field. On-line shoppers are becoming more and more sophisticated and they expect a higher level of service and presentation. If you already have an on-line presence, it might pay to have a Web engineer experienced in e-commerce solutions review your site to see if there are some specific changes that could bring more business to your virtual doorstep.
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