In terms of the details of consumer behaviour, eCommerce can be extremely complex. To offer an outstanding buyer experience, merchants must combine technologies and functionality that surpasses rising customer expectations. Whether you are selling complexes in Bloemfontein or Apple Macs, you’re service has to be better than your competition’s.
On the other hand, however, site basics still play a significant role in converting site visitors into customers. Many retailers, surprisingly, lose sight of website fundamentals and therefore leave a substantial amount of sales “on the table”. This brief article will examine four quick site design fundamentals every eCommerce administrator cannot afford to lose sight of.
Think “Fast”
Speed is now less of a challenge due to the increasing penetration of broadband internet connections, but one shouldn’t fail to remember that a substantial number of individuals still access the World Wide Web via a dialup connection. When planning a site framework, designers and e-commerce teams should ensure that the site is developed with pages loading in under nine seconds (as measured over a dial-up connection).
The recommended page is within the range of 60-70 kilobytes in size. At that size, sites will probably load within the maximum wait duration of 9 seconds. Online retailers should, without exception, steer clear of flash on their transactional site. Flash’s artistic appeal may help you establish a brand’s presence; however, it will probably lose potential customers even before they’ve searched within your store as flash will profoundly slow down a page’s download time.
Images are vital
Images really are a very important component of online selling, and are often neglected. All product images should be of the maximum resolution possible, and be much larger than the product page original. Additionally, images of merchandise should endeavour to display multiple perspectives on the product.
Dynamic imaging capabilities can improve the consumer experience to an even greater extent through increasing the interactivity (zoom & rotate) made available to the prospective client. At a minimum, retailers really should have at least two additional views outside of the product page image in order to give a consumer as much visual information about the product as is reasonably possible.
Allow for guests
Shoppers don’t especially like being forced to engage in unnecessary activity, especially when all they’re interested in doing is buying a particular product. Compelling a purchaser to register on your site before actually making a purchase is one method to drive a portion of your site traffic to your competition. All too often, shoppers do not possess the time or the desire to complete an extensive form detailing personal information about themselves.
Always offer the opportunity for clients to make purchases as a guest. You will see less client leakage within the purchasing process, and then still offer the option to register when the sale is completed.
Important Promotions Should Appear Above the Fold
Your homepage is the most important page within your eCommerce store. It sets the tone for the shopping experience while offering your best promotions and merchandise to your visitors. Users typically visually scan a web page from top to bottom and then from left to right. All essential content and navigation options need to be obvious to the shopper without having to scroll down. If you have your best promotions below the fold, you can be sure that a large number of site visitors will not scroll down and see them.
