Selling online opens up a multitude of opportunities for small businesses. Not only is your store open 24/7, but your market is open to a global level without the high cost that has long been an issue. However, like everything else with your business, there are many things to consider when designing your e-commerce website. It isn’t as simple as loading products in a database and installing some shopping cart software.
As a part of the Launch Box Media team, I have noticed many mistakes online retailers make, which are easily avoidable with the right planning. Learning to fix these mistakes will improve the online shopping experience for your customers, making them sure to come back. Continue reading to learn about some of the common mistakes e-commerce sites make and how to correct them.
1. Missing Contact Information
Jenier World of Teas displays their contact info in the right corner of the site's header, making it easy for customers to locate.
Since customers can’t walk to the counter and ask a cashier questions when they are shopping online, there needs to be a certain level of legitimacy to your online store. Before consumers hand over their credit card information, they want to know that should something go awry, they will be able to get help from a real person. By not including or hiding your contact information, consumers are far less likely to trust your site. It won’t be long before they go back to Google to find another more trustworthy company to purchase from.
How to Fix
This is probably one of the easiest fixes. You can solve this by putting your contact information in an easy-to-locate place. Depending on the design, this will most likely be in the header, sidebar, and/or footer. Don’t be afraid to put your contact information in several places and be sure to put it in the same place on every single page on your site. Include a contact form, email address, phone number, and mailing address. The more contact information you provide, the more the customer will trust you.
Dorothy Perkins online store gives customers the opportunity to check-out as a guest and create an account after completing their purchase.
2. Requiring Account Sign-Up
Making a customer sign up for an account before placing an order is one of the most annoying obstacles you can place in a customer’s path. Many customers that shop online are in a hurry and forcing them to sign up for an account will only take more of their precious time. What’s more important to your business: completing an order or gaining the customer’s information?
How to Fix
Allow customers the option of signing up for an account AFTER they submit their order. You can also give the customer the option to save their information, making the next purchase even easier. Most customers will prefer saving their information. Giving them this option lets you seal the deal and the speedy check-out appeals to your customers, which leads me to my next point.
3. Overwhelming Check-Out Process
In my household, I do most of my shopping online and I can’t tell you the number of times I have gotten frustrated and given up when I encounter a long, tedious, confusing checkout process. It’s safe to say this is one of the worst mistakes e-commerce sites make. You have almost completely sealed the deal and at the last minute, your check-out process upsets the customer so much that they take their business elsewhere.
When your customers are about to give you their credit card information, you want to be sure you make it as easy as possible for them. Every extra step you require before paying for an item is just another opportunity for the customer to leave the site without completing their purchase. An ideal check-out process calls for a single page where consumers can review their order, enter billing/shipping information, and a confirmation page before submitting their final order. It’s as simple as that. Don’t overcomplicate this process.
How to Fix
Try your hardest to minimize the number of pages in the check-out process. If you must include other pages, try combining them by using two-column layouts for different sections. For instance, displaying billing and shipping next to each other makes the process easier for customers or provide a step-by-step guide bar at the top of the page so the customer will know what’s next.
4. Small or Poor Quality Product Images
All items on UrbanOg.com have several high quality images to show the product's detail with a zoom feature.
Our web development team at Launch Box Media has crafted several beautiful and organized e-commerce website designs where the aesthetics have been completely ruined by poor quality, small images the business owner uses. I can not tell you how important high quality images are to an e-commerce website. Because your customers aren’t able to touch the products or see them in person before purchasing them, you need to be sure you are offering the best and most informative experience possible. Small or poor quality images do not reflect well on your product.
How to Fix
Be sure to offer several images showing the product from different angles on the product page. Give customers the opportunity to zoom in and zoom out of the product images so they can see the most detail. Make sure your images are high quality, professional images that are easily viewed on a computer monitor. The more detail the customer can see, the more likely they are to make a confident purchase.
5. Limiting Payment Options
I’m amazed at the number of sites that only accept one or two forms of payment. Several e-commerce sites only accept Visa and Mastercard, but what if your potential customer wants to use their American Express or Discover card? There is absolutely no need to limit a customer’s payment options. From credit cards to pay-by-check to PayPal, you need to provide as many options as possible to seal the deal and get paid.
How to Fix
Find a payment service that allows your customers to pay with every major credit card and the option to pay with an electronic check. Also consider adding PayPal checkout option, which will increase the choices of payment options for your customer and make it far more likely they will complete their order. You have to cater to every need of your customer. Providing several payment options is a great way to optimize the number of orders completed.
Clearly, when developing an e-commerce website, the process goes far beyond the importance of design and website composition. These are only five of the common mistakes found on several e-commerce websites, but the list goes on. Stay tuned for part two, where I will highlight more common mistakes. For now, what mistakes have you noticed on e-commerce websites?
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