E-commerce is fast turning out to be the de-facto way of conducting and expanding a business online. It has received hearty audience backing in form of a large share of online audience accessing the Web to make purchases on the internet. If you have a business, or want to start a new one, it makes sense to delve into the realm of e-commerce to ensure maximum exposure, and to avail of an already engaged target audience.
While designing your e-commerce store, many developers fall prey to some common mistakes which adversely impact the prospects of the online shopping business in the long run. If you are thinking of developing an e-commerce store, it helps to have fist hand knowledge of these mistakes so you can avoid these in the development and testing phase.
1. Focus on Products – The first mistake that developers commit is take focus away from the products due to one or more of the below reasons:
- Improper ordering/categorizing of products
- Low level of information provided
- Less than satisfactory payment gateway integration
- No communication mode enabled for reviews
Your products are the most important elements in your e-commerce store, and you should take proper care to make users interested about the products, and sustain that interest thorugh some pointers as below.
- There has to be proper, accurate product information, along with specifications and dimensions if applicable.
- Make sure product description content is well-written and covers as much detail as possible.
- Include detailed, high-resolution pictures of products.
- To make product listings more credible, you can also consider implementing features like a user rating system, or displaying user reviews of the product on the product page.
2. Building trust – Online purchases involve a lot of trust-related issues, and are usually guided by good reputation and a feeling of trust. When designing an e-commerce website, you should not pass up any opportunity to make sure that visitors come to trust your website, its products and services thorugh the below pointers.
- Clearly mention all information on products, including quality ratings and shipping rates. Keep navigation simple and intuitive.
- Include detailed information about the company and the top management personnel, including the option for visitors to contact the company if they need to.
- Try to provide multiple payment options, and include SSL certified security measures.
- Give detailed information about return policy and available customer service measures. The absence of these factors might not invoke enough trust for people to decide do business with you.
3. Simple operation and usability – Another grave mistake is to complicate navigation or implement a checkout process which is lengthy and confusing.
- Users who make online purchases do not like holdups- a fact that should be kept in mind during e-commerce site design. If you want people to make purchases, you have to make the purchasing process easy and intuitive.
- Combine elements from multiple pages into a single page and avoid unnecessary hassles during checkout.
- Make the product catalog searchable so that users can find what they want easily.
- If your service requires signup, make sure you present the signup process as a convenient option and not as a straight-up obligatory operation.
Keeping these small tips in mind can greatly improve the success rate of your e-commerce project.