Features To Integrate Into A Successful Ecommerce Web Site

The internet is the defining factor for business labelled as ecommerce as it is the essential medium to make it work.

There are some straightfoward rules to follow to make customers give you your most wanted response.

The sales process is better with fewer steps

In good ecommerce design it has been proved that there is a direct correlation between the number of clicks a person has to make in order to complete a purchase and the volume of people who abandon their shopping cart before checking out.

You need to make the checkout process as simple as possible on your ecommerce web site so that potential customers are not discouraged easily through poor navigation.

Ensure customers are aware of stock levels

Make sure that customers can check the availability of stock early on in the sales process.

There is nothing more annoying to customers than to get to the end of the checkout process only to find that their items are not available. Purchasing on the web is easy and it is also easy to find another site to purchase from.

Ensure web browser compatibility

Make sure you view your site in a variety of browsers to ensure that it is presented correctly. It is essential that you at least view your site in two different browsers to make sure most of your customers see your site as expected.

Use meaningful words in your links

Name your links appropriately using a sensible description that means something to your customers. For instance, ‘Music players section A’ is much less descriptive than ‘iPod Nano range’.

Always double check that your hyperlinks lead somewhere

Make sure that all the hyperlinks work on your site and that they click through to the correct destinations. Links leading nowhere or bringing up error pages only give your customers an impression of a amatuer site.

Make sure you use only small graphics that display quickly

Well constructed graphics do look very effective on your site but you must ensure that they are optimised for the web.

This means that you have to use a graphics program such as Adobe Photoshop or Macromedia Fireworks to reduce the file size to ensure that your ecommerce internet solution does not take too long to load its pages.

This exercise becomes a balancing act between quality versus file size but usually a good compromise can be obtained.

Create a straightforward checkout process

The final stage of your ecommerce process is also the most nervous for your customer. You need to ensure that your customer is comforted that you have a safe and secure payment process in which they can entrust their personal details.

Secure Socket Layer enablement can be obtained from most web hosting companies. Tell your customers about the security arrangements you have in place on your ecommerce web site in order to protect their personal information.

If you follow the tips outlined above then you will avoid most of the common pitfalls that you can encounter in developing your ecommerce web site.