Since this final article focuses on the importance of design in the usability of ecommerce websites, let’s get back to the basics of design. To begin with, design has been defined as ‘the purposeful or inventive arrangement of parts or details’. To put it simply, design in relation to websites is an amalgamation of appearance and usability. Design more often than not defines the user experience and is important to the functionality of a product, especially when everything depends on how a product is perceived and used.
Thus in an E-commerce website, a well-defined website design will influence how the user perceives your website and spur their interest to further explore it. Read more…
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Ecommerce Site Design and Usability Guidelines to Gain Sales (Part 3)
Ecommerce Site Design and Usability Guidelines to Gain Sales (Part 2)
In the first article of this 3-part series on ‘Ecommerce Site Design and Usability Guidelines to Gain Sales’ we discussed how navigation plays an important role in ensuring that customers purchase products from your website. In this article, we continue to highlight additional usability areas like user-friendly links that should be incorporated in order to prevent poor merchandising and convert your website visitors into customers.
Deliver precise product information
Just suppose a website visitor has managed to narrow down your product list and discovered the product that he wants to purchase. Now, he needs to further feel comfortable that your product is the appropriate one for him based on the information you’ve provided. As an online e-tailer, you have a great advantage of displaying comprehensive product information unlike a printed brochure, which has limitations. However, the information should be conveyed in a factual, informative and interesting manner. You should refrain from merely highlighting product specs and instead focus on delving on the resultant benefits to the customer. This way, you will spur on the customer’s interest to purchase your product.
In addition, you need to place a thumbnail photograph of the product which the customer can enlarge and view from various angles. Read more…
Ecommerce Site Design and Usability Guidelines to Gain Sales (Part 1)
While in the past I focussed on website design tips in general, this time round I’m packing in specific information on how as an ecommerce website owner you can increase your online sales by incorporating succinct navigation and usability techniques into your website’s design. Several research insights indicate that ease of navigation is crucial in enhancing user experience, leading customers to make purchases from well laid-out websites.
Clear navigation leads the way
As an astute marketer you can’t afford to lose your customer as he navigates your site to make a purchase. Reduce his burden of having to figure out what to do next by guiding him to the product he desires to purchase, in a way that is simple and easy. Else you stand the chance of losing out on a prospective customer and potential sale. Read more…
How to Target your Niche Audience in 3 Easy Steps
The online shopping experience is not very different from the real world one. In the real world, on a general shopping outing one encounters a wide variety of shop owners pitching their wares in unique and creative ways. From roadside vendors displaying their colourful wares and vying with one another to pitch them by yelling out loud in markets, to quaint shops displaying enticing products outside and shop billboards ranging from the mundane to the weird and funny beckoning you to enter. The online world offers an equally compelling call to action trying it’s best to target a specific, niche audience in the process. Read more…
5 Concise Steps to Convert eCommerce Website Prospects to Customers
Man, you’ve done some great SEO, your eCommerce website is ranking high on major search engines and traffic leading to your website keeps increasing. But is this considerable traffic and top ranking leading to increased sales through your website? If it is, then you’re doing a pretty good job of converting prospects to customers; if not, then your ranking to conversion ratio is low and you might just have figure out how to capitalise on your high search engine rankings. Read more…
Effectively measuring your website success is much more than mere statistics!
Until recently, website effectiveness was measured through increased traffic and Google PageRanks. The greater the number of hits your website received implied that it was attracting visitors and therefore successful. This method of measuring web traffic and ranking status has undergone a drastic change in today’s business environment; as marketing and web-savvy business professionals incorporate analytics tools to quantify their websites strengths and weaknesses. But before we get into the nitty-gritty of the latest web measurement parameters let us look at what constitutes a website’s success. Read more…
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