E-commerce consists of buying and selling products electronically utilizing the internet or a network. Almost any product can be purchased electronically from one of the millions of websites with more being adding to the list each day. Like in the physical world, there are both e-commerce department stores that contain many different types of items as well we specialty stores that cater to a specific niche.
There are good and bad e-commerce practices. The following is a list of twenty tips to make for a more successful e-commerce business. The tips include:
- Offer a strong guarantee
- Make the font on a product copy readable; at least 12 point and nothing too fancy
- Ensure the title tag on each page is unique and is relevant to the content on the page
- Avoid dynamic URL’s
- Use or create a product rating feed and a place for user-generated comments
- Avoid having the customer fill in both the credit card billing and shipping address
- Have a newsletter sign up area
- Offer a list of recommended products that other users have purchased
- If selling software, allow immediate access to the full version once purchased
- With paid advertising, send the customer to the product page, not the home page
- Always be certain to respond to any email inquiries within a 48 hour time frame.
- Allow your clients the opportunity to view shipping charges without having to register
- If shipping internationally, alphabetize the country drop down menu
- Accept multiple payment types
- Make the website easy to buy from with a no registration option, 800 number and live chat
- Add a photograph of the owners office and upload this to the contact page with the company fax
- Keep initial product pages light with links to further product details
- Build the website for customers and users, not exclusively for search engines
- Keep the customer informed about order status before they ask
- Find the most web un-savvy person to test the site
- Create the site so it’s easy to enter credit card numbers
- Install an excellent stats system to track where the customer stopped during the purchasing process
These are excellent guidelines to follow for newcomers and novices alike. In general, good practices putting the customer first will always result in a successful site. Creating a more user-friendly site and making the buying process as hassle free as possible will go a long way to generating customer loyalty.
