Building an e-Commerce website requires significant compromise between what you want for your business and attempting to integrate elements that are best for your customers. Addressing common issues that may adversely affect the customer experience will give you the right design for your business.
Give Customers A Seamless Experience
Most e-Commerce websites have variations, such as a mobile app and mobile version. Regardless of what version visitors use they should have as similar experience. Make sure your website is responsive, so no matter whether visitors are viewing your content on their smartphone or a large desktop monitor, their viewing experience and the functionality is the same. Unfortunately, with more companies opting for mobile apps for their store, they seem to place more emphasis on providing a good user experience through their app, but not as much with the mobile version of their website. Visitors should never feel obligated to download your app and take up additional space on their mobile device when they should be able to accomplish the same task, see the same products, and checkout easily through their mobile browser.
Don't Force Registration
One of the biggest pet peeves for customers is a forced registration. It is common for visitors to add items to their cart so they can check the price, see how much shipping might costs, or so they can remember what they want to purchase later. Unfortunately, many e-Commerce websites require visitors to create an account just to determine how much shipping will be or to have their items saved. Providing the option for guest checkout and having cookies that allow a guest's cart to be saved for several days may win over some visitors. Having to reveal personal information just to determine the price of an item can feel a little intrusive. If a visitor has a positive experience with your website, they will be more than willing to register after they make their purchase or at another time.
Skip Saving Credit Card Numbers
Many websites save credit card information to make checkout easier for customers, but it poses a couple of problems. More people are opting not to save their credit card information due to rising concerns about data breeches, so they may not save the information anyway. Instead, they tend to rely on merchants that utilize third-party payment systems, such as PayPal. Additionally, since there is always a risk your website could be hacked, you may want to avoid the liability associated with such a breech and not store credit card information at all. The easiest way to avoid the liability altogether is to not store this information and simply utilize a third-party. Unfortunately, a single data breech could be the demise of a business, especially one that only operates online.
When you are in the process of building an e-Commerce website, avoiding common mistakes will give visitors the best possible experience while increasing your chances of becoming their go-to place to shop.
