It is usually enough for customers to have one bad online shopping experience to make sure that they never return to that site again unless compelled to for some reason.
There are a number of factors that may constitute a bad user experience like the website not being mobile-friendly, CTAs being unclear, confusing order forms, a checkout process that is not secure, and more such like. It is quite surprising that bad experiences of shopping online are far more common that what one would assume, and even more astonishing that many e-commerce sites remain oblivious to the loss of sales due to this. Here are some practical tips on delivering the best possible online shopping experience:
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Adopt a Responsive Design for the Website
Gone are the days when a majority of web surfers used their desktops and laptops to browse the net and visit shopping sites. In these days, the traffic emanating from portable devices like mobile phones and tablets is far more than conventional devices. The differing screen sizes across devices make it extremely challenging for web designers to deliver a good browsing experience. If the design is not optimized for the smaller screen size of mobile phones, most users will not bother to continue with their visit and abandon it perhaps never to return. Luckily with the availability of many freely-available tools building responsive websites has become easier than ever before. Having a website that is optimized for mobiles is not only conducive to better e-commerce revenues but also helps in achieving better search engine page rankings.
Make It Easy For Visitors to Understand the Page Contents
Irrespective of whether your site has only a few products or thousands, having a product page that is easy to navigate and understand is imperative. The page should contain all the product information, including features and technical specifications as well as the various available options for purchase and shipping. Having concise, specific and well-structured information and a clean and easy-to- understand interface not only looks professional but also inspires confidence and trust in the users. Make sure that the photographs of the products are detailed and from different angles and are accompanied by detailed descriptions to help prospective buyers consider in great detail. If there are product options, like sizes and colors, they should be easy to choose and add to the shopping cart with CTAs that are high on clarity and visibility. Learn more here about effective CTA design and placement.
Be Clear On Prices and Fees
One of the most disconcerting things for an online shopper is the discovery of additional fees at the last stages of placing the order. Because these fees have remained hidden till that stage, the deal, which may have looked very attractive, may not be so now. In such cases, most customers feel aggrieved and abandon their shopping carts. To prevent loss of sales, it is essential that you be very clear about what the product pricing entails and if there are any additional fees that need to be paid, for example, shipping, installation or warranties. Customers are perfectly okay with paying additional charges as long as they have been made aware of them from the very start. It is the surprise that customers hate.
Ensure Transactional Security
One of the biggest hindrances of online shopping that e-commerce sites face is that customers are very circumspect about sharing confidential personal and financial information with sites that they do not trust. The best way of assuring customers that they can proceed to buy online with credit cards is to have an SSL certificate for your site; the symbol of the green padlock certifies that the site is secure and the website URL changes to https instead of the usual http. The SSL certificate ensures that the data is transmitted by the website is highly encrypted and hence secure.
Conclusion
It can be extremely challenging to operate an e-commerce site. Apart from taking care of the technological and marketing challenges, you need to ensure that the customer experience is highly satisfying so that you are able to achieve a great deal of customer loyalty. Implementing the tips mentioned here will definitely thrust you ahead of the curve and you will be able to win customer confidence to give your revenues a big boost.
