Ecommerce sites have grown immensely in popularity over the past few years with companies like eBay and Amazon dominating the field. That being said, many smaller companies that are just starting out, tend to fall to the way side in the shadow of these giants. While they have had years to grow and preen their business tactics and sites, many startups have no clue what to do to improve their ecommerce sites. There are plenty of ways that startup companies can take their destiny and success into their own hands and change the course of events so they are no longer invisible to online customers.
Does Your Ecommerce Site Get Enough Traffic?
Traffic is the first and foremost most important factor in the success of an ecommerce site. A site can be incredibly popular in the realm of social networking, it can be perfectly designed, optimally ranked, and exceptionally created but without visitors, it is nothing more than a place holder in the big wide web. Site owners must consider the exact number of people that come through their site, what factors lead users to their site, how many users per day come and how many buy things, what it takes to get repeat customers, and more.
On average, huge sites like eBay or Amazon get millions of visitors each day which helps them to grow. Though most startup sites cannot hope for more than a few dozen each day until they gain popularity, it is important that the number of people visiting your site grows and does not become stagnant. The number of people that visit your site is directly related to the products you are selling, the content that is on the page and the usability of your website.
Online Product Packaging
Retailers should not skimp on packaging. Having good quality outer packaging can make buyers feel they are dealing with a professional company that takes good customer service seriously. Choosing the wrong packaging can be a costly mistake; every business that ships products will know this, although there are ways that you can save money.
Questions you need to ask yourself are:
- Am I sending my products in the right size package?
- Am I wasting packaging?
- Why is this so expensive?
The Royal Mail introduced a new pricing structure in April 2013, details of which can be found here. This change of policy has forced online retailers to think more carefully about the size of the packaging they are using, so if you don’t do your homework, it could easily cost you.
Split Testing to Get Optimal Conversions
Running split testing on your site can help clear up a multitude of issues that may have been missed on the initial creation of the site. Things like content glitches, speed concerns, and ranking issues can all be found and fixed with the right randomized split testing. From using split testing you are able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes, if you can’t navigate your way through your own website, then how can you expect them to navigate through it?
Content- Images, Text, and Other Extras
The content of a website is as important if not more than the actual product or service being sold there. Though it is the products or services that bring users to the site, it is the content that keeps them on it. A site owner can have the most amazing products on the market but without the right description, pictures, and even video of how they can be used, buyers will likely go elsewhere. Since ecommerce sites do not have a physical store front where buyers can hold and really study the products at hand, it becomes the duty of the site owner to use every device at their disposal to sell the product to the buyer without their being able to hold and touch the product prior to purchase.
Website Speed
Slow sites will often lose buyers as they are checking out if the process takes too long, if the process does not complete properly, or if there are any other glitches. Also, customers are often at a loose end when the site takes too long to load, too long to switch from product to product, or takes too long to transition.
User Friendly Sites
Those sites that are user friendly and optimized for users are the most successful. It is far more likely that sites that are geared toward consumers are set to succeed than those that are hard to navigate, hard to work with, and in some cases hard to leave after users have landed there. Taking the time to do a few trials using split testing is the best way to test user friendliness.
Conclusion
If you take the time to consider the individual traits and characteristics of your business, you can create a powerful site. Keeping in mind the user friendliness of your site, the packaging of your product, the content of your site, the speed of your site, and several other factors can lead to a successful and well designed site. Taking the time to truly consider all the options is the best way to ensure that your site is up to standard and that it is able to create the traffic and client base that is needed or a successful ecommerce site in the long run.
Olivia-Rose Foster loves blogging about ecommerce. She is incredibly passionate about entrepreneurship and loves helping out businesses.
Photo Credits
Victor Habbick | nongpimmy | bplanet | Freedigitalphotos.net
