April 29, 2010
By the ZippyCart Ecommerce Software Reviews Content Team
Last month, the ZippyCart content team launched an article entitled 10 Reasons Why Your Ecommerce Site Could be Failing. The following article is a glass half full approach to ecommerce, in which we highlight 10 reasons why your ecommerce site is a great success! Review the tips below and the examples of successful online storefronts to see how you can further tweak your online store to increase sales and customer loyalty.
1. Amazing Design
Finding the right mix of design elements for an ecommerce site can be tricky, but those who do it best provide great examples for other merchants to follow. The SonyStyle site is a perfect example, as it is frequently talked about for having excellent ecommerce design. They maximize the space on the site, with vivid colorful pictures while still leaving all the other critical elements clean. Many ecommerce sites look outdated or very cookie cutter from templates that were not tweaked. However there are also other sites that use way too many design elements, causing overkill and scaring away potential customers. People want an attractive site to shop at, as this is their only experience with the ecommerce store, since there is no physical location. If your ecommerce site has not been updated in the last couple years, you should seriously evaluate the design and determine if it is right for your brand and customers.
2. Super Fast
Time is money, and if your site is slow it will waste your visitors’ time and make them less likely to want to spend money at your ecommerce site. Make sure you have the right ecommerce solution and hosting partner so you can be sure to give visitors a fast shopping experience. Google is also starting to factor the speed of a site, into their algorithm that determines their organic search results. If SEO is a big driver of traffic for your site, then you need to ensure your ecommerce site is super fast so people will enjoy shopping. Consider dissecting the speed of your site by using the Page Speed plugin with FireBug for Firefox. You can learn more about Page Speed and how to optimize for it at Google’s mini site dedicated to speed.
3. Connected to Social Networks
It is almost mandatory, as of late, for an ecommerce site to have a Twitter account and Facebook Fanpage (at a minimum). This provides consumers with multiple ways to interact with their favorite brands. It is also a great way for an ecommerce site to show their commitment to great customer service as they can get immediate feedback regarding their brand as well as insight from customers. These channels are also great avenues to showcase special promotions or events going on with your ecommerce site.
4. Secure Shopping
Having a very secure ecommerce site is crucial to turning visitors into paying customers, as they need to see that transactions will be safe and secure. Some people are still weary about using their credit card information online, so properly displaying that your site has the right SSL certification is key. It is also recommend to have a PCI/CISP certified shopping cart as part of the ecommerce solution which you use to power your site. Ensure that you have information clearly displayed, regarding the measures your ecommerce site takes to make sure that purchases are secure.
5. Clean Navigation
Navigation must be clean and consistent from the moment a visitors arrives at your ecommerce site all the way through the final checkout from your shopping cart. You want to ensure that the site is easy to understand so that visitors can figure out how they find what they want. Continually refine your navigation by reviewing overlay information via your analytics software, so you can see how visitors are interacting with your site. Great navigation, that leads to a smooth conversion funnel, makes a big impact on customers, and keeps them coming back to your ecommerce site.
6. Charitable
People enjoy when companies try and give back, and TOMS Shoes is one of the best examples online when looking at charitable ecommerce sites which consumers love. TOMS Shoes gives a pair of new shoes to a child in need for every pair of new shoes purchased. This is a great way to have your customers keep coming back and feeling good about the purchases that they’re making at your ecommerce site. A good start would be donating a small fixed percentage to a certain charity every month, as you can display this on your ecommerce site and let visitors know what their purchase will help support.
7. Usable Search Engine
People love Google for one key reason, their search engine is amazing and it almost always has what you want to find right there on the first page of search results. A great ecommerce site should have the same experience, where a visitor gets a very relevant set of search results on their first try. One site that does an awesome job of this is Altrec, which sells a variety of outdoor gear by brands like Patagoina, Columbia and The North Face. A simple search for north face shoes starts to auto suggest what you want half way through typing, and then it displays a big selection of The North Face shoes on the search results.
8. Contactable
A simple email address for contact info is not good enough when it comes to an ecommerce site. People want to feel comfortable with who they’re purchasing from, so having a good about us and contact page is key to a great ecommerce site. Best case scenario is that you have a live chat option, toll free number, email, and social network profiles. In addition, it is also good to show some type of address if possible, or at least information regarding what state the ecommerce site is based.
9. Promotions and Deals
An ecommerce site without coupon codes, discounts, and deals is usually not a very successful site. Some of the most popular ecommerce sites right now revolve 100% around deals, discounts, and coupon codes. Have a strong strategy around how to best showcase and promote the various deals on the ecommerce site, so that you can capture as many sales as possible. Many of the leading ecommerce retailers like REI, have an entirely separate site experience for their outlet deals. Make sure that you have deals, discounts, and coupon codes as part of your 2010 holiday season strategy.
10. Pictures and Video
The best way to get someone excited about purchasing a product at your ecommerce site is to show them as many pictures as possible with zooming capabilities. In addition it is recommended to show video of products if possible, as this is a perfect way to give people a real feel for the product they want to purchase. Heels.com does an excellent job as they have an entire TV channel they created to showcase all of the heels they have for sale.
Nick was born and raised in California, but has been working the dot com scene in Seattle for many years. He co-founded ZippyCart back in 2009, and now works here full-time. Nick wears many hats at ZippyCart, including producing content for our Ecommerce News blog. Nick loves photography and the outdoors, so when not working on ZippyCart you can find him out and about in Seattle.
