Blog

Posted by dani cass on November 11th, 2011

Copy – When a visitor arrives at your website, they usually have a question in mind or there is a specific product they are searching for, so it is important that the copy on your website answers that question or tells them where that product is or the chances are they will click away from your website without going any further than your homepage.

Speaking in a language that is relevant to your visitors is also important. Don’t complicate things by being overly technical unless your target customers are going to understand. Keeping things short and to the point while providing the information your visitors require is the most effective way to keep their attention. The tone of the website should be friendly and conversational.

Design – The design of your website can play a key part in the success of your online store.

Having a well designed website provides a professional image to your visitors. Keeping the website uncluttered and having ‘white space’ allows your visitors to easily find what they are looking for and to focus on your products and information. Keeping backgrounds plain and light make it easier for your customers to read the content of your pages.

Navigation – Navigation is a very important part of your websites design. Clear navigation lets your customers easily find the product or information they are looking for and lets them navigate back to that page from other parts of your website. Navigation should be present on all pages, pages without navigation are called orphaned pages, the only way back from these pages is to click the back button on the browser, this looks unprofessional and may cause visitors to leave your site.

Functionality – The Magento Commerce platform allows store owners to add a lot of functionality that will assist customers in purchasing items from the website, and store information for future visits.

Some great features to include in Magento websites are wish lists, send to a friend, product comparisons, reviews, recently viewed items and recommended products – these features allow customers to purchase items quickly and easily, and also gives you the opportunity to cross sell.

Search – Search boxes allow you to quickly check whether the item you’re looking for is actually on the website saving your visitors time. Magento websites also feature a predictive search box that finds items matching words as you type, often giving similar item suggestions.

Product narrowing and sorting – Sometimes you just don’t have the time to sit and look through lots of products to see if they have the right size, colour, etc. Product narrowing lets your visitors select certain options to locate the products available saving them time.

Product sorting also allows the customers to view the products by price, name or other variables.

Images – When customers visit your website, they aren’t physically able to see the items like they could in a bricks and mortar shop, so having plenty of good quality, clear photos will help them to decide whether the item is what they are looking for. Magento includes a zoom feature on images so your customers can really check out every little deatil of the product!

Product Information – As with images, a good product description is vital for helping your customers to make a decision on whether to purchase the product or not. Including as much information as possible such as measurements, colours, material, etc will also keep your customers happy by providing them with the correct item for their needs.

Product information is also helpful for search engine rankings as the product specific keywords will allow your website to appear in a wider range of search results.

Clear pricing and availability – Hidden charges can be the difference between a purchase and an abandoned basket. For example, I visited a website earlier today to purchase some tickets, the price was great. Then I went to pay and there was an additional £1 booking fee… oh well, not going to break the bank I thought and continued. Your postage will cost £7.50, and how about some insurance for an extra £2? Finally, the payment screen.. but wait, what’s this, a £3.50 charge to pay by credit card?! So my tickets are now £14 more than the original cost! Not such a great price after all!

Make sure that your charges are clearly displayed including any delivery costs, insurance and admin costs.

Another sure fire way to annoy your customers is to send them through the checkout procedure only to have to contact them later to tell them the item is out of stock. Make sure it’s clear whether items are available. Magento lets you to set stock levels so your customers will be unable to place orders for items that are out of stock.

Checkout – Another thing that causes shopping cart abandonment is not offering your customers the choice of checking out as a guest. Making it compulsory for customers to sign up for an account can put a lot of people off of purchasing from an online store as it increases the time it takes to place an order, and also means they have to store their personal details on the website.

Long drawn out checkouts also lose customers, make sure that there are as few stages to your checkout as possible to keep things quick and easy.

Email confirmations – So the customer has made a purchase, don’t forget to send a confirmation email to say the order has been received and that someone is dealing with it. Magento allows you to set up auto responders, it also lets you send out notifications to inform your customers that certain parts of their order have been completed, e.g. the order has been dispatched.

Dani
Impact Web Solutions
Magento Web Design