When you are thinking of putting up an E-commerce website, you will find that people have a chockful of ideas as to what you should do to make it work better. Instead of adding to the list of things you should do when putting together a shopping website, this time around, let us check out what you should NOT do. There are actually quite a few things you need to avoid, and these are things that can be rather detrimental to your goals for your site.
Not Thinking About User Experience – yes, your site is there to sell items, and yes, one of the things you need to do is to ensure that whoever visits your site to buy your items actually enjoys what they are doing. If you put up a site and believe that the only thing you need to do in order to sell what you have is to post these items any-which-way you want, then you are sorely mistaken. Remember, you are not the only company online and your competitors are just waiting in the sidelines to grab your customers. In order to prevent the loss of traffic and customers, you have to make sure that whoever visits your site will find it easy to use and navigate, have pages that are not difficult to understand, and easy check-out procedures.
Not Using Product Descriptions Properly – or not using them at all. Depending on what you are selling, product descriptions and specifications are actually important, and how you present these to your site visitors are equally as important. This is how they will find out what it is you are selling, what benefits they will get from these items, and whether or not the specifications fit what they need. These descriptions should be written in such a way that is ideal for the kind of product you are selling and for the market you are targeting. For example, if you are selling furnishings, it is ideal that you include the colors that are available, the materials used, and what else comes with the item. For appliances, specifications like dimensions, voltage specifications, and compatibility with certain other devices should also be included.
Not Adding Exact or Good Quality Images – some websites actually use images that are not the exact photo of what they are selling. They sometimes use an image that is an approximation of what the item is. Other websites opt to add an image that is not appealing to the eye when they cannot get one that is better. If you are looking to get people to buy what you are selling, images are important. This is the only visual they will have of the product, so if they do not find the item visually attractive, or if you are not using the exact image for the product you are selling, you may find yourself with either a non-sale or a disgruntled customer.
Not Having a Refined Search Feature – people who leave an e-commerce site after using the search function usually do so because the results they got from their search did not match what they were looking for. Some websites actually have a rather messed up search function where what someone searches for does not show in the results and the alternatives being presented are so far from what is being looked for. This can frustrate site visitors, and can cause them to not only leave your site but to actually cross your site of their list of shopping sites to go to when they need something.
These are just a few of the things you need to avoid doing with your own e-commerce website, if you are aiming to have a site that succeeds in what it is supposed to do, and that is to generate revenue and to give customers what they want and need.
