6 Steps to Selling More

Properly written e-commerce copy can make a HUGE difference on your website. It’s not uncommon to see proper copywriting increase search traffic by 50% and conversion rates by 30%.

Quality e-commerce copywriting is vital to the success of any online business. Remember, if you’re selling something online, potential customers can’t see or touch your product — they can only read about it. Keep this in mind when crafting product descriptions and writing copy in general.

E-Commerce Usability

Summary:
Sites have improved, and we now know much more about e-tailing usability. Today, poor content is the main cause of user failure.

It’s been 11 years since our original studies of e-commerce usability — long enough that it’s definitely worth revisiting the topic. The bottom line? The number of usability guidelines for e-commerce sites has increased from 207 in the first edition of the report to 874 in the new edition. Using this rough metric, we now know 4.2 times as much about e-commerce user experience as we did during the dot-com bubble.

Usability: Marked Improvements

In our study 11 years ago, we recorded a success rate of 56% across 496 task attempts on the e-commerce sites of the day. In our new research, we observed 507 e-commerce task attempts and measured a success rate of 72%.

Retail E-commerce Usability Part 6: The Shopping Cart

Sometimes it’s a basket. Sometimes it’s a bag. Whatever you decide to call it, the online shopping cart is one component you do not want to underestimate! A great shopping cart can make or break a sale in the virtual world. On the web, there is no salesperson ushering the customer towards the register or post-dressing room with chatter, “Can I hold these at the front for you?”

Instead, there is usually a small icon or text link at the top right of the page that keeps track of the products that the customer is interested in purchasing. These virtual shopping carts (unfortunately) are easier to abandon than one a customer might fill up in person, after all it just takes one click to leave the site.

It’s easy to want to get creative when putting together your website, but there are some aspects that work best when kept simple. The shopping cart is one of them. Use industry standards to your advantage so users do not have to think twice when they are shopping on your site. The golden rule is that the shopping cart should always be intuitive, easy to access, easy to update, and drive customers to checkout. Here we will go over the basics of an ideal shopping cart.

Retail E-Commerce Usability Part 5: The Product Page

For this next installment on retail e-commerce usability, we will focus on the product page. Product pages are virtual descriptions designed to sell an item to a consumer. Since the potential buyer is unable to get their hands on the actual product, it is extremely important to relay as much accurate information as possible on the product page. What colors are available? What are the dimensions? What does the back look like? What are the shipping costs? These types of descriptive questions should be answered on the product page.

But that’s not all. Virtual shopping also entails virtual, “Do you think this will look good on me?,” “What about this one?,” and “Should we get this for Mom’s birthday?” types of questions. These questions are solved through various social tools on the product page that are becoming a standard for retail e-commerce.

This overview on e-commerce usability for the product page will cover the basics and then some. Keep in mind that your target audience and the type of product you are selling effects what the ideal set-up of the product page looks like. For example, luxury websites should not highlight the price in orange or boldly advertise savings deals, but discount sites should. For more information about product page usability specific to your company, feel free to contact us.

Retail E-Commerce Usability Part 4: Making the Most Out of Quick Look

How can you get your customers to the shopping cart faster?

In an attempt to get users to shop faster, many online retailers have added a “Quick Look” feature that allows customers to remain on the multi-product page while adding an item to their virtual shopping cart. In my opinion, this feature is extremely useful when shopping online and has the potential to increase sales.

Expanded Footer Usability

Over the past few years, expanded home page footers have become de rigueur for sites for their search engine optimization (SEO) benefits. If done correctly, the expanded footer can also play a role in enhanced usability of your website – that is, if basic usability principles are not thrown to the wind in the name of SEO.

There are multiple usability benefits to the expanded footer driven by the ability to provide your visitor access to content that may not be easily accessed or addressed in your main navigation.

­
• The footer can provide links deeper into your site and to particular content areas of interest to visitors
• ­By doing this it can take the place of an outdated concept of a site map and reduce the need for visitors to turn to the search engine to find specific content of interest.

­

• It can also be an area to place links (such as a store locator), short forms (such as for contact) or icons (such as for social media) that do not have a place in the main body of the page and may be crowded in the utility link area in the upper right.

­

• The footer can also be used for showing a little more personality, providing links to frequently updated content like a blog or events and a quick way to contact a company by providing detailed contact information or a simple form.

However, in order to gain these benefits, the footer must be executed correctly. Following are the top five usability do’s and don’ts to think about for the expanded footer on your site:

Retail E-Commerce Usability Part 3: Just Browsing

The web is filled with less-than-ideal retail e-commerce websites that are losing dollars over simple design flaws. This blog series shares tips on retail e-commerce usability, covering how to improve different parts of a retail e-commerce website.

Power Browsing

A customer can walk around a department store and look for a pair of shorts for several hours. Are the shorts all kept in one area? No, they are dispersed among different designers. Are all of the designers in one area? No, they are categorized by targeted age group or price range. Is everything available out on the floor? Of course not! There is a stock room full of merchandise and multiple stores across the country or around the world that might have the pair of shorts in the size and color you are looking for.

Online shopping gives retailers the advantage to let customers find what they want without leaving their chair. That is if the site’s navigation system and design doesn’t hide it from them.

Here are a few tips on how to make browsing on a retail ecommerce site useful.

Retail E-Commerce Usability Part 2: Search!

The web is filled with less-than-ideal retail e-commerce websites that are losing dollars over simple design flaws. This blog series shares tips on retail e-commerce usability, covering how to improve different parts of a retail e-commerce website.

Ready, set, search!

Let’s say you are looking for a new belt. If you walk into a large department store (that you have never been to before) where will you go first? Some of you will walk around looking for the right department, maybe try to find the directory and some of you will ask a customer service representative, “Where are the belts?”

Not everyone likes to browse. In fact, a lot of online customers have an idea of what they are looking for when they come to your retail website. Some customers will go straight to the search box, meaning this tool does not only have to be easy to find, but it must be effective.

Here are a few tips on making your search box and search results usable!

Retail E-Commerce Usability Part 1: The Home Page

The web is filled with less-than-ideal retail e-commerce websites that are losing dollars over simple design flaws. This blog series shares tips on retail e-commerce usability, covering how to improve different parts of a retail e-commerce website.

Starting at Home
Imagine walking into a store and there is no directory explaining what is on each floor and no signs leading you to the department you desire. You look around for help and can’t seem to find a customer service representative – is anyone working today?

Usabilla Report: The UX of 18 Leading Travel Websites

Summer finally hit Amsterdam. In the vacation high season we decided to devote our very first quarterly user experience report to the travel sector. We lined up a total of 18 travel sites in three different categories (hotels, airlines, and comparison sites) and invited 800 participants to give feedback and perform simple tasks.