It's no surprise that successful e-commerce websites all have certain things in common. That's because online shopping sites work best when they effectively apply key fundamentals that help create superior user experiences.
There are four core principles that are required for ecommerce
Web success:
Consumers do not always know what exactly they want or even how to get what they need. The best shopping experiences helps them with the process by anticipating their wants and needs. Having a multifaceted search interface with detailed product filters and category navigation that automatically scales and seamlessly adapts will give users the power of choice, allowing them to find exactly what they're looking for.
You can create a superior user experience by having an interface that is perfectly tailored to category- and product-specific needs, with intuitive navigation that allows customers to quickly and easily sort through your offerings to find what they are looking for.
Having live chat capability will also make it easy for customers who want immediate help with finding something to get hands-on assistance.
A superior shopping experience makes prices and the ordering process as simple and easy to understand as possible.
Citing a lack of transparency, consumers balk at dynamic pricing (the process in which your prices change based on your own product costs). And consumers take pride in being educated shoppers who know how to conducting comparative research to make sure they get the best prices available.
No matter what the product, shoppers want to feel that ecommerce site are being completely transparent by providing them with all of the information they need to make an informed purchase decision; not playing a game of smoke and mirrors.
Being transparent isn't just good for consumers; it benefits business by leading to fewer abandoned shopping carts and more satisfied customers in the process.
When you give shoppers choices between a number of product options or variations of any given product, these choices result in a tangible sense of satisfaction immediate satisfaction in the shopping experiences. This goes hand-in-hand with consumers' desires to feel more confident and educated in their purchase decisions.
The most successful ecommerce operations ensure consumers have a firm understanding of the benefits and/or attributes of any product available for purchase.
When shoppers visit an ecommerce site that only sells a kind type of product
—whether its sportswear, jewelry, computers or home improvement supplies
—these kinds of websites have luxury of customizing the user experience to the particular attributes of the products it sells.
In contrast, many ecommerce websites sell products of many different kinds. This can result in product pages and search result listings not appearing as cohesive as a product-specific or brand-focused ecommerce site.
Smart ecommerce operations use tangibility to turn this negative into a positive by ensuring that every product display page is designed with the same underlying structure, which helps to create a consistent user experience that makes it fast and easy for shoppers to quickly assess the features of any
given product.
Perhaps above all, consumers want to feel completely confident the online store they do business with is 100% trustworthy. So, one of the ongoing challenges faced by almost every ecommerce site is creating a consistent user experience by delivering on its promises, from accurate descriptions to
fast delivery.
Being trustworthy is measured in terms of consumer confidence, or how confident your customers feels about your brand and website. A good measure of this confidence can be found through reviews, testimonials and feedback given on your ecommerce website.
Having a built-in review system that allows potential customers to see what others think about your products or the buying process will make you more trustworthy in the eyes of consumers.
One of the best ways to achieve this is by giving your customers a voice by asking them to leave reviews, comments and feedback not only on social media platforms and via e-mail but directly on your website.
Whether your products are physical or digital, discount or luxury, you can apply these four principles to your ecommerce site to create a shopping experience your customers will love.
Good Web design and development involves everything from design to strategic planning? Let Dotlogics help you with these four principles and everything else you need for
ecommerce success.
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