Article Written By: Jim poo
Building an ecommerce website and setting up a shopping cart is simple to do but the differences between success and failure for ecommerce website owners is years of experience. You can jump ahead of your competition and shave years off your ecommerce learning curve with the simple tips that will enable you to build a more effective ecommerce website.FunctionalityThe most important part of any ecommerce website is that it's simple and easy for the user to quickly reach their preferred product. Your home page should include a product search bar so that potential customers can type in the product name and be taken immediately to the product page. The home page of your ecommerce website should also include a drop down menu that enables them to browse by category and find the product they are looking for.Amazon.com sets the gold standard in terms of functionality and ease of use. Many ecommerce website owners have achieved success by copying the structure of Amazon's website and you should too.ProductsFrom the first few seconds that a potential customer reaches a product page they should find the information that they are looking for presented in a clear, concise format. Product pages should include clear product images, full product descriptions and all of the benefits that the product offers consumers.Social MediaEach product page should also include full social media capability that enables potential customers to share or like their favorite products with friends on their own social networks. This is a great way to get traffic to your products quickly and easilyFast Shopping ExperienceMany shopping carts require customers to click through many pages of offers to get to the final transaction and this only aggravates consumers and will lose your business. To avoid this problem make sure that your shopping cart is quick and easy for anyone who wants to order products from your company online.Disclose All Shipping Fees UpfrontMany companies make the mistake of not telling potential customers upfront what they charge for shipping and this is a big mistake because in this day and age where everyone is watching their budget you can easily lose business if you fail to disclose up front that you charge and additional $5.00 to $10.00 per shipping for the items that you are selling from your website. As important as disclosing shipping fees is it is also important to offer special discounts and incentives to new customers who add more items on their order. Example: You can gain more business if you offer customers free shipping on items that are $50.00 or more.
This Article Has Been Published on Fri, 8 Apr 2011 and Read 352 Times