Make the Payment process as easy as possible
The most important requirement of any eCommerce website is an accessible, easy-to-use payment platform. If you’re customers find that they have to take 5 minutes to make a payment on your website, you have a serious problem with your design. Likewise, if they can’t easily identify a ‘Buy Now’ button or a link directing them to the payment section, how likely is it that they will continue using your website in the future? Your strategy is to provide a user-oriented experience.
Don’t underestimate the importance of good SEO
Search Engine Optimisation is your tool to communicating your brand and your products to the wider world. Everything on your website – from the homepage to the product descriptions – will impact on your search engine ranking and how easily people can find you on Google.
The golden rule – never Plagiarise
Never, ever copy content from another source and try not to make your own content too generic. If you need to write 100 product descriptions for very similar products, try to use as many different verbs, adjectives and word orders as you can to keep them sounding original. You should also ensure that your URLs are well organised, appropriately named and do not contain any spelling mistakes or formatting errors that could compromise their SEO ranking.
Offer flexible Payment options if you can
Many people still prefer to use PayPal when making online purchases, so make sure you offer this platform on your website and clarify whether or not you may need to charge any extra fees. However, instant payments by credit or debit cards are generally much faster and more cost effective, both for businesses and consumers.
Use a reputable Card processing service
Many small and medium-sized businesses use WorldPay’s card processing service, which uses state-of-the-art technology for maximum security.
Encourage your Customers to create their own accounts
Imagine a customer that has added half a dozen items to a shopping cart but suddenly needs to head out and close the web page. All that time spent browsing products on your website has been lost, and there’s no way of you contacting the customer again. However, if you enable the customer to create an account, they can instantly log in again and see all the products they’ve added to their cart. If they decide to purchase, they can do so right away, instead of having to start again and add all of the items to the cart for the second time.
Emphasise promotional deals and create call-to-action links
Use a different font colour (i.e. red) to emphasise special discounts like half price offers or percentage discounts. Emphasise call-to-action links like ‘sign-up’ here or ‘click to purchase’ buttons so that you customers know exactly where to proceed to.
Don’t forget, your completing with millions of other businesses
Customers revisit websites that are convenient, fun to use, accessible, friendly, professional and fast. Compared to your competitors, you must do an even better job of providing all the information your customers need when searching for products, choosing them and paying for them. The more they enjoy your website, the more you’ll enjoy their business.
Jake Tilly is the Creative Director for Drench Design based in Saffron Walden. Drench is a web design agency which specialises in creating website and graphic designs for businesses across Essex and the rest of the UK.