In this current arena, people are spending more and more time on the internet. So it makes perfect sense to start an online shop if you have the products for it. E-commerce business is a flourishing today and even global brands are now catching up on this trend and selling their products online. However you need to be prudent while setting up an e-commerce website because designing the e-commerce website in the right way is as important as having the right products. A poorly structured e-commerce website is bound to lose a huge chunk of both traffic and revenue and if you are planning to set up an e-commerce website, these are some of the potential web design mistakes which you should dearly avoid.
1. Creating improper categories and not having the right products assigned to them: For example, if you run an online cloth store, then it is important to segregate clothes into the men, women and children’s category. The subcategories of these should then jeans, T-shirts, formal shirts, etc. These subcategories should then have all the product ranges including the brands. To improve user friendliness, provide options where viewers could segregate these products via size, brands, cost, highest selling, ratings, etc.
2. No detailed Information about the product: You should provide the user with detailed information about the product. Provide the ‘zoom feature’ where users click on a particular product image and get an enlarged view of it. Also site should have a reviews section with reviews of people who have used the product. This helps to improve the trust factor among users.
3. No detailed ‘About us’ page: You need to understand that the user who is buying your product isn’t able to touch and feel the product till the time he gets it. So there will always be skepticism on their part as to its authenticity. In such scenarios, many users browse to the ‘About Us’ or ‘About Company’ to get a more detailed picture of the company. You should always provide an about us page that has verifiable information and also provide your contact details which users could check and confirm.
4. No ‘online help’: The online help should clearly be visible to the user browsing the site and it should be seen on every page of the site so that users can immediately have their queries answered.
5. Failure to provide a checkout button where users don’t have to sign up to buy products: Certain users don’t wish to sign up for a website because of some private reasons. They may not be wishing to disclose their email ids or else they won’t wish their inbox to be choked with the company’s emails or there may even be the scenario where they are too bored to fill in the contact details. For this reason, you should provide an easy checkout procedure page in addition to the sign up page where users who don’t wish to sign up can easily check out. This improves your chances of sale while there is always a probability that the same user may sign up in feature in case he is impressed with your company’s abilities.