Common mistakes to avoid in ecommerce designing

With the emergence of ecommerce sites or the online stores, people all over the world are eased of buying anything and from any part of the world. E-commerce sites are the ones that allow you to buy products (gifts, grocery, apparels, toiletries, appliances, etc.) online. The customers are offered an extensive range of products to choose from. These websites facilitate fast and hassle free shopping. While designing of the e-commerce sites various mistakes are committed by the designer and developers that ends up in providing confusion to the customers. In order to comfy visitors and avail full potential of e commerce website we have highlighted some of the mistakes that a designer and developers must avoid while creating an e-commerce site.

• Mistakes that should be avoided while designing an e-commerce site

Lack of product information: As the customer who shops online does not have the facility to physically examine the products, they expect to receive detailed information. Size, dimensions, material used, weight, colors available, etc, should be clearly mentioned so as to provide complete detail to the customer. Lack of this information might distract the customer from buying your product. So provide maximum information about product on offer. The details provided should be in simple language rather than in technical terms.

• Contact Information should not be hidden :

The mention of contact details on your ecommerce site assures the customer with your authenticity and reliability. With this customer gets an assurance that post sales he can speak to somebody in case of need. The contact information should be clearly visible on the site; it can be placed on your header or footer of every page. Also there should be more than one contact number, emails Id, etc. in order to provide utmost satisfaction to the customers.

• Lengthy or Confusing Checkout Process must be avoided :

The process of buying a product should require minimum number of steps and time. More complicated is the process more are the chances of the customer to leave your site. Ideally the checkout process (placing order, billing and shipping) should be carried out on a single page to ease the customers. The process can be made concise with the help two-column layouts.

• Account should be created very carefully :

It is very important to create an account in order to purchase anything online. Asking for details at the very beginning might annoy a customer and he may lose interest in the transaction. This could be avoided by asking for details of the customer after he has chosen the product and that should be done in a polite manner, giving customer's an option of saving his details.

• Poor Customer Service Options :

A customer should be provided with all the requisite services options like contact details, help requests forms, etc. if the services provided by you are inadequate the customer might lose his trust in you.

• Small Product Images :

It is widely seen that the web designers while designing a e-commerce site incorporate small product images that does not provide a clear idea of the product to the customers. The designer should insert large images or provide an option of zoom. This will help attract more customers.

• Single Image :

The sites that provide single images for their products are always at loss. There should be numerous images of the product in order to satisfy the customer. The customer should get a detail of the product after looking at the pictures. The details include like the colors, patterns or grades they are available in.

• Poor designed Shopping Cart :

It is the most essential part of an e-commerce website. A cart should be designed in a way that it allows addition of multiple products and should be transparent. The option of editing of the products on the cart is a mandatory thing. The detail about the shipping charges should be provided before they enter the transaction process.

• Limited Payment Options :

This is the most vital mistake that the sites commit. If the customer is provided with limited number of payment options, he might not be able to continue. Mostly the sites have either Visa or Master Card gateways but the customers may have AmEx. The sites should provide a Pay Pal Account option that increases the choices of the customer and thereby making him more comfortable.

• Confusing Navigation :

The navigation through an ecommerce site should be a smooth process. If the customer have to strive hard to search for his products, there is a possibility of his discarding the site and switch to other. This can be avoided by providing categories and sub categories of the product, so that a customer can easily find his product.

• Shipping Rates and store policies not mentioned :

Most of the times, order is abandoned by a customer if he is not provided with adequate shipping and store policies (return, exchange, etc.). These should be properly highlighted to the customers so as to ensure him of a fair deal.

If these mistakes are carefully avoided the site designed will be a customer friendly one. The aim of the e-commerce site is to provide the customer's with a wonderful shopping experience and not a tumultuous one. Also a well designed e-commerce site ensures a fair deal to the customers.