EBizInsider

Internet users are changing and e-commerce providers must be aware of those changes. A generation ago, after a generation of strip centers, malls were things of wonder for traditional shoppers. People literally went to wander the halls. Now, much of that wonder has passed and we use malls for buying, not merely the shopping adventure. The same thing is true of the Internet. Once people surfed endlessly; fascinated by the new cyber world. Today there are vastly more shoppers who are buying differently. We need to keep up.

The fact is; the design of your website will greatly effect how users use your website. If people are confused when they visit your website it means you won’t be converting visitors into customers. If they have difficulty in discerning advertising information from site information then you are not reaching your full potential. There is actually a term for this: banner blindness.

Recently, Jacob Nielsen published his theory about banner blindness. His research indicates that users will skip over anything that looks like an advertisement on your website. Nielsen is one of the world’s leading authorities on Web usability and provides a wealth of information for e-commerce operators. His studies found that users did not fixate on ads embedded within a website, but could easily distinguish an ad from the main content.

This is big news and an important lesson for e-commerce. If you put important information into a graphical banner, or use fancy formatting to change the text, users will ignore it. In a follow up study, Nielsen found that one website had a failure rate of 86% when trying to get people to perform one task. The problem was the information was presented in large red numbers (the website contained a lot of blue) and because it stood out from the rest of the website, users ignored the importance of that number. In fact, in their eye tracking studies Nielsen showed that people most often looked at the first three digits and then moved on (the number was 301,465,625 - which means they were only processing 301). He found that because of the placement and the formatting, users were unable to easily complete the task which they were assigned. If this happens on your website, it usually means lost sales.

As an e-commerce operator, you need to capitalize on each and every visitor that comes to your website. Ask yourself: How easy is it for your customers to place an order? How easy is it to search, to navigate, to checkout? These are all important factors and should work smoothly for the customer to lead to an easy sale. Any hiccup in the shopping experience will cost you money. Here are a few areas to concentrate your efforts:

Product Information Placement- make sure your product information is towards the top of the page, so those that don’t need to read a description can easily find your order button. This includes product name, code, pricing and stock availability.

Multiple Order Buttons - An order button on your item page is important, but make sure you give customers the ability to order from the section pages and the search results. Make it as quick and easy as possible for someone to make a purchase.

Checkout Process - Make your checkout as easy and clear as possible for customers, providing phone numbers and/or e-mail for those who might have some questions. One page checkouts have been known to increase conversions by making it easier and faster for people to complete their transactions.

If you are comfortable that you have the above issues in hand, examine the promotional banners, information links, and community features to make sure that they are not interfering with or confusing the ordering process. Next, examine your website and make sure that the important information doesn’t stand out and resemble a “banner.” As Jacob states, “users tend to ignore heavily formatted areas because they look like advertisements.”

You can read more from Jacob Neilson and usability by visiting http://www.useit.com. Remember, a comfortable shopper is a buying customer. A confused shopper isn’t a customer at all. Certainly not your customer…

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