Archives for the ‘eCommerce Design’ Category
Every store owner loves testimonials, right? It gives your new customers the warm and fuzzy feeling that anything they buy from you is going to be shipped to them quickly and the transaction will go smoothly. So, in most cases, this is something store owners want to show their customers right away.
A pretty good technique, that allows a customer to browse through your available items without fear is to add Randomly Displayed Testimonials. A lot of advice I?ve given out over the years as a project manager at Solid Cactus was to put these in an area that would maximize the amount of testimonials a customer saw while browsing. For example, if the testimonials are placed in the navigation, it gives your customers a chance to see more testimonials from other happy customers and keeps that warm and fuzzy feeling going throughout the whole process.
While this was good advice as far as maximizing the use of the feature, it?s probably not the best advice I could have given as far as effectively using the idea behind the feature. After digging into the psychology of the buying process a little deeper, I have some even better advice about using randomly displayed testimonials.
It all starts with buying anxiety. Think of it this way: You?re in a retail store and you have $20 in your pocket. You see an item for $30 that you REALLY like, and want to buy. You know you have a credit card in your pocket, and you could just buy it, but for that one second, you automatically stop and think: ?Should I actually do this now, or put it down and get it another time?? Shopping online is no different? In fact, it?s the same thing, just in a much quicker fashion. Everything about being online is about grabbing someone?s attention quickly and at just the right time. Every time buyers hover over your add-to-cart button, they have that same reaction, whether it?s conscious or not. In many cases, the best place to show a testimonial is right in that product information table, directly below that add-to-cart button (although we wouldn?t want a long testimonial pushing that button below the fold). This helps alleviate any anxiety a customer may feel about clicking it.
Using that same psychology, another great place to display testimonials is right inside the shopping cart. (Are you starting to think the best place would be right next to the continue button like I am?) The anxiety a customer feels increases as the steps to completing the order get closer and closer. We take measures to make sure a checkout is a dead simple process to complete?three steps and your product is on the way to being delivered. However, placing testimonials near the buttons that a customer is going to feel the most anxiety about clicking is something about which to think. It might just stop a few customers from clicking the ?close window? button instead of the ?place order? button.
The other thing to think about regarding testimonials is that most new customers that are going to feel any kind of buying anxiety from you are probably using Google or a Comparison Shopping Engine to search for a product, not necessarily your store. So, your item page is really their first impression of your store. Having a great testimonial close to that add-to-cart button could be the difference between a new customer clicking add-to-cart, or instead, hitting the back button to go back to Google and on to the next merchant in the list selling the same product.
By Brian Emershaw
brian.emershaw@ebizinsider.com
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Over the last five years, widgets have become wildly popular across the desktops of millions of Internet users. Not the widgets from Accounting class in high school, but web widgets: easy-to-install mini-applications that subtly inform users of information they might find important. For example, a widget might show how many unread messages a user has in his inbox, or tell them whether or not they should wear a jacket outside.
These widgets can be placed practically anywhere and work on almost every computer: every Windows Vista and Macintosh OS X computer already supports widgets (Vista calls them Gadgets), and programs such as Opera 9.26 (opera.com) and Stardock Object Desktop (stardock.com) add this same functionality on computers that don?t otherwise support these applets by default. Some widgets can even be put on websites, Facebook profiles, MySpace pages, and blogs, such as those offered by Widgetbox (widgetbox.com).
Put simply, a web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation. They are derived from the idea of code reuse. Other terms used to describe web widgets include: gadget, badge, module, capsule, snippet, mini and flake. Web widgets often but not always use DHTML, JavaScript, or Adobe Flash.
?A widget is anything that can be embedded within a page of HTML, i.e. a web page. A widget adds some content to that page that is not static. Generally widgets are third party originated, though they can be home made.
According to Wikipedia. ?The first widely syndicated web widget, Trivia Blitz, was introduced in 1997. It was a java game applet offered by Uproar.com
embedded on 15,200 websites as of December 31, 1998 and 36,100 websites as of December 31, 1999. It spread virally through an ?add this game to your website? button. Sites that carried the game ranged from Geocities and Tripod personal pages to CNN and Tower Records. Uproar paid sites a referral fee for new users that registered through the widget. When Uproar.com was acquired by Vivendi Universal in 2001, the widget was discontinued.
Widgets are clearly not just novelties. Because of their size and ease of use, they are great tools for spreading a brand or company name directly to a user base?s desktop or personal blog or website. For instance, Acme XYZ Corp. might build a widget that shows off the latest gizmo to come out of their labs. Every user with the Acme XYZ widget will then see that information (along with the Acme logo) on their desktop, Windows Sidebar, or Macintosh Dashboard. Pretty cool, huh?
On a blog or website, widgets can be even more valuable towards building consumer relationships. Not only will the owner of the site see the widget, but so will all of the website?s visitors! The webmasters of these sites are essentially providing free advertising in the form of a fun, useful tool in their navigation sidebar of the page body.
I personally use a number of widgets on my home computer. One of them is powered by a company called Woot (woot.com), which sells only one product per day until that product is sold out. The widget shows a picture of the product on sale below the Woot logo. Hovering over the widget shows the name of the product on sale and a link to woot.com. Not only are they encouraging my return by titillating my love for their products, but providing a logo and link to their site right on my desktop!
In conclusion, widgets done right can boost sales, maintain existing relationships, and even foster new clientele.
In the past I have written about how customer reviews can play a large part in your customer’s shopping experience, but have you considered how they can also play a part in the design and development of your website? In this day of social networks and social interaction, people are more willing to share their thoughts and ideas on a product, offering, website or company as a whole. As a website owner it’s very easy to shy away from collecting that kind of information for fear that people will say negative things about your website and your prHow oducts. Let them! It can be very valuable to you and your business.
Feedback Helps
As a business owner you are constantly looking at your shelves and watching the boxes as they leave the warehouse to see which products are selling and which ones aren’t. This type of analysis tells you which products you need to order and which items you need to clear out. This is a critical part of managing your warehouse and keeping your business growing.
These same analytics are important for your online storefront as well. Using an analytics program can be very valuable to your business and give you insight on how shoppers are browsing your store. With online analytics you can get a good sense of which categories are the most popular, which search engines drive the most visitors along with which keywords generate the most sales.
All of this information is valuable to your business, but does it tell you how your customers really feel about your website? Do you know what gets them to click the order button or what keeps them from clicking that button? You can get this information from your analytics program, but it’ll take forever to find.
Ask the Tough Questions
Take your efforts up a notch by soliciting direct feedback from your customers. Don’t be afraid to put yourself out on a limb by asking for this feedback, chances are you’ll learn a lot of valuable information that you probably didn’t know before. To do this, make the process as easy and attractive as possible for your customers. A simple e-mail link will not work. Instead, be obvious. Create a link that says “Leave feedback.” Even better, give your customers 10% on the “Thank You” page for leaving a product review or feedback. The “feedback” link could then open in a pop-up or pop-in window with some basic information. Name, E-mail and Comments could be enough, but ask for more from the customer that will better help you make a decision. You know which questions to ask. Hey, if you want your back scratched you know what needs to happen.
You can also collect indirect solicitation, also called A/B split testing, to get an idea of what works and what doesn’t work. The idea here is that you have two different versions of a promotion, version A and version B, each with a distinct message and/or discount. Once you have the test set up, a program will randomly display one of the promotions and you will get to see which test resulted in the most sales. This small sampling allows you to see which changes will result in the most sales, so after your results are in place you can roll out the most popular promo to every visitor. Google AdWords offers a great tool called Website Optimizer that does exactly this, and of course it’s FREE!
Keep up with your Customers
These are just two methods that you could explore in an effort to understand your consumers a little bit more. And don’t fall into the trap that, “Well, I’ve been doing this X amount of years and I know my customers,” or “I have a lot of experience in retail and I know what the customer wants.” Internet users are adapting to new technology on a continual basis. Never forget, an internet shopper is not the same as a retail shopper.
Customer’s have a powerful voice, don’t be afraid to listen to it and change your website to suit their needs more effectively and efficiently—and profitably!
It’s a holiday ritual as common as egg nog and mistletoe. Resolutions. But they make sense, right? New year — clean slate. I’ve made my own list for e-commerce operators. Please feel free to add one or two (or ten) of your own. Then follow them for a record year of e-commerce success!
1. Update My Look! – Around December, too many of us look in the mirror and don’t like what we see. Well, your e-commerce site is also a reflection of you. Is it crying “makeoverâ€Â?
Research shows that a fresh look is good for business and leading developers recommend a site redesign every three to four years. How long has your store been online? Is it outdated? Is it user-friendly? Keep in mind that a redesign is more than updating graphics. There are many new back-end features that make shopping easier for customers and more profitable for you. A redesign can give you a competitive edge both aesthetically and functionally.
2. Save Money – Could you be saving money doing e-commerce? Pay-per-click campaigns are costly. Do you fully understand how to analyze and manage these marketing tools? Find a company or software to help you maximize your budget. Are you losing money on shipping costs? Software is available to help you streamline. Is your e-commerce site easy to modify, or do you have to pay a developer every time you need a simple change? Analyze what you are doing on your own and what it costs in time and money. Investing in tools or professional services up front can save you money down the line. Money saved is money made!
3. Spend more time with family and friends – Is your online business taking you away from your friends and family? The good news is; you’re probably successful. The bad news is; success can compromise your quality of life. Don’t let it happen. If you are still a slave to the phones or doing all the picking and packing yourself, it may be time to take your business to the next level and hire help or outsource your office duties.
When choosing a call center, be picky! Are they native English speakers? Do you participate in training the reps so they can better represent your company? Will the call center increase your revenue by up-selling and cross-selling? A call center will give you more time away from the phoneâ€â€instead of bringing your Blackberry to your son’s track meet.
4. Be More Active – There are many new aspects in e-commerce which get you actively involved with your customers. Use them! Viral marketing is becoming huge. Blogging is huge. Stay active in other web communities and social networking sites to supplement any marketing you are already doing. These activities take time, but most can be done free. Blogs can also be custom-built to match your website, so branding can carry over. Not only are blogs and social networking great to share news and stay in touch with customers, but blogs specifically have another hidden advantage: they increase your search engine ranking.
5. Quit Bad Habits – Quitting cigarettes and alcohol make many New Year’s Resolution lists. When it comes to e-commerce a host of bad habits could bring you down. Are you sticking with bad people, bad products, service glitches, shipping woes? Identify your e-commerce bad habits… and kick ‘em!
6. Continue My Education – Continuing Education is a common New Year’s resolution. This is especially true in e-commerce where things change constantly. Read trade magazines that speak to your problems. Many online mailing lists and blogs pertain to marketing, web design, business and more that you can access easily. Bookstores are filled with aisles of books on all aspects of running a business. You don’t know it all- read and learn.
Learn in person as well. Don’t toss away mailers for seminars; register for some. You’ll find many nearby seminars and conventions which can help you specifically. Try to attend a few each year– they’re great for networking too. There is a wealth of knowledge out there. Learn from the pros. Make some e-commerce resolutions this year and keep them!
“Perfection is not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.â€
The above statement is especially relevant in relation to web design and its best practices. Too often websites are built for design’s sake only. Websites loaded with flair and dazzling details can draw more attention to themselves than to the site’s message and purpose.
When More is Less
Remember—we are not hanging websites on our walls, we are delivering content. When approaching the design phase of your website, it’s easy to get lost in the details and forget about the end user. The sad reality is that most users are not interested in the “art†of your website. What they do care about is getting relevant information quickly and then moving on. Decorative designs might attract amateurs or first time buyers but they will only annoy regular online shoppers. Great web design delivers and communicates information by making it obvious. Ironically, a great web design that successfully communicates without distracting the readers or shoppers attention is too often overlooked and considered plain, boring, or unimaginative.
This is not to discourage creative and visual web design but instead to encourage the benefits of context. The key is the knowledge of what distinguishes the differences between all forms of design verses art. That difference is communicating its purpose. By all means, strive to have an original website which delivers style, intrigue and emotion. Bad design is not original and it plagues the web. Look around and you are bound to find far more badly designed sites and content presentation than you are clear and presentable websites.
What Works?
Do some homework and investigate successful e-commerce websites or websites you already like. The best way to determine what works for them and what might work for you is to adopt the role of a shopper. Was it the flash animation and spinning logo with the dropped shadow text that kept you there? Was it the chaotic color choices and unreadable small type that made you want to shop? Maybe it was waiting for the images to load and the 3D menu. Or was it the ability to navigate to the product you were interested in and having that product be available at a price that was reasonable all the while being visually pleasing?
Nine out of ten times everything in the right context – design, functionality and content- is what kept you as a returning customer.
Know Your Design Goals
Assuming you already have a business plan in place, create a list of objectives and goals and pass those details on to your designer. The more information you can provide about your vision the better. Allow the designer to create a visual representation of your purpose for you. It goes without saying that learning to trust your design team has to be earned, even if only on the merits of their previous work. Trust does have to happen in order for “everything in the right place†to work successfully.
When planning for your web design or communicating your visions to the design team, focus on the information first. Too many times keywords like “pretty,†“cool,†“stylish†and “super-duper†over step the website’s purpose. For e-commerce, the concentration should be on how your products are displayed and organized.
How easy will it be for the average user to navigate, check out and get to the shopping cart? Believe it or not, this is as relevant to web design as it is to web programming.
Key Areas of Concentration:
1. K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple Stupid) - Do not rely on a design that makes your user think. Choose a design that is clear. If the user can not find the direction and order they need, they will soon grow exasperated and give up.
2. Use a Strong Color Scheme – Two or three colors relating to your brand and “feel†should be sufficient. Too much color can distract instead of deliver. The repetitiveness and creative use of color placement within the design can be a visual guide for the user. It can also create a familiar and comfortable atmosphere, all while highlighting your brand.
3. Use Decorative Fonts Sparsely – There are many benefits of using real text over decorative image fonts for areas of your website. Search engine optimization, typography control (ability to change text, color, and size), offering the ability to copy and paste text, bandwidth usage, and so on. If you are going to reply on decorative fonts within your design keep them to minimal usage. For instance, decorative fonts work well for headlines and logos, but it is best not to use an image-based menu system. All menus should be dynamic and editable. Briefly, web design and print design are two different monsters; your design should allow interaction and administrative modification. There are plenty of creative ideas to get html typography to present itself in an original way. Although the choices seem slim, readable fonts are the default for the web for a reason. Using them does not stifle originality; it enforces usability and encourages creativity for any professional design team.
Remember Your Customers
Do not underestimate a creative logo, header and color scheme with original content presentation. By keeping web design decoration and flair to a minimum and focusing on the overall purpose of the website you are allowing the customer to focus on the product. Great web design should almost be transparent, or at least fluent enough to deliver that product and/or a company’s brand by enhancing it but not over taking it. Delivering a clear and coherent whole effect with a relevant and appropriate web design is a key element to a website’s success.
Tags: effective web design, web design
