TheMarketingblog

How user friendly is your eCommerce website?

Establishing a strong web presence is essential for companies across all respective industries who wish to remain competitive in the 21st century market and promote their business on a worldwide scale.

Utilising effective advertising and marketing strategies is the best way for any company, irrespective of its size and stature, to make clients and customers aware of the level of professionalism and quality of services or products they would receive.

While certain companies may prefer to remain traditionalists and stick with business cards, leaflets and flyers as a way of promoting brand recognition and trying to get a march on their market rivals, creating a website is undoubtedly the most modernistic and beneficial alternative.

With more than 3 billion people worldwide having access to the internet, e-Commerce sites have the capacity to extend a network further afield, which in turn leads to a considerable increase in conversion rates and sales profits. Developing and maintaining a successful website is the key, with users able to detect any design flaw or content error that could deter them from conducting business with a company and take their business elsewhere.

Overall design

First impressions count, and if a new user landing on a page, feel like they’ve stepped into a mine field of overly complex options, it’s time to scrap the design and go back to the drawing board. What do you want the page to say? Can you categorize and stream the eye-navigation flow of the page, so the consumer clicks and clicks with accuracy and joy?

The product needs to be striking, especially if you are representing another ‘brand’ (be this a product or game) on top of your own. After seeing an online gaming site ‘liked’ by a trusted friend on Facebook, Mr Smith Casino stood out to be a perfect example of what gamers and casino players for example would require from their host.

It’s a massive industry, and 2015 has only just started to see the upsurge in traffic which is predicted for upcoming years in this no longer niche market. On Mr Smith, not only is there a wide choice of games available to play in lightening quick load up times on their A-Z index page, (something more brands need to take note of), but they avoid data hogging problems associated with the loading up of images and Flash plugins, by keeping it simple and easily navigational. Taking a leaf from a library book, cut all the fluff and allow the user to quickly pinpoint where they want to be, what they want to play and what they may want to buy.

Ask yourself where your business can take influence from. Look toward markets they may not go hand in hand with your own, but should certainly take inspired design upgrades from.

Content

Once the customer has gained an appreciation of their landing page on your site, this is where the sales angle comes in. Clever use of relevant and up-to-date content is a must. This can never be duplicate content and sometimes simplicity works best. Excessive content can benefit your site if a product or service requires attention to detail, however if an image will suffice, keep the content engaging and snappy.

The customer is always right and to tell them otherwise can lead to a lost sale. Know your pitch, extend your market through online visibility development and don’t show off thinking that size matters.

 

Graphic by Shutterstock