Most Common Ecommerce Website Design Mistakes

Most Common Ecommerce Website Design Mistakes

Ecommerce was once the way of the future, and has now (thankfully!) become the way of the present. Most of us do at least a little shopping online these days, and some lucky individuals even manage to get their groceries online.

But it’s not always a pleasant experience. Below is a list of the most common mistakes small business owners make in their online store… all of which can cost potential revenue in lost sales and dropped visitors. Luckily, most of them are also easy to fix!

Requiring Customers to Have an Account

Amazon and other major online retailers used to require shoppers to create an account before they could place orders. But after investigating abandoned cart orders, they realized something huge: that if they stopped requiring an account, their sales would skyrocket. So they introduced options to check out without an account. Learn from their mistakes and research, and always include this option on your ecommerce site.

Few Payment Options

Do you only allow individuals to check out with a credit or debit card? Consider including other options like Paypal, Authorize.net, Moolah and other payment providers. Wix has been responsible for a big push in their ecommerce department to help ecommerce sites offer a good variety, and many larger retailers have been doing the same.

Sparse Product Information

You might think that no one wants to know just what that sweater you’re selling is made of or what the dimensions of the poster are, but studies show that this is exactly the sort of information consumers are looking for. On top of just describing the item, always include a bulleted list of just what’s gone into the product they’re considering purchasing.

Confusing Check-Out

If it’s confusing or technically difficult to check out, or even if it just takes a little longer than a customer expects… they simply won’t. Always look for ways to make your check out process as clean, simple and fast as possible. Because if it’s not  –  You’re losing sales.

No Off-Site Contact Information

This is primarily true of smaller online stores, but lack of contact information is common enough that it deserves to be mentioned. Many browsers won’t allow you to purchase from a website that doesn’t list addresses and phone numbers. Why? Customers want to feel like they’re buying from a legitimate business and aren’t likely to trust their credit card and billing information to people clearly trying to hide contact information. This is also related to the next item: customer service options.

No Customer Service

There’s a reason a lot of online retailers have begun making returns as easy as possible, and shifting towards offering cash returns: customers want to know that their customer service options are broad and that any issues they have will be addressed as swiftly as possible and in a manner they find acceptable. Not offering a good return policy? Expect that a portion of your potential clients will move on to shop elsewhere.

No Shipping Rates

Online shoppers learned the importance of making shipping rates visible back in the heyday of ebay.com; if you don’t provide visible shipping rates for products, many potential customers may pass your store on by. While it can be challenging to calculate and include accurate costs, especially for small stores, it’s better to offer a flat rate shipping for all products than to show no shipping rates.

Missing Related Products

Most major retailers have capitalized on the notion of listing related products at the bottom of information on currently-viewed products, but a lot of smaller retailers don’t include thisimportant information on their website! Especially now that a majority of web visits are from mobile devices, it’s important to make finding the perfect item as easy as possible for. Including a small snippet about related products can boost product visibility and reduce drop-offs.

Clearly there’s a myriad of items you need to checklist. Not only will fixing these mistakes, while adding better functionality in doing so, increase conversion, but will also improve SEO and your bottom line. We hope you got value from this list of oft overlooked issues regarding ecommerce optimization.