eCommerce Design Mistakes That You Should Try To Avoid
Attempting to write the perfect copy for your eCommerce website can be quite difficult, and there are multiple things that need to be taken into account in order to ensure that you are delivering a decisive and straightforward piece of copy that remains creative and intriguing to your customer base. Unfortunately, many sacrifice a solid foundation in order to facilitate more intriguing or creative copy on their pages. Instead, you should look to build around a solid foundation. Look toward some of the more successful locations in the industry (like Amazon) to see how these websites are able to avoid the following issues while still providing a seamless and straightforward experience to customers.
Ignoring Personal Value
Far too often, eCommerce websites make the mistake of ignoring the personal value that their products provide. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (self-actualization, esteem, love/belonging, safety and physiology) have never rang truer than it does today, which makes some wonder why these are not larger focal points of many eCommerce websites. Appealing to the value that your product provides an individual personally can provide a huge benefit in the long term.
Try to appeal to individuals on a personal level with your copy. How does your product affect their day to day lives? Will it help them to better their self-esteem or confidence? Will it earn them the respect of others? Will it help them to be a more healthy individual and live a longer life? Ignoring the day-to-day personal value your product brings to the table is a huge mistake and for many businesses is an opportunity that is left on the table. Make sure to let your potential customers know exactly how your product will help them, and meet the goals outlined on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Let them know how your product will help them to impress friends, unlock their personal creativity, provide security or help them to find that partner that they have been searching for.
Poor Product Images
Poor product images seem to be a common but very avoidable problem that plagues many eCommerce websites. If you were about to buy an item, wouldn’t you want to have a good look at exactly what you are buying before making that purchase? Businesses that are able to replace the benefits of shopping in person (being able to check out products, see the display items) by providing high quality product images have a leg up on competing websites.
Consider offering more in depth product images for each and every product that you offer. Take a look around your page today. Are there grainy, low resolution images of some of the products that you offer? Replace those with new, high quality images that show the details of the item that they will be purchasing in depth. If you want to go the extra mile, you can provide images of the product from several angles, or even provide a fully rotating 360 degree view of the product. Make sure that your customers are able to get a full view of what they are purchasing. You would be surprised how many customers will turn around and decide to make their purchase elsewhere when coming across poor product images.
Barebones Product Descriptions
Does your website have short, non-descriptive or generic product descriptions for a range of products? While certain products do not require a long winded description in order to get the idea of what they provide, providing a short basic description of products that have a lot of information and features available about them is nothing more than a missed opportunity. You should always try to go the extra mile with your product descriptions and ensure that you are truly covering all benefits and features that a product provides. Expand where applicable and make sure that you are giving a full picture of the product.
Hierarchies and the Back Button
Providing overly simplistic navigation can be a good thing for ecommerce website, but it can also be a bad thing. Does your website have a wide range of different products, placed in very specific category? If you are using a wide range of different categories you have to make sure that you are making it as easy as possible to navigate through these categories.
Can your users connect to any of the previous categories that they went through to land on your product? You do not want to make them start their search over from the beginning, and expecting them to simply use the ‘back’ button is not going to cut it. Provide a hierarchy at the top of each page that clearly spells out which sections they have gone through in order to reach the current product page. You want to give them as many options as possible without cluttering your pages. The ability to navigate to any of their previously viewed pages with the click of a button can not be undervalued.
Failing to Establish Trust
Trust is such a huge, important aspect of any purchase that is made online. Trust begins with your design. Does your design look professional and modern? You can have the best products available online but if your website looks like it came straight from 2002, it can create a mistrust with potential customers.
Customer testimonials can also go a long way toward creating trust. Of course, being able to list a well known customer will help you to attract attention, but any number of testimonials is certainly better than none.
Also, do not be afraid to spell out notable press mentions. Including the logo of famous publications that have mentioned your website can go a long way toward helping you to ensure that you establish trust with users and are able to provide evidence of your legitimacy.
There are many common mistakes that are made by eCommerce websites that should be avoided at all costs if possible. These common mistakes can lead to lower bottom lines when many businesses do not even realize that they are leaving money on the table.