Five Ways to Improve the Shopping Experience on Your E-commerce Site

Before buying anything online, customers want to be assured of a safe and easy experience. If this process becomes too time consuming or difficult to complete, most will have no problem finding their way to another website and spending their money with the competition. The design of your storefront goes a long way in determining its success, and the five tips in this article will help you create an experience that results in satisfied, repeat customers.
1.) Do Not Hide Your Products – There are several ways to make your products easier to find and one of them involves integrating search functionality into your store. You can make the experience even more customer-friendly with a feature that allows visitors to search by criteria such as category and price. A comprehensive navigation scheme is also imperative as customers should be able to locate any product they want to buy in a matter of a few clicks.
2.) Do Not Ask Too Much of Your Customers – It is no secret that a large number of online shoppers are turned off by being asked to divulge too much information when trying to purchase something. This is even the case with valuable marketing tools such as registration forms. Allowing your customers to add their items to the shopping carts without having to register for something simply makes for a more enjoyable experience. If you must collect information for registration purposes, these details can easily gathered at checkout.
3.) Clearly Define Your Products – You could lose many potential sales if your products do not give enough detail to the customer. For this reason, you should provide a detailed description of the product as well as a quality image. In addition, be sure to include other essentials such as the price and stock quantities in the beginning of the ordering process so potential customers will not be disappointed upon reaching checkout.
4.) Give Your Customers Options – In order to accommodate the needs of different customers, you should configure your shopping cart to offer multiple options for payment and shipping as well. You may also want to consider implementing a feature that allows them to add items to a wish list. For varying reasons, your customers may not be prepared to make a purchase during the first visit to your site, but this feature will allow them save those desired items and buy them at a later time.
5) Keep it Simple – Web technologies have advanced tremendously over the years and this means that you can add a lot of flair and flash to your online store. At the same time, you should keep in mind that internet users shop online because it is easier and faster than shopping out in the real world. Therefore, do not make the mistake of overwhelming potential customers with glamorous features or by requesting unnecessary information on their way to checkout. If this process requires multiple steps, be sure to use accurate headings or a comprehensive breadcrumb navigation to help customers find their way and make it through to checkout.