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e-Commerce Website Checklist
Introduction
If you already have a site make sure it is delivering you value for money.
Your e-Commerce website should be delivering a steady stream of customers,
help to reduce cost and increase revenue. The site will need to cater for users
at all points in the purchasing journey.
Recommendation
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Ensure your brand is correctly represented in the website,
having worked hard to build a customer base your website shouldn't let you down.
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Use the rich data facility of the web to help customers in their purchasing decision.
80% of UK web users now have broadband meaning large levels of content can be
downloaded quickly and easily. Make sure all your products have descriptions and where
possible have more than one product image. Lifestyle images can help to sell certain products.
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Make sure the content of your site has been optimised for the web. You should have incorporated your company's strategic key words into the product descriptions and static content pages. SEO is vital for delivering traffic to the site.
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If you haven't installed an analytics package onto your site do so as soon as possible. This provides an excellent opportunity to see where people are going on the site and what they are clicking on. Valuable information can be gleaned which can be used for future site improvements.
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Where possible integrate the site into back office applications, this will reduce labour costs through data transfer and reduce the risk of errors.
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Use the site to cross-sell or up-sell your customers. Offer them complementary or more expensive products this will boost your average order value and increase your company's revenue.
Summary
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Your website should reflect your brand.
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Use the web to deliver rich data content to aid the sales process
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SEO is vital for delivering increased traffic.
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Install and use a website analytics package.
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Integrate the site with back office applications.
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Use the site to increase average order values.
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Answer frequently asked questions on the site.
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Contact us forms and enquiries email addresses = reduced costs.
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Have a newsletter.
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Seize all retail opportunities.
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Optimize all landing pages.
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Personalise the user experience.
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Where possible try to answer customer questions before they get to the checkout. Make it obvious to the customer what your minimum delivery charge will be, let them know when they can expect to get a product and ensure details of payment types are visible. You should also have a page that clearly states your returns policy and any associated charges. Creating FAQ pages are easy to do and will ultimately lead to reduced costs as staffs spends less time answering these questions over the phone. Worse still the customer goes to your competitor where all these questions have been answered.
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Make it work for you (reduce your costs) by having a contact us form or email address. This helps to reduce time spent, by staff, on the telephone. However make sure you acknowledge the receipt of the email (this can be automated) and then get back to the customer in an acceptable time.
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Get people to sign up for a newsletter and produce one, even if it is only quarterly, this is a great source of leads. By personalising the email message, even if it is just the name, you can dramatically improve your customer relations.
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Make sure all retail opportunities are seized - don't have empty categories, they should all have products in or they shouldn't be on the site. Don't display products that are out of stock without offering an alternative or the option to pre-order. Don't display a blank search results page, if nothing matches the users search offer them something different.
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Don't assume all customers will come through the home page. You will need to optimise a few landing pages to draw in all types of customers. Similarly product pages should fairly reflect the rest of the site as these may be the first page customers see.
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