Optimizing your eCommerce site for higher sales volume

Bags, shoes, skirts, dresses and tops; These are just a few of the products that never seem to stop growing. Malls across the country are teeming with them and they are fueling the growth of the e-commerce scene.

For the last few years, online stores have been appearing in virtual existence like an endemic virus. It’s easy and costs close to zero to set up. Opening an account is free. There are easily available templates for site designs. Pictures and products are provided by the manufacturers. The quantity to stock up and the cost are low. As such, it attracted a lot of little timers to start a journey towards e-commerce.

Web designers saw an opportunity and jumped on this growing trend by providing an online shopping cart solution. This is the crucial next step for these business owners to take. On the other hand, blog stores have tremendous failings in customer retention. They are difficult to navigate; this makes bulk and multi-item purchasing non-existent, and payment manual. In short, the blog store buying process is slow and inefficient.

So are online businesses gaining more customers and replacing offline stores? The answer is no; the businessman does not understand the internet as much as he thinks. There are many examples of errors due to online retailers’ lack of understanding of the Internet. So how do successful people optimize their eCommerce site to generate more sales?

Here are a couple of key things eCommerce site owners need to know when selling online:

1. Designs and Content Management may not be Subcontracted.
The virtual world is constantly changing and constant updates are necessary to remain competitive. For example, if you are selling a product, make sure you have multiple photos of the product taken from different angles. Since the nature of e-commerce doesn’t allow the customer to touch and feel the product, images are the next best thing. So by optimizing your eCommerce site with more photos of the product, you will give your customer more confidence to buy the product. You may understand your product and have one of the best products on the market, but if you don’t provide the right content and make it easy to find, no one will buy from you.

2. The search function is more important than you think.
People browse sites and navigate through them quickly. According to usability experts, most users just scan your site and don’t read in detail. They will ignore most things that are not important to them. That’s why optimizing your eCommerce site navigation will help your visitors navigate with ease.

If they can’t find what they’re looking for quickly, they’ll use the search function. Let’s face it, Google has spoiled us. Many of the sites have the search function, but most of them still work with a 20th century algorithm. They produce inaccurate results. They frustrate customers and frustrated customers are not going to be a paying customer! Therefore, investing money and time to have a good internal search engine will help customers feel good about your site.

3. Don’t misuse category navigation.
This is related to the mentioned; people need to be able to find what they are looking for quickly. The common misuse is to list everything in one category. The products must be categorized correctly, like the different sections of a bookstore. You should do your best to follow what is commonly used by other people and generally accepted terminologies. Sites like Amazon and eBay will be a good reference point on how to categorize your own products.

4. Do not try to sell everything on one page
Putting too much information and elements on one page will make your site look cluttered and annoy your customers. When everything matters, nothing is. Avoid the kitchen sink approach at all costs. This is not the way to optimize your eCommerce site. Remember, if they’re already on your page, they’ll use your navigation to find the articles they’re interested in. Let them have an easy time browsing your store.

5. Don’t force your customer to sign up
You can’t force people to sign up to browse your site unless you already have a great reputation. People do not have to register as members to buy products at retail stores. Online stores should be no different. If online stores ever replace retail, the process should be as seamless as retail. Many reputable e-commerce sites streamline their checkout process by only requesting registration information at the checkout stage, which is where the customer is most likely to provide their contact details.

6. Your shopping cart should be easy to use
To be honest, your entire site should be easy to use, but your shopping cart is one of the most important features. If people can’t find where it is or quickly figure out how to use it, they won’t use it.

If current online business owners don’t learn quickly, newcomers will drive them out of business. It’s an extremely competitive business and it’s only going to get more competitive. You’ll need to realize that optimizing your eCommerce site is an ongoing process and not a one-time mission. This is also because your customers’ preference will change over time and you’ll need to optimize your eCommerce site to accommodate their new preference. One way to get feedback from real users is to run a quick usability testing service. It is not necessary for many users to test your site; usually 3-5 independent users will be good enough to figure out the key issues with your site.