How to Increase E-Commerce Website Operability

Posted on December 18th, 2014 by Quertime Writer in Web Development

The number of people who buy online is on an incredible rising streak. While this is the high-peak shopping season, right between the Black Friday and Christmas, online shopping has been one of the fastest growing parts of the Internet market for years. The Internet is moving forwards in a divergent way and the quantity of options available on the global network is becoming more and more unbelievable.

Purchasing things online is not just another craze, but a serious field of economy where billions of dollars are spent on a yearly basis. It is not only the Americans and the Western world that indulge in buying things via online shopping services, but Asia is also in the middle of an unparalleled growth in when it comes to purchasing through online stores. And the most important thing to take care of when something sales like hot cakes is make sure it flows seamlessly. This is where the operability of an e-commerce website comes to light.

Cut on Details, Keep it Simple

When you come to an e-commerce website for the first time and you want to buy a certain item, you know nothing about that site and you want to be convinced that you will get the item you buy and that nobody will find out your personal data. It is clear that every user wants to make an expedient and smooth purchase and stay assured that his account number will be safe on that site. Overcrowding a shopping-related site with superfluous details can only hide the purpose of the site and confuse its visitors.

Security Proofs

New players on the online shopping market must try hard to win the trust of their potential clients. That is why you have to make the payment methods for your site through the most trustworthy payment services on the net. Making transactions via PayPal or Skrill or the Visa brand name, which is well-known all over the world, will assure first-time visitors to your site that you are not a fraud and that is extremely important to achieve.

In times when the whole world is shaking as a result numerous political crises and economic depression, the insecurity from the real world is being reflected to the online context. Since we all know that two largest e-commerce sites in the world are AliExpress and Amazon, originating from China and the USA, respectively, it is clear that nothing that is happening online stays there and that real world conflicts can easily be imported into the virtual space. That is why every new and established e-commerce site needs to be strict and serious when it comes to paying for purchased goods. It takes a year to win a client and only a second to lose him (or her).

Smooth Flow

You do not want your buyers to knock their desk or hit the screen because the last step of their purchase is unfolding very slowly, since the page won’t load. Such problems will simply push the buyers and visitors away from your site, which is something you do not want. That is why the pages that are engaged in the paying process need to stripped of any unnecessary details. Large photos should under no circumstances be here, not only because they slow down the loading time, but because they might leave an impression of mislead and nobody wants that when shopping in the virtual world. Instead of that, use image sizes that suit an e-commerce site. As a matter of fact, overdoing with images of any size is a waste of resources if they are not essential for the site, apart from the ones with the products your site sells.

Gain Boost through High Traffic

Every person of average intelligence will use traffic statistics to improve the features and offers of his or her e-commerce website. This will show how people get to know about your site and what further marketing techniques you should apply in developing your online business. For instance, if you see that 20 per cent of your visitors came by typing the exact name of your site into the search engine, it means that the advertising part which relies on the name itself has served its purpose and that it should be exploited onwards. Another great means of increasing the number of visitors and potential leads is through e-mail marketing and every e-commerce site should have its own mailing list, with clients listed by the criterion of loyalty and the number of purchases. Always try to send best offers to the most reliable clients. In addition to that, a higher traffic rate can also be reached through SEO and link building, but that is a completely different niche.

How Site Responds to Gadgets

If you wanted to launch your site four or five years ago, I would always advise you to make a mobile version, too. However, in the meantime we have seen the incredibly rapid rise of the tablet market and the improvements in web design, so that today it is not necessary to build special versions for different platforms. As statistic data show a substantial growth in online shopping via phones, it is necessary to make your e-commerce site responsive for all the devices that might try to access your site. Thanks to the development of responsive design, the site adapts to different platforms thanks to the CSS query codes that make the site adapt to every device type that visits it.

In addition to responsiveness, which the designers of your e-commerce site need to excel at, you should actually hire an all-in-one website provider. If you have to contact designers and then the back end developers and look for the domain and other separate actions, you will lose a lot of time and most probably money, as well. That is why hiring a high-quality provider will bring you a responsive e-commerce site with great domain hosting and meticulous programming solutions.

Making an e-commerce site ready for the race with already existing ones is like training an athlete to compete in the Olympics. Competition is so strong that everybody who wants to develop such a sort of business must be ready for tons of sweat, bits of sleep and scarce income at the beginning. But the truth is that he who dares wins, so just follow the guidelines for a successful start and later prove that you are daring and smart.

Author: Dan Radak

Dan Radak is VPS security specialist. Currently employed as a consultant in a couple of Web Hosting companies. Also, he is a web writer and co-author on several technology websites, like Crucial, Australian domain hosting company. In his free time he makes homegrown beer. You can reach him on Twitter.