In recent years, shopping habits have migrated to online and mobile platforms, resulting in a wide variety of opportunities for the e-commerce world.
By buying goods or services through these platforms, customers expect websites to be fast, engaging and responsive; they would not tolerate bugged or unavailable sites, therefore they would quickly take their business to another place.
Online sales are now critical for the success of e-commerce companies with a noticeable online presence, hence, high-quality websites are vital to their business. To meet these expectations, companies rely on in-house testing, employee training or external inspection companies.
In fast-growing mobile and online environments where networks, software, devices, standards, and protocols are constantly changing; complexity and unpredictability are resulting factors that make it difficult to guarantee high performance and consistent user experience.
I present you here five factors that I consider myself important for any online business which aspires for fast and reliable online experiences:
High performance
For e-commerce companies, offering fast and high-quality web experiences using highly interactive content is essential to increase conversion rates. Nowadays, online shoppers want convenience, and they will not stay if the page takes forever to load; meaning that speed is essential for a satisfying experience.
Checkout
Do not let complicated checkout processes lead customers to abandon their shopping cart at the very last minute, eliminate any friction and allow them to fill out quickly the most important information. Things like pre-filling forms, progress bar, optional fields and the ability to store credit card information for repeat shoppers help to minimize frustration.
Also, it is important to have total visibility of the products awaiting purchase and their costs (including shipping and sales tax). Therefore you keep customers aware and decrease the likelihood of abandonment.
Security
As the online channel continues to grow, so do security threats. Business organizations are being hacked, wreaking havoc throughout their customer base. The loss of commercial income and the deterioration of the brand image are huge concerns, driving organizations to adopt technological solutions which ensure transaction and data protection.
Customers require a secure online experience. A negative experience will have a significant impact on a company’s customer base and brand loyalty. Eliminate customer fears by proving their information is safe and sound. Posting security symbols and certification of third-party security companies are powerful guarantees for indecisive buyers.
Understand your customer
It’s necessary to understand your visitors and their behavior if you want to turn them into customers. Identifying how online shoppers think and feel can help sellers improve existing campaigns and develop strategies that can reach the consumers in a better way. Companies that conduct a thorough investigation of consumer’s behavior and follow correct strategies are those which lead to a successful business within the e-commerce industry.
Optimize Continuously
While technology continues to develop beyond anyone’s assumptions, e-commerce strategies will have to be continually adapting to digital evolution; so do not make the mistake of simply developing a strategy and then believing the work is done. A good strategy should consider continuous optimization while incorporating measurable milestones.
In the end, what we all want is an e-commerce system where end-users have no idea of the complexity involved in it, where customers can easily make a purchase without interruptions or errors and where the client company sees purchases being made without complications. Although it may be close to impossible to outline all the required work encountered on a minimal basis, the result of strategizing, organizing, expanding, and testing thoroughly should result in happy clients and a happy customer base.
