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Building eCommerce Websites that work - Part 3
By: Richard Keir, Sun Feb 5th, 2006
Copyright 2005 Richard Keir
An interesting eCommerce success factor that isn't precisely
overlooked, but which is often thought about more in terms of
being a way of feeding the search engine spiders has to do with
providing content. In a very real sense the customer's job is to
consume. That's why you're in business.
Think in terms of providing the information your customers need
to do their job of consuming. What does that mean? Consider what
you sell. The content on your site needs to focus on your
products - whatever they happen to be. Reviews and comparative
information on the items available through your web site can
help focus and direct your customer to what they need, want and
can afford.
Too often eCommerce sites use only marginally relevant
information as content - or content that may match the general
theme of the site but has nothing to do with what's being sold,
promoted, etc. That could be more or less adequate as spider
food, but it isn't going to help your customers do their job of
consuming your products.
The better you combine these two goals - informing your
customers and feeding the spiders - the better you'll do at
both. Irrelevant search listings are pretty much a waste of your
bandwidth. What you want is highly targeted customers interested
in what you're offering and since the search engines love
focused content and integrated sites, make that work for you.
And I'm not suggesting blatant repetitive hyped up sales copy.
You want to inform, compare, offer added information that will
help focus your customers. Use your content to develop desire
and provide comparative information on similar products at
varying price levels. Remember: desire not need.
While we all need things - and while you may be convinced
everyone absolutely needs your product - we mostly buy based on
desire - because we want it. The better you do at turning that
need into immediate desire, the better your site will perform.
Again, not a fevered sales pitch. That's likely to turn off a
large number of customers. Examples, stories and carefully
chosen (and real) testimonials can support the process, too.
Using video and/or audio can have a dramatic impact. Let your
customers draw the obvious conclusions.
Along with providing plenty of comparison and review data, good
search facilities are essential for a large eCommerce site. This
also means that if you use a searchable product database that
your keys and descriptions must be well-chosen and the links
from search results to pages work smoothly and easily.
While we've talked earlier in this series about the importance
of providing various ways to enhance the social aspect of your
site, it's also important that customers be capable of using it
without assistance. Never over complicate your site or your
processes to the point that it's no longer obvious what to do to
buy something (or complete whatever desired action you are
focusing on).
A typical customer should be able to go from front page to
product page to order page to thank you page easily and without
hesitation or confusion. The simpler and cleaner the process,
the better for you.
If you can manage it, test with 4 or 5 basically internet
illiterate people. Watch carefully what they do, where they
hesitate, what seems to cause confusion - but don't talk or help
during the process. Then go over everything with them in detail
working with your observations and their thoughts and feelings.
Your site may be obvious to you, but is it obvious to anyone
else?
And when you think you've covered anything, a few pairs of new
eyes (or checking out your competitors' sites) can give you a
whole new to-do list.
Your eCommerce site is an intentional business creation. Every
aspect should be organized around what you want the site to do,
what kind of visitors you want and what you want them to do.
Everything on your site should be there for a specific reason
that contributes to your goals for the site. And everything
should be tested to be certain that it actually does contribute.
It's your site and your business so never take anything for
granted, never assume something works if it can be tested. And
never stop testing. With careful attention to detail and
on-going testing you'll be able to make incremental improvements
over time that will vastly improve the productivity of your
eCommerce web site.
About the author:
Richard writes, teaches and consults on business presentations,
eCommerce, site building and programming. Visit http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites for
eCommerce resources and links and check http://www.Building-eCommerce-Websites/blog
for opinion and ideas.
