Friday, February 16, 2007

Make It Easy To Buy From Your Site

Convincing your prospects to purchase from you is a hard job, but have you ever thought that you're making the process twice as difficult for both parties if your prospects are convinced but don't know how to buy from you? No matter how good you are at convincing your prospects, they won't buy if they find the process cumbersome.

First, you will want to check that people can find your order form easily and hassle-free. You can write a clear, concise paragraph to direct your prospects to your order form so that you can minimize the chances of them getting lost. You can also reduce the chances of losing prospects by putting a prominent link to your order page from every other page on your site.

Also, do you offer multiple payment options? Some people may feel comfortable paying via Paypal, some may only want to pay with their credit card and others might want to send a cheque. The more options you offer, the better your chances of covering your prospects' desired payment method. After all, it wouldn't make any sense to sell hard to a prospect only to find that they won't be able to pay you when they want to.

On the other hand, you will want to prove that you are a credible merchant. Is your order form secured using encryption technology? You would want to look into SSL for this. You can also offer a money back guarantee so that people will feel confident about buying from you. How about after sales support? Who do they contact when they have problems after purchasing?

Alternatively, you can add customer testimonials, your contact information, address, and so on to boost your prospects' confidence. Make them feel safe about buying something from you, a total stranger to them on the other end of the Internet.

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Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Basic Design Tips For Ecommerce Websites

The single most important objective of an eCommerce website is making the visitor buy something. And this is what web design for e-commerce applications should aim to achieve. There are many principles to be considered by website designers, all of them relating to online selling techniques.

Web Site Design Development Ecommerce is different from any other website design. This is mainly because they must be attractive to the visitor, well organized and use the right colors that fit the website spirit. Nevertheless, a closer look at some successful eCommerce websites will allow you to see the conceptual differences that are typical in a successful eCommerce website. Of course the site should adhere to current web standards, with well written code and be accessible, however the focus of this article are those elements which help the web site sell.

The key selling principle of an eCommerce website is that of giving the user a pleasant experience during his online shopping. Website designers must also be certain that they provide enough information on who owns the website and provide standard data encryption via SSL. eCommerce websites must be easy to use, otherwise the visitor will simply leave and search for their goods or services on another website, probably that of the competitor!

Unlike the supermarket our website has no smell. In an eCommerce website, the distance from one point to the other is pretty much the same, however you can try to order your visual shelf in the way you think will best expose the visitor to key products.

A competitive eCommerce website design will lead the visitor to the right page in one or two clicks at most. Sometimes web designers will use techniques that would never be considered for non-eCommerce websites. As you all know, with increasingly popular sales letter websites the only link is to the order form. Nevertheless, these sales letters usually sell only one product and are not the most typical eCommerce websites. The web designer gets the opportunity to take full advantage of the one click. Believe it or not, those sales letter websites are actually selling.

An eCommerce Business Web Page Design is very much about the layout. It is crucial to catch the visitors attention and the place where they look first when accessing a web page. Research on this topic has determined that the middle left side area will attract the most attention, followed by the center of the page. By using these techniques web designers try to draw the navigation path for the visitor!

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