If you have an online store, you don’t want to lose customers due to an ineffective online shopping interface. Here are 20 tips for improving your customer’s experience while shopping in your online store.

FINDING A PRODUCT

1. Categories – If your online store sells many types of products, organize your products into relevant categories. The categories should be labeled using the language most likely used by your customers. Also, dedicate a navigation area for the categories selected.

2. Subcategories – Utilize subcategories to group a large number of products into manageable categories (ex: Main Product Category: Books, Product Subcategory: Fiction, Non-Fiction).

3. Open-Ended Search – Include an open-ended search area for customers to type in keywords for finding products.

4. Guided Search – Design a search form that allows your customers to search for products by the most searched-on characteristics (Product Name, Price Range, Product Category etc.)

REVIEWING PRODUCTS

5. Zoomable Product Photos – Using zoomable/resizable photos of your products will allow online shoppers to review the product closely. This may reduce the customer’s aversion to making an online purchase.

6. Color Swatches – If applicable, including color swatches of available colors & patterns can reduce the number of “clicks” the customer has to make to review all of the available color options.

7. Multiple Picture Angles – Photograph items from multiple angles to allow the customer to obtain a complete view. This will improve their ability to make the purchase, as it reduces the number of unknowns (ex: “I wish I could see the back of the item”).

8. Related Products – Providing links to related or coordinating items will allow your customers to quickly select coordinating/related items, as well as improve your sales.

9. Item Details – Always display item details such as weight, color, dimensions in a designated (consistent) and easily identifiable area. This will highlight the relevant details, as well as reduce any misunderstandings related to item characteristics (ex: “The item looked much larger on the internet”).

SELECTING PRODUCTS FOR PURCHASE

10. Shopping cart – Utilize a shopping cart to allow your customers to “gather” and manage their purchases. This is the area where items are collected PRIOR to checkout. This encourages multiple item purchases. The shopping experience in an online store is similar to offline shopping. If you shopped in a store carrying a hand basket, you will most likely purchase a lot less items than you would if you had a shopping cart.

11. Cart Details – Ensure that all necessary details regarding the product are included on the cart page. This includes details such as original price, discounted price, quantity size etc. This will positively influence your store’s credibility (and customer trust) during the purchasing process.

12. Cart Management – Allow your customers to manage the items in their cart by including the ability to remove products and change ordering quantities. You don’t want to lose a customer that only wanted to remove one of four items in their cart, but became frustrated and confused about how to do it.

THE CHECKOUT PROCESS

13. Acceptable Forms of Payment – Ensure that you’re accepting the most popular forms of payment used by your customers (credit card types, PayPal, echeck etc.).

14. Security – ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ensure that your customers are entering their payment information on a secure (SSL/https) page.

15. Required Data Input Items – Identify required data elements using bold fonts or an asterisk. Be sure to indicate at the very top of the checkout form how the customer should identify the items required for successful checkout (ex: credit card information, billing address etc.).

16. List Boxes – Use list boxes to reduce data entry error for data fields such as state or country.

17. Confirmation Page – Always display a confirmation page that allows the customer to review their order and payment details prior to completing the purchase.

18. User Friendly Error Messages – Display user friendly error messages in the event that the payment can not be processed (ex: “An invalid credit card expiration date was entered.”)

AFTER THE PURCHASE

19. Web and Email Receipts – After successful payment processing, always take the customer to an online receipt page that details the order and confirms that their payment was successful. Also send an email receipt to the customer. If the customer closes their browser window prior to receiving purchase confirmation, the email receipt will serve as their backup receipt.

20. Branding – Include your logo, site name and site address on all correspondence with the customer. This assists in branding your site as a credible online business.

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One Response to “20 Tips for Improving Your Customer’s Online Shopping Experience”

1. JV says:

   March 18, 2009 at 8:58 am

   Shopping sites are boosting in numbers in the market. Many shoppers prefer to shop online for their convenience and less time to waste going from mall to mall just to search for that one kind pair of shoes. These tips are greatly helpful for those who are online shoppers.

   Reply