Author: Danielle McVicar
Customer loyalty and retention seems to be a hot topic for online retailers these days. How do you keep customers happy and coming back to your eCommerce site? The following tips will help you whip your eCommerce website into the ultimate online shopping experience!
1. Make your site look trustworthy 
Sure, your website may be totally legit – but if viewers don’t perceive it to be that way, they won’t buy from you. eCommerce sites especially need to appear to be 100% trustworthy. Think about it – would you hand your credit card numbers over to a shady-looking sales person? Not unless you like being ripped off. The same concept applies to websites.
Tip: Invest the extra time and money into making sure your website appears trustworthy to viewers.
2. Make it ridiculously easy to tell what products you sell
It’s no surprise that in today’s fast-paced, increasingly digital world consumers’ attention spans have significantly decreased. So when a new, potential customer visits your site, you can figure you’ve got about 3 seconds to impress them. In the short time you’ve been granted for them to size up your website, make it abundantly clear that they are in the right place.
Tip: Use images and headers together to spell out what it is you sell – on every page of your website. You should be able to take any page out of the context of your website and be able to tell what products you sell.
3. Make products easy and fast to find
People are busy (and lazy). If they can’t find what they’re looking for in 30 seconds or less, they’ll give up and look somewhere else. Make sure that you’re products are easily searchable on your website. Never compromise navigation or search-ability for a “unique” or “cool” layout. Stay away from Flash and Java – it may look really cool but it slows down loading times.
Tip: Make your website easy to navigate by keeping your products uncluttered. Use tabs, categories, and a search bar (people search in different ways – don’t discriminate!) so viewers can find what they’re looking for without having to click through a ton of pages.
4. Provide unique, relevant information
Are you creating your own creative, unique product descriptions? If the answer is no, then you’re wasting a valuable SEO opportunity, not to mention a chance to differentiate your products from your competitors! Don’t just paste the manufacturer’s product description on all of your product pages – chances are your competitors are doing the exact same thing. And your customers think it’s boring.
Tip: Take the extra time to create thoughtful, unique, and engaging product descriptions. Not only will search engines thank you, but your customers will, too!
5. Offer suggestions
Take the guess work out of searching by featuring your best-selling products on your homepage, or better yet, use cross-selling to promote similar products throughout your site. Most people have no clue what they want when they visit an ecommerce store – they’re researching, window shopping, etc. Help them out by offering them personalized suggestions based on what they’re looking at or their browsing history.
Tip: A product information management solution makes cross-selling and up-selling a cinch. Similar products can be grouped as a “look” or “set” so that they are all suggested to a viewer when one of the products is selected.
6. Constant testing and improving
Never be satisfied with your ecommerce website! This may sound kind of negative, but the day you stop trying to make your site better is the day your customers will go somewhere else. Keep testing and analyzing every aspect of your website to enhance the online shopping experience – because the happier your shoppers are using your website, the more often they’ll return, and more they’ll buy!
Tip: Ok, this one’s not really a tip… it’s more of a mindset. Test everything, analyze everything, and constantly make it better.
Do you have some tips for creating a great, user-friendly eCommerce site? Do share! Leave a comment or start a discussion on our Linkedin group!
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Multi-Commerce Connection 