Today, the marketplace is very cluttered. Some call this a challenge, while others consider this an opportunity. But, regardless of your opinion, this is what it is.
So, today, at threeminutes, we have started this new series called “What a professional says” for our young readers where we bring to you some tips, insights and best industry practices which will help you excel in your careers (and case study competitions)
Stay tuned for this segment every Friday!
Today, let’s talk about what makes a good website?
Customer experience is the first on the priority list of any e-commerce business. For a good customer experience, you need a good website for sure. (After all, first impressions matter a lot) With this, a lot of attention is being given to UI and UX. But today, I am not here to talk about UI and UX. In fact, we did talk about that in the past.
What I will be discussing here today are some things very basic yet the most ignored – the must have, good to have and optimisation elements of a good website. Why don’t you use this article as a checklist for your brand or your favourite brand’s website-
MUST HAVE (We know that this will be very basic but does your brand really have it)
1. An image catalogue – you should put at least 3-4 photos of your main product where one should be product focussed, other features-focused, third can be lifestyle driven etc.PLEASE maintain consistency in the images used on the landing page.
2. Videos: These are games changers. Looking at a product in action in a video or being educated about the how-to of a product boosts its conversion rate. This really really works
3. Product name, specifications and Description: Of course! Mention the variants, any bundles you have, benefits etc. Provide all but relevant information for customers to compare If you are in tech space, and you can give a comparison option, it's a bonus.
4. Your how to use manual PDF’s
5. Reviews and Chat Bot
6. FAQ’s
The above mentioned were basic details that anyone would know and thus not explaining them will be a waste of our three minutes so let’s jump to the part which differentiates your website from the others.
GOOD TO HAVE
1. Bundles/Value Packs: This is a good bet for both, for businesses and for the customer. As a customer, I can save more by buying more at once and as a business, I am inducing more sales and increasing my average order value. Ideally your bundles should be placed at the top as that is where your visitor is most attentive and will gain a good idea about the product range as well.
2. Limited Number of SKU’s: Bombarding the customers with so many options is not a good idea. You should ideally try to limit the number of SKU’s per landing page to 8-12 at most, with 1-2 bundles on the top. (The art of increasing the cart value) Too many options confuse the customers and reduces your conversion rate. You can have more than 100 SKU’s on the website but keep 8 per page and the rest can be navigated through search option. You need not add them in any collection per say.
3. Inventory – Using markers like 50 units in stock on the product page is a good idea and instils urgency and thus drives up your conversion rate. Side by side, you must manage the inventory backend and make sure nothing goes out of stock in order to avoid losing a customer. To handle such situations, you ideally increase the price temporarily or scale down the ads on that product to avoid such situations.
4. Shipping Info: Again, not necessary but adding shipping info is a good idea as the customer will feel assured about the delivery date and be more confident in placing the order.
5. Easier and more clickbait navigation: Try to keep your navigation menu crisp but exhaustive. A good strategy can be to add the categorisation relevant to a visitor in the menu than to the brand. For instance- For a tea brand, navigation menu can have headers like teabags and loose leaves but an interesting addition can be ‘Shop by Benefit’ like stress reduction, weight management etc.
One tip: You must keep on checking the conversion rate on each landing page and try to optimise that. This can be done by A/B testing. Create two pages, change certain parameters like CTA button position, the arrangement or products, images etc and see which one boosts a higher conversion rate.
OPTIMISATION ELEMENTS
1. Buy Buttons/ CTAs: Use more urgency inducing but relevant CTA buttons.
2. Image size: Compress your images without compromising on image quality. This increase your site speed and helps to deliver a better customer experience.
3. Page Layout: Make the page layout customer-friendly so that all CTA buttons and product info is easily accessible by the visitor
Apart from these, there are a lot of supporting apps like Order Bump to upsell and entice the customers to add more to the cart, add signup popups to increase your email base, integrate your social channels etc. Honestly, there is a LOT that can be done.
So how much of this is your brand doing? Let us know in comments and we can look at the website and present our insights.
Until then, see you next Friday.
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