Suze Bragg

6 must-haves for every retail website
July 11, 2008

Joe Chung, cofounder and CEO of Allurent, an e-commerce solutions provider, wrote a great column for E-Commerce News that details the 5 elements that today's retail sites should contain.  Comparing the maintenance to the Red Queen's comment in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place"; many businesses are exhausted just trying to keep up. It makes for a good analogy.  

You already know the basics: search, browse, product detail pages, easy cart and checkout, and good usability standards, but what else must you have to not only stay afloat, but stay competitive?  Here are the 5 techniques Chung suggests deploying next:

1.  Interactive merchandising - the key is keeping your products updated.  Many small businesses are trained to change out their displays often, but they forget to update their websites the same way.  Think about your customers visiting your store month after month and seeing the same displays every single time.  Talk about boring. (example:  Borders)

2.  Advanced shopping tools - Finding and using a good checkout tool that makes buying not only easier, but more enjoyable, helps your bottom line.   I recommend this easy task:  take a concentrated moment to sit down and buy something on your own website.  I remember performing this exercise while working at IBM and I discovered that it took 22 steps to buy a laptop, while Dell only took 6 steps.  It was an eye-opening experience to the product marketing team. If it takes forever and the experience annoys you, do something about it immediately. (example: Anthropologie)

3.  Rich media - using video to help your customers process what they're seeking pays off.  Most people are voyeurs, and watching someone cook, model, or explore a store engages their senses.  (example: Williams Sonoma's Making Margarita's video)

4.  Advanced search and guided navigation - this is probably the hardest thing to employ on your site because it takes a usability expert to make it happen.  How your buyers browse your site, how they search for the merchandise they want, and how it appears on the page is crucial. Per Patrick, a usuability expert I just consulted, "A clear understanding of what is available product-wise is crucial.  If that's not featured easily and readily on the homepage, forget it."  (example: Like)

5.  Social commerce - People like to discuss, share, rant, vent, appreciate, testify and gather, but rarely do retailers provide room for testimonials, product recommendations, expert advice, and the like.  The Internet has proven time again (and so have sites like Facebook and Gather) that this is the trend that people enjoy and use. 

6.  Shipping Charges - this is one that Chung left off his list, but one that has been pointed out to me numerous times.  As one shopper, Rich Schott, just said, "I need to know them before I enter payment info or I'm not buying from them."   Many retailers try to hide this information until the very end of the shopping cart process, and it's the reason most customers jump off at the last minute. 

Want to learn more?  Read his whole article here...

Posted by Suze Bragg on July 11, 2008 | Comments (1)