A recent report on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) shows that user satisfaction with e-commerce sites is on the rise (see this story from Computerworld). That's great, you say, but how does this impact my life?
Well, you may never be an Amazon.com out on the leading edge of the e-commerce experience, but surely you can appreciate the fact that as Amazon and Ebay and others continue to expand and improve the online shopping experience, it does a world of good for all of our websites. I mean, the more people that trust the online experience, the more they make it a part of their lives.
Even if you don't have a true e-commerce website where you sell products online, you should still recognize that this trend in e-commerce makes your business website critically important. Here are a few lessons you can learn from e-commerce sites that can benefit any business website:
- Feature your products and services. Even if you can't sell them online, you should feature your products and services as if you were trying to sell them. Because the truth is, you are trying to sell them, even if they have to call you or visit you to purchase them.
- Provide comprehensive information. The above-mentioned research shows that one thing e-commerce sites have done to improve themselves is to provide more comprehensive product information online than can be garnered offline. Things like full product specifications, 360 degree photos and tours ... etc. The more information you can provide, the better you are making use of the online experience.
- Use testimonials from customers. Online e-commerce experiences have received a boost from the "customer review" functionality that lets others comment on their experience with a particular product. Why not adapt that into your business site. Provide case studies, quotes, and testimonials to demonstrate the worth of your products and services.
- Make sure your site looks good. Successful online retailers know that the look and feel of the site is important to build trust in the consumer so that they will have confidence to enter their credit card info. Even if you are not accepting credit card info online, the look and feel of your site can still build trust in your potential customers, even before you meet them.
- Make sure your site functions well. Just like the look and feel of a site builds trust, so does the functionality of a site. If your site errors out or has broken links or out-of-date information, people will lose trust. Make sure you keep things current and working well so that potential customers will trust you.
The big online retailers spend lots of time and money perfecting their sites to get an edge on their competitors. Why not use what you can learn from them to improve your own business website?
If you have other thoughts on how e-commerce can influence your site, leave us a comment.
Posted on
Thursday, February 21, 2008
by Tim Wall