Architects working on planningTimes are good for starting your own e-commerce site. For the last nine years, online retail sales have been steadily increasing with no letup. Consumers are getting more comfortable purchasing online and find that the speed and convenience works well with their busy lives. Mobile Internet access has also been instrumental in this growth because it means that people do not have to be at any particular location to buy. They do not have to be at a physical store or at home in front of a computer. This makes e-commerce tremendously convenient.
Whether you have a store and wish to increase sales with an online presence or want to base your business entirely on e-commerce, website design consulting is an investment that ensures your success. Two of the many success factors that a consultant will help you with are discussed next.
Marketing Methods
A brand new e-commerce site is just one out of millions on the Internet. While this may seem discouraging, there are also millions of online consumers looking for your products. Getting them to your website requires a marketing plan based on proven methods. Waiting for word of mouth to bring in customers is a process that you have little control over other than your product’s quality. For most people, it simply takes too long. Therefore it makes sense to jump-start the process with the right marketing plan.
Onsite Conversion
To get the most return on your marketing efforts, your e-commerce site must be optimized for conversion when the visitors arrive. An important step in this process is identifying elements that frustrate the user and get in the way of conversion. Navigation around the website should be easy and intuitive. Barriers to the purchasing process should also be eliminated. These barriers include forms requiring excessive information input and a checkout process with too many steps.
Getting user feedback after a purchase is a highly effective means of identifying conversion barriers. This feedback can be achieved by including a request for feedback in a simple “thank you for your purchase” email. Conversion is a vast topic that a website design consultant can help you with.
If you would like to get on the fast track to e-commerce success, we would like to put our expertise to work for you. Contact us today to learn more.