Creating the Ultimate Online Shopping Experience

[mandy]

Part 1 of a 2 part article: strategy and design

The retail marketplace has become intensely competitive, as retailers increasingly compete across traditional segment boundaries, brands expand their direct-to-consumer channels, and consumers exercise their growing power to seek out the best value for their dollar. In addition, consumer expectations are on the rise, as they continue to have rich and immersive experiences elsewhere on the Web. In the e-commerce world, retailers must ensure that they are delivering differentiated and satisfying customer shopping experiences to attract and retain customers.

In this environment, site design is crucial to the success of an e-commerce storefront. Just think of the immersive nature of the physical store and how that experience can be translated on the Web. The quality of your site experience is a fundamental driver of the site's ability to convert visitors to buyers and ensure long-term customer loyalty.

In addition, your approach to site design has important implications for how much flexibility and control you will have over the site going forward. The following user interface (UI) design best practices will help:

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/The-Ulti...64755.html

[Kristijntje]

part 2: Features and Functionality

Part 1 of this series explores principles that should be applied to online customer experience strategy development. This second part discusses the most important tactical principles to follow when re-designing your site and provide specific examples of ways they are used on e-commerce sites today.

Research has shown that the three most important factors influencing whether a customer will purchase from a consumer Web site are security and privacy, ease of navigation and quality of content. Make privacy and security information prevalent on your site and in the purchasing flow -- including both detailed policy statements and third-party certifications. A logo from VeriSign, McAfee or TRUSTe, placed discreetly on the home and landing pages and prominently on check-out pages, can help alleviate a customer's concerns about credit and debit card transaction security, especially when shopping on e-commerce sites that lack national brand recognition...

full article: http://ecommercetimes.com/story/The-Ulti...64862.html