Ecommerce Web Developer

Making an e-commerce site easy to use

The ease with which a customer is able to use an e-commerce site is an important part of its success. It's also an important part of your online brand image.

There are three elements of the shopping process that influence how easy and enjoyable the customer finds it to shop on an e-commerce site - the shop front, shopping cart and payment software.
Shop front

The shop front is the interface presented to the customer. This often incorporates an online catalogue that enables them to browse for products and identify those they wish to purchase.

Customers should be able to find the product they are looking for quickly. An eight-second guideline is frequently cited - if customers are unable to find the product within that time, they are likely to go to an alternative site.

The design of the shop front should make shopping intuitive, with the customer knowing at all times what stage of the buying process they are at.
Shopping cart

This is the software that facilitates easy selection and payment for products purchased by a customer from an e-commerce website. Once the goods have been selected, the customer should find the checkout clearly signposted, so that they can proceed to pay for the goods.

The system should process the order speedily and provide you with a summary, including any packing and shipping requirements. It should also generate a printable receipt and allow you to send a confirmation email to the customer.
Payment software

Most customers will wish to pay for their purchases with credit or debit cards. There are three options for accepting such payments - you can:

    * open a merchant account
    * use a payment processing company
    * set up an online shop within a virtual shopping mall

E-commerce used to be a catch-all term for doing business online. If you sold your product or service through a website, collected payments electronically, or dealt with customers in any way online... those activities fell under the e-commerce topic.

In recent years, however, nearly all businesses do some work online. For example, there's a good chance you already have a brochureware type website for your business, or you communicate with customers by email. So the e-commerce term has evolved as well.
These days, when people talk about e-commerce, they're talking specifically about selling a physical product online. This sub-category of online business is different from, say, freelancing, selling a service, or writing for profit.

E-commerce is not just simply opening an online store. There are many different ways to be involved with e-commerce. As long as you are doing business using the internet, you are participating in e-commerce.

E-commerce includes transferring information over the internet, gathering data online and even working with other businesses using the internet. No matter what type of e-commerce you are involved in, you have to be prepared to handle the fact that e-commerce is much different than the typical market place.

The main thing to remember about e-commerce is that it is bigger than what you are used to. The size has a lot of perks and many cons. You have to take the bad with the good. Just be prepared and learn as much as you can before jumping into anything.

With the proper professional help you should be able to get an e-commerce system that will allow you to get into e-commerce with ease. There is a lot of help out there that will allow you to make sure your e-commerce venture is successful.

For sellers, e-commerce offers a way to cut costs and expand their markets. They do not need to build, staff, or maintain a physical store or print and distribute mail order catalogues. Automated order tracking and billing systems cut additional labour costs, and if the product or service can be downloaded then e-commerce firms have no distribution costs involved. Because the products can be sold all over the globe, sellers have the potential to market their products or services globally and are not limited by the physical location of a store. Internet technologies also permit sellers to track the interests and preferences of their customers with the customer’s permission and then use this information to build an ongoing relationship with the customer by customising products and services to meet the customer’s needs.