10 ecommerce turn-offs to avoid

happygeek 0 Tallied Votes 628 Views Share

Research from ecommerce solutions provider SellerDeck (which used to be known as Actinic Desktop) has revealed the top ten ecommerce turn-offs that online retailers need to avoid at all costs if they are to turn clicks into sales.

sellerdeck At the very top of the avoid list comes insecurity. Your website doesn't actually have to be insecure to turn the shoppers away, but just give the impression that it might not be secure. This should be engraved in stone and filed under 'well duh!' to be honest, but it seems that too many online retailers still fail to take security seriously enough to ensure that not only is the transactional security and overall data protection implementation watertight, but that investment in security is communicated through the design and site content to potential customers.

Second on the list was 'bugs and technical issues with the site' which is so patently obvious that I'm not going to bother patronising you by going into any more detail other than to say if an online shopper cannot shop online due to technical difficulty then the sales register will remain in distinctly virtual territory.

Amazingly, given the hugely competitive state of the online retail market, third biggest turn-off (which suggests that plenty of etailers are still guilty of the crime) was not providing sufficient product information, including sufficiently detialed product images to enable an informed purchase choice.

Items four, five, six and seven can almost be grouped as sub-categories of the bugs/technical issues thing: difficult to use shopping carts, checkout forms too long and complex, websites poorly designed and too slow in use. At eight was another hard to believe faux-pas, especially as the availability of customer driven feedback and product reviews has been one of the drivers of successful ecommerce. But there it is, a lack of customer reviews and feedback will have your potential customers clicking through to another online shop just as any right-minded etailer would understand.

Slightly more hard to comprehend when you consider that another driver of online retailing has been the breaking down of geographical boundaries to the shopping experience, is the etailer itself being based outside of the country of residence. I can understand that this mkight influence your purchase decision if there are two shops selling the same item at the same price and one is located in Europe and one in the US, as the possible addition of sales taxes, extra delivery charges and an increase in the expected time to get your hands on the goods all come into play. However, for 'foreign retailers' to be listed as a top 10 ecommerce turn-off is slightly worrying, and nods in the direction of a much more regional Internet than most of us would like to think exists, at least as far as the culture of commerce is concerned. The final item on the list is related in a way, and that's insufficient delivery options to satisfy the customer.

“Ecommerce sites that get the basics of navigation and providing plenty of product information are best placed to succeed, while factors such as providing the lowest prices aren't necessarily as important as some may think,” said Phil Rothwell, sales and marketing director of SellerDeck. “Although retailers may feel a lot of price pressure, providing it at the cost of customer service is likely to be a false economy. It's much more important to make sure the site looks professional and feels secure, while offering customers a smooth experience from the minute they enter the site to the point at which they receive the goods. This not only means happy customers, but increases the likelihood of them returning again and again.”

Indeed, when it comes to ecommerce turn-ons, the factors most likely to get you that sale, the survey of online shoppers unsurprisingly showed that easy navigation and detailed product information are most important to the customer, and so these should be at the top of your implementation list as an online retailer. These were followed by accurate stock information, previous experience of the site, cheap prices, professional design, positive customer feedback, fast servers, felxible delivery options and side-by-side product comparisons.

Jonston 0 Newbie Poster

I depend a lot on shopping online and have always been concerned about the risk of exposing my credit card information. A must have is asking users to telesign in to complete a transaction by using 2FA. I am not sure if this site uses this, but the fact is I feel suspicious when an online store doesn't ask me to telesign in, now it just feels as if they are not offering enough protection.

happygeek 2,411 Most Valuable Poster Team Colleague Featured Poster

Your comment comes across as an advert for Telesign, a proprietary and somewhat niche transaction verification service it seems to me. It would actually put me off if I was trying to buy something online and had to wait for a verification SMS message and then input a code, or call a number to verify my identity, whatever. There are many less intrusive methods to secure transactions, and oddly enough these are the ones implemented by the vast majority of etailers for the very reasons I have mentioned.

Finally, why would DaniWeb use transactional 2FA of any type when it isn't an ecommerce site?

Seriously, if you are going to drop marketing messages disguised as valid comment into threads then at least do your homework and customise them a little so that the disguise is more than a false moustache and a pair of glasses...

muasung.biz 0 Newbie Poster

Thanks for your share

SidRhyes 0 Newbie Poster

Nice information, its very informative and useful, one can gain a lots of knowledge from this. information provided can be very useful while we are workin on an ecommerce site.

joelchrist -9 Posting Whiz

Lovely post. Better to offer best customer or live chat software for ecommerce site, It will increase your support feedback.

PhilipCohen 0 Newbie Poster

"At the very top of the avoid list comes insecurity."

Well then, obviously, that means you must offer PreyPal for payments ... http://bit.ly/UVXx53

Member Avatar for Everyauction
Everyauction

the Day, eBay Stock went public, they fully had to adopt to the 'capitalistic' system. Shareholders usually don't care much about ethics, all they care about is profit.

In my Country, eBay very much lost it's Business to another Auction Site, beeing able to take over the Business by loosening up the 'Anonymity' of the Persons involved in Sales Processes.

By example, on the Item Pages, the Seller Location is visible. More, one can ask Questions, even leaving a phone Number to call back, on the Item Page!! One can leave a street name or house number to enable possible buyers to 'preview' an item offered. Very important details to minimize Risks.

The Place is called Ricardo - ch, if one is interested to look at. It's a living sample of hot to beat the Big Ones, not on a worldwide Scale, but in a local and regional Surrounding, very important in a Country like mine with 4 native languages. eBay, unable to 'adopt' their Policy to our 'cultural Buying-habits', has lost most of the Swiss Market for good.

Why am I writing this? Just to remind you, that there is always a chance for Newcomers. But before getting big and world famous, one MUST start small and locally. Don't dream. Start to work. There is Room, use it, fill it up.

Money comes later, hopefully, possibly. Possibly not, but at least, you've learned something, by doing, what you did.

Build a Website, YOUR personal Website. It's not done by placing a picture, a couple of links, and a million of trackers on a downloaded and widely unmodified massware-template. Be Personal, let others know, who you are, especially, if you later try to sell them something.

If you run a Site, make sure, the URL is registered to YOU, not somebody, hidden behind walls, this does not leave a positive impression by 'experienced' Site Visitors. If you seek Trust, you have to SHOW trustworthy.

If you can't get the World, you still can get a small part of it. Look around in our Surrounding Area. Concentrate on daily needs, fill the Gap, where one exists, by using your Website. Do NOT copy, do it Your Way, then, you'll have your chance.

Online Payment-Security, would, in addition, no longer be really a top theme of an Site Agenda, serving a local Community..., one more reason to stay local!

Ernie

Member Avatar for LastMitch
LastMitch

10 ecommerce turn-offs to avoid

Some platforms you can modify the code.

Ydeveloper -3 Light Poster

There are three areas, shopping cart, checkout and security, I think to be most critical one. All are essentials but but this will have direct impact to users. Let's say shopping cart doen't include compete price, updated stock, more details to fill out in checkout form to place an order, and the security seals to create trust in user of having in secured site.

couponmember 0 Newbie Poster

thanks for the information....Nice post!!

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