So here you are, the dedicated eCommerce operator, and after having invested a great deal of time into designing your online store, you notice that it still doesn’t look quite right. You can’t put your finger on it – after all, you designed a website that any consumer would want to visit, one that is open and honest and friendly, and still demonstrates to the customer why they should buy your products. If it feels like you have the general concepts of design down, but would like to get into the specifics, it may be time for some discussion about advanced user experience.

Psychology and User Experience Design
are by nature highly intertwined fields.

-Catriona Cornett

User experience experts know that connecting with your audience improves conversions. But one of the most difficult things about maintaining a storefront in the world of eCommerce is that the internet, by its nature, is an ever changing beast. After all, the world of the internet fifteen, ten, even five years ago is very different than the world of the internet today – not only because of drastically increased modem speeds, which allow websites to be designed with a lot more information, but also because common computer requirements like monitors have become bigger and better, allowing the clever eCommerce merchant to design a much more vibrant storefront than was previously possible. In order to keep conversions high, but costs low, eCommerce operators need to design compelling websites that don’t need to be updated often, striving for a sense of timelessness that can be easily adapted.

Towards that end, in this article we’re going to discuss:

• Simplicity
• Sliders (and Fly Out menus)
• Search

Simplicity:

As monitors have grown over the years, one of the things many website designers have overlooked is the switch from 4:3 and 5:4 aspect ratios to the more film-like 16:9 (those of you who understand fractions may be wondering how 4:3 is different from 16:9). The fact is, more than fifty percent of home computer owners have upgraded their monitors to wide-screen, a fact that an eCommerce website could use to eliminate one of the most common annoyances of the internet age – the scroll bar. While in many cases a scroll bar may be unavoidable (one of the major instances of this are in articles, or anything with a long list of comments), but if your goal is to get your storefront right up in front of the customer, designing for a rectangle instead of a square – and therefore avoiding the pillarbox look – can help make sure that nothing is hidden off page from the customer. And as we’ve discussed before, customers love the ability to take in as much information as possible at a glance.

Sliders (and Fly Out menus):

That being said, there is a constant war between presenting as much information as possible, and avoiding the clutter that comes when your website has more information than can be displayed on one page. Using fly out sidebars to replace the pillars that once dominated the sides of your website can allow you to present broad categories that slowly become more and more specific, allowing the customer to find exactly what they’re looking for, without losing that link to your main page. Sliders work in a similar fashion, allowing you to display a great deal of enticing information without having to cram the main page with pictures and details, especially when that space is better used making the page easier to navigate, instead of cluttered, since negative space is just as an important consideration of design as what you fill the pages with.

Search:

However, you can’t put everything into a slider or a fly out menu, or rather, you shouldn’t. An eternal list of drop down and fly out menus can become annoying in a completely different way than clutter, so there is a point of diminishing returns for your categories, before you just have to let them navigate to a new page. But there will always be a segment of consumers who know exactly what they want, and are only interested in checking your prices and comparing your deals against your competitors. For this sort of customer (whom it is every bit as important to keep happy as the browsers, maybe more so), your website needs the internet equivalent of an index – the search bar. Thankfully, you have many options for adding a search bar, all of which allow you to maintain website simplicity, without sacrificing product variety.

As you can see, despite the constant threat of Moore’s Law and it’s effects on computers, there are some ways you can adjust your website in order to remain timeless. Even if the technical aspects of these ideas change, a website that stays simple, avoids clutter, and allows people to search it will never go out of style, at least in its skeletal form. So get out there, and keep the people happy, so they keep coming back!

Conversion Rate Analytics

There are a couple of answers to this question, most of which are contingent on the goals you set while configuring your analytics. But some of the most important data you need to watch has to do with your conversion rates. What are conversion rates you ask? Well, the conversion rate is the percentage of people who, upon coming to your site, download or purchase your products. This makes conversion rate one of the most telling indicators of how well your website is working, since it is directly related to your ability to sell your ideas. Whether your intentions are to make a profit selling through your online store, or to sell visitors on an idea, getting them to download your brochure, attend your conference or subscribe to your newsletter, conversion rates can tell you how well you’re doing.

Although conversions are not the be all and end all of eCommerce, they are certainly essential data. This is because conversion rate provides you with concrete evidence that your campaign is working (or not), and a general idea of how well it’s doing. After all, knowing our conversion rates before and after you start buying ads on a certain site can allow you to calculate how effective your advertising budget is, and if they go down when you decide to switch your ads to a different site, you’ve acquired yet another bit of hard, useful data. And while there are several reasons why you shouldn’t obsess over conversion rate, with enough micromanagement, it can help you improve the website experience for those who prefer to do their buying on the internet, rather than just research or job hunting.

What Effects Conversions?

However, in the process of not obsessing about it, it helps to remember that there are a number of concerns on your website that might effect conversion rate. It must be remembered that the internet is a land of misclicks and distractions, a factor which once computed in, can provide you with a great deal more confidence in that 2% conversion rate. Keep in mind that sometimes people click accidentally both to your site and away, that some people haven’t figured out tabbed browsing yet, and will use your window to check their back accounts before returning to buy, and that more than ninety percent of conversions happen offline. I know, this can be frustrating for those of you without brick and mortar retail stores, but don’t let it become discouraging. In the process of setting goals, remember to include micro conversions as well. If macro conversions are things like downloading your programs and purchasing your products, micro conversions can be used to measure how many times “contact us” was clicked, or “about us“, or jobs were applied for, or “print this page” was clicked, and the other signs that your site is being used for research, even if nothing was purchased. Someone interested in your site enough to research it is likely to come back, especially if you were convincing enough with your web copy, which will help you calculate your conversion ROI, which is every bit as helpful as the conversion data itself. After all, if you aren’t measuring the metrics that matter, you’re wasting time that could be used on more valuable metrics.

I’m sure at this point things are starting to feel a little complicated (and if they aren’t, congratulations!), but don’t worry. While tracking the various conversion rates can be difficult, it’s not any harder than following your favorite team. All it takes is a bit of time and practice before you’ll get it, and keep in mind that the web is a large, scary place, and if you keep in mind that even a 2% calculation can lead to a great deal of profit, depending on your average order value. But the obvious follow up question is, assuming I’m not obsessing, and have discarded extraneous metrics while incorporating necessary ones, how do I improve my conversion rates?

Improving Conversions With Web Analytics

Well, as we’ve already mentioned, web analytics is all about data. And now that you’ve got your conversion rate practices refined, you can start thinking about how you wield that data. Using this data, you can refine the processes on your websites, particularly when it comes to leads and the sales process. Consider that you check your data, and you find that an odd amount of people start the checkout process, but never finish (abandon the checkout). This could be a problem with your security loading speed, trust, your density of text, or even your safe words display being unreadable so they can’t checkout. Once someone has made the decision to buy, they’re close, but not roped in yet, so you need to make the checkout process as smooth as possible, and your analytics data should provide plenty of opportunities and insights towards improvement.

But if they’re not even getting to the sales page, then maybe the problem is with your sales copy. Thanks to your analytics and conversion rate, maybe your strategy for making a simple website with less professional copy, so as not to scare away the old ladies, is hurting your business, and it’s time to invest in someone to write better copy for you. Sometimes the right data can mean the difference between finding out whether you’re capable of being a one person band, or if what you really need is a slightly larger team. Checking the ROI of your analytics can tell you whether or not your investment in a copywriter will increase sales enough to cover the position.

Conclusion & Final Thoughts

And after you’ve streamlined your checkout process, and written stellar copy thanks to a few late night courses on speech writing and psychology, if you still want to improve your conversion rates there are a few tips and tricks you can try. After all, you’ve found out that information is beautiful, and there’s no reason your customers won’t either. Show them how your products and ideas will improve their life, then assign them their own metrics, and study their conversion rates to see which charts, graphs, and graphics are the most effective. Save those, build more in their style, and use them in your advertising campaigns, where they can spread their impact across the entire internet. As you can see, the potential of an entrepreneur wielding a solid set of goals and data is limitless. And if you get stuck in the process, you can always come back to refresh your knowledge. Or just because you feel like there’s always more to learn, and places to improve.

New technologies allow consumers to freely explore seemingly endless amounts of products and information online. Because of this, consumers are becoming increasingly self-reliant. People check-in to flights and hotels with automated machines and purchase groceries through check-out stations. Consumers are responding positively to self-service systems and the need to interact with customer service employees is rapidly decreasing.

With this rise of self-service, more customers are buying products through online retailers and shopping sites are growing fast. Most consumers are pleased with the effortlessness of shopping online. However, when customers do encounter a problem, finding solutions can often be tedious and frustrating. Retailers work hard to constantly improve the online shopping experience but many are still using out-dated customer service techniques. Search engines and FAQ pages are not satisfying customers and businesses have to look for new ways to allow consumers to navigate themselves through potential issues.

In the past, many businesses thought their only solution to customer relationship management (CRM) was to create call centers with a large trained staff. Smaller businesses struggled with the cost of such an extensive increase in employees and larger business had too much traffic to adequately provide helpful service to every consumer. Companies are relentlessly creating new technologies and trends for online shopping and the old strategies of CRM no longer apply. Consumers will have questions and concerns and they expect to receive answers quickly and easily. According to Consumer Technographics, 57% of US online consumers report that they are very likely to abandon an online purchase if they cannot find quick answers to their questions. The dichotomy of online consumers is that they both demand guidance and self-reliance. For many businesses, virtual agents have proven to be the most effective way to help consumers help themselves.

What are Virtual Agents?

Intelligent virtual agents (IVAs) are programs that work as online customer service representatives. They have a human appearance and a conversational style of speaking. These agents interact directly with the customer to help with a variety of online services. Essentially, an IVA is the ideal customer service employee. They have an extensive knowledge of the business, can speak several languages, work 24 hours a day, and can personally help hundreds or thousands of customers all at once. The agent provides personal and direct guidance for consumers, making it more effective than search engines or FAQ pages. Many companies have successfully implemented an IVA program including Ikea, Ebay, and Paypal. Now, customers visiting these sites can ask “Anna“, or “Alex” or “Sarah” to help them find what they find what they are looking for or help get them the answers they need.

How Virtual Agents Can Benefit your Business

Using IVAs to help with customer service can help a company in many ways. They can converse and answer questions, giving customers personal and immediate assistance.

Consumers can chat with the representative in a way that feels familiar because it builds on the in-store customer service experience. The more self-reliant customers prefer an automated representative because they feel less inclined to rush and freely ask any and as many questions as they like.

The virtual agent has the unique ability to be everywhere at once. Human agents can only help a certain number of customers for a certain number of hours. As a company grows, maintaining a trained staff that can sufficiently respond to a growing number of buyers can be costly. AVIs can help customers find solutions without contacting customer service representatives.

Most of the information consumers are looking for is already available online. However, navigating through pages of information without help can be frustrating and potentially keep customers from returning to the eCommerce retailer. Mark Gaydos, VP of worldwide marketing for VirtuOZ explained that simply giving the customer a big repository of information and hoping they find what they need isn’t enough. “Virtual agents have the ability to instantly assist customers rather than leaving them to look for the information on their own.”

AVIs can also work as an information gatherer for the business to improve the customer’s experience when they need to speak with a human agent. Customer concerns can be transferred to the appropriate call center and provide personalized information to the customer representative making things easier and faster for both the representative and the consumer.

In Closing

As new technologies and trends develop in online shopping, AVIs allow customer services to adapt and improve along side these changes. Consumers are now able to shop with mobile devices and through social media. While many people are struggling with using search engines on new programs and devices, AVIs are making an easy transition to phone apps, Facebook, and even Second Life. As businesses experiment with new ways to reach customers, AVIs are effortlessly going along for the ride.

But when you recovered, as the serious eCommerce entrepreneur you are, you got online with the goal of looking the term up. And now you’re here, you’re interested, and you’re a little confused. What are web analytics? Are they really worth investing in? What are they going to cost me? How much time do they take?

Don’t worry, all these questions have answers. And I’ll make sure to direct you towards the experts capable of helping you have the best possible experience with analytics.

What are Web Analytics?

Web analytics are any system of taking the information about your website visitors and using it to improve your website. Simple enough, right? Unfortunately, most people who own their own website are unaware of the tools and definitions that make this field useful. How many times have you sat down and wondered why your visitor count never goes up? Or wondered which pages on your website are visited the most?

Sound like exactly what you need to help improve your site? I thought so. But now the obvious question is, how do I use them?

Well, maybe you want to start simple, test this mysterious new system out before you really dedicate yourself to them. If this sounds like you, then I would suggest starting your own Facebook Analytics page, just to see what’s up. Even the website will give you a crash course on how to use their program and why it’s useful for those businesspeople trying to reach a larger audience via Facebook fan pages. For those of you more interested in taking a direct plunge into the deep end, you can try Google Analytics, or the Webtrends Data Extraction API.

But maybe you’re still nervous, checking your payroll to see if you can afford to add web analytics, and the personnel to manage it. This is understandable, after all, how can you be sure these programs will help you improve your traffic enough to help cover their costs.

The good news? They’re free. And you won’t even need to hire an extra webmaster to manage them. Like any other part of your business, so long as you know your goals, analytics will provide you with all the information you need.

However, like anything else, analytics has its dark side. Due to the nature of humans to misunderstand and underestimate things, some programs have gotten a bad reputation they’re still trying to overcome, often due more to mistakes made than any sort of deficiency in the program itself. However, since everyone reading this blog is interested in being informed consumers, that’s nothing you have to worry about.

It sounds time consuming, doesn’t it? Before you go leafing through your accounting book again, trying to figure out whether you can afford a second webmaster, or even a temp, just take a moment to breathe and gather your thoughts. You may find that it will take far less effort than you first thought, and in no time at all, you’ll be turning your website into a highly efficient, customer pleasing machine.

Well, that seems like enough for now. Even if you were all bright enough to find this site and read this article, we have to be careful, analytics are a powerful tool, and while even a beginner can use them, there are plenty of depths left to master, such as conversion rates and cross program compatibility, as well as plenty more experts willing to lend a hand. But for now, your best bet is to go out, get an analytics program, and plug it in to start gathering data. Take some time to really see how the innards of your website work. Then, you can come back here and learn some advanced methods for using the information you’ve gathered.

Basic User Experience

Design Is Not Added Value, Design Is Value.
- Gui Bonsiepe

There are as many different theories to design as there are styles of art – all of which have their merits. However, as we discussed in Beginning UX Part 1, a website proprietor must never lose track of their customers. And although this sometimes comes at the expense of one’s own ego, the small business owner attempting to design their own website needs to remember that, it is more important to make a good website than to capture a “feel.” This is not to say a website can’t do both (in fact, the very best websites do exactly that – capture a feel while retaining functionality), but since most people don’t have the time to study art history, technique, and principles of advanced design on top of running their own business, but also can’t afford a full design firm, lets focus on what it takes to make a user experience pleasant enough to keep customers coming back.

Towards that goal, there are a few things every website should strive to do:

• Look Professional
• Be Easy To Navigate
• Give The Customer What They Want
• Be Honest With The Customer

Now, let’s take a look at how even the most basic business owner can accomplish these goals.

Designing your Website

Despite sounding difficult, creating a professional looking website and making it easy to navigate are almost identical issues. Simple things, like making menu bars visible without being obtrusive by choosing simple colors that stand out against the background, and using easy to read fonts instead of “cool” ones that may be illegible or ugly. In general, when first designing for usability, it is better to favor function over form. Think of building a website like building a car – the chassis has to be solid before you can add the fancy bodywork. And also, to keep with the car metaphor, remember to add a place for the customer to put gas in – so make your shopping cart obvious. While it seems like this might seem pushy or scare customers away, remember that the people who want to buy your product don’t want it to be a hassle, and they’re your customers.

And if you’ve gotten ambitious and feel like adding an element of social media, remember not to force someone to sign up for an account (even if it’s free), to browse or buy the goods. However, after they’ve paid, then ask them to join in order to leave comments, or for an easier shopping experience next time. Make joining a convenience, and many more people will choose to do it.

Thinking Of The Customers

Continuing on of this idea of convenience, the savvy eBusiness owner should always keep in mind that they aren’t running a brick-and-mortar store. To that end, remember to show pictures of the items, or even full panoramic rotations if you can. While it is always advisable to have a good copy and written descriptions, humans are very much visual beings. And while you can’t offer a tactile sensation of the product, it’s important to let the customer see what they’re buying. This creates a feeling of trust (remember how we talked about be you becoming their 24 hour “local” store), and establishes that you have nothing to hide. And who doesn’t want to trust their local businessperson?

And on the issue of honesty and transparency: If you’re asking someone to join your website, don’t hide the delete button after they do. While this seems illogical in the short term, you have to remember that you’re relying on a certain level of curiosity to draw them to your site in the first place. Ignoring the fact that many of your first customers with have an inquisitive nature, will lead to trouble, particularly if the lack of a delete button makes them search one out. It’s best to make them not think about the delete button any more than they have to, and to that end, we should all take a lesson from The Purloined Letter about hiding in plain sight. You don’t have to outline it in a flashing neon marquee, but make it visible enough they don’t have to hunt for it- and by doing so, display your confidence they won’t be clicking on it any time soon.

As you can see, it’s relatively simple to design a good user experience – and while basic attempts may not meet the level of the professionals (they have put a lot more time and thought into this after all), hopefully you can take these tips and build a website that is functional and easy to navigate without excessive discretionary funds. I look forward to seeing new, professional looking eCommerce sites springing up all over the web any day now, so good luck, and see you next week.

User experience, also known as UX, is the art of creating a website that makes your customers want to come back. It’s that simple. Although misunderstood today, the old adage “the customer is always right” was the brick-and-mortar equivalent of good user experience – in that by creating an atmosphere wherein the customer felt like they were in control, they would return to your business. The customer felt empowered, you got paid, and it all worked out fine for everyone, since you had the best products on the market anyway, whether you ran a restaurant, a hotel or a general store.

Enter the internet; and with it, the world of eCommerce.

Benefits of a Well-Crafted User Experience

What kind of subtle changes could you make to your product/website/application/service/business that would discretely help your customers succeed, thereby feeling better about themselves, and in turn, your brand?
- Alex Rainert (everyday UX)

There are many benefits to a well crafted user experience:

• Easier site navigation
• Viral marketing potential
• Happier customers

These are all key points, especially when you remember that, while eCommerce is a wonderful thing, it has an essential problem that brick-and-mortar stores don’t have – double blind anonymity. When you sell things online, you will meet almost none of your customers, and will get only the barest glimpse of those who contact you through email and such. This is a far cry from the days where you could know the name of your local butcher, baker, and curio seller, and while the novelty of being able to shop 24/7 was enough to sustain eCommerce in the early days, the market has become so flooded that customers can choose to shop where ever they want.

Why is UX Important?

This is where UX comes in. After all, if the customer is looking for something that sets your product above the rest, a website that makes them feel like they’re buying from more than an anonymous person on the internet can help a great deal. In particular, those who have managed to work the principles of social media into their websites are doing rather well, by allowing their customers to create an online word of mouth through Facebook and Google. A well crafted UX can turn your website (and by extension, your ad campaign, all of your hard SEO work, etc) from the traveling salesman hawking his wares on the street corner, into that village shop that all of a person’s friends like, and they just haven’t gotten around to visiting yet.

Except your store is open all day, every day – so the odds are much greater they’re going to make it in eventually.

“But,” you may wonder, “I already have a good product. Better than anyone else’s on the market in fact. Why do I need to worry about UX? Won’t a good product sell itself?”

And you’re absolutely right. Good products do sell themselves, but being the logical businessperson you are, can you deny the free advertising that comes with winning something like The FWA, or having millions of fans on Facebook? If you already have a good product, isn’t it worth the effort of putting in that time to make sure the website selling it looks as good as the product works? First impressions can be important, especially with the double edged sword that is the internet. All the metrics and web analytics in the world won’t save a website that is hard to navigate – especially if you make it hard for customers to buy your products.

But most importantly, keep this in mind as you ponder redesigning that website you made ten years ago: The internet is in constant evolution. A decade ago there was no Facebook, no YouTube, no Myspace. File sharing was in its infancy, and download rates measured in MBPs were astonishing to contemplate, much less hard drive space in terabytes. The world of computers simply moves faster than the world of brick-and-mortar, and businesses that fall too far behind are in danger of dropping out of the race. Even slow and steady progress is still progress – and remember, the hare didn’t lose because he moved too fast, he lost because he fell asleep. So ask yourself: Is your business’s website moving forward with the times? Or are you napping by the side of the information highway, letting all of those UX wielding tortoises pass you by.

Either way, it never hurts to learn a few ways to improve your website – which is why you should tune in next time for “Beginning UX (Part 2): Crafting Your User Experience” where we’ll explore improving your UX. See you then!

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