
E-commerce now makes up 10 percent of the overall retail market. While Amazon takes 49 cents out of every dollar spent online, e-commerce’s steady growth means thereâs still plenty of revenue up for grabs. However, success is unlikely for stores that canât offer pleasant shopping experiences.
Here are four things online shoppers hate, and one thatâs debatable.
Cluttered Site Navigation
What is an e-commerce website without a convenient shopping experience? In a word, faltering. Thatâs what will happen when a storeâs navigation contains too many options in a poorly designed format. It might be tempting to get real fancy on your store layout or list everything your store offers, but your homepage navigation is not the place for such business. Only top-level pages and categories should be visible, and they should be in an order that makes sense. For example, if your site sells boat accessories and pool cleaning supplies, they shouldnât be listed anywhere near each other in the navigation. Be sure to implement breadcrumbs on your site to keep the shopper clear on your store structure and how they’ve browsed.
Poor Search Filtering
Every website needs a search bar, but only if it actually aids the userâs experience. Unfortunately, many search bars donât pass this simple test, either because they donât work at all, or because they donât provide any suggested pages if a userâs query doesnât generate a match. An e-commerce site with a search bar that doesnât work is trying to give away their traffic. Donât be one of them.
Clunky Checkout Process
Online sales reached $2.29 trillion in 2017, but had three in four carts not been abandoned, that number would have been around $9 trillion. Per Statista, Q1 2018 saw steady abandonment rates. To some extent, cart abandonment is inevitable in e-commerce; the ease at which items can be added to a cart means a certain amount will ultimately be left.
However, e-retailers can insulate themselves from exorbitant abandonment rates by ensuring their checkout process is as smooth as possible. Does your autofill work correctly? Do you offer guest checkout, or require customers to make an account? Are their errors in the checkout process that could hurt your storeâs credibility? Do you offer flexible payment methods? Are your fraud filters set appropriately to avoid unnecessary chargebacks? Finally, if you donât offer free shipping, make that transparent before the customer gets to the end of checkout. Or just offer free shipping. Everybody else is.
Stingy Return Policy Â
You might be worried that having a flexible return policy will lead to higher reverse logistics costs, and you wouldnât be wrong. E-commerce return rates can exceed 30 percent. However, todayâs consumers expect a no-hassle, free returns process, and theyâre better customers when they get it.
According to one study, stores that offered free shipping saw a 475 percent increase in the amount customers spent versus before they initiated the return. You can also bolster your reverse logistics defenses by encouraging customers to leave detailed product reviews, listing all relevant product info, fixing errors made in your fulfillment process, offering at least a 30-day return window, and keeping your return policy accessible to make customers aware of any exempt items or specific guidelines.
Site Pop-Ups
Letâs be clear, pop-ups can be effective. However, itâs debatable how helpful they can be because of the ways a store could use them varies. For example, one store could have a pop-up trigger when a visitor goes to exit the screen, or they could set the pop-up to appear after 10 seconds of inaction.
Youâll inevitably annoy a portion of your customer base by implementing pop-ups, even if it generates business that otherwise may have been bounced traffic. You can limit the adverse effect of your pop-ups by making sure what youâre offering is really worthwhile. Offering âfive percent off your first purchaseâ is likely to incite eye rolls, whereas a more substantial â15 percent off and free shipping on orders over $50â carries more value to persuade shoppers who may not have been looking to purchase.
Overlook these four things online shoppers hate and youâre sure to lose purchases and diminish your loyal customer base. When in doubt on how to please shoppers, turn to KISS: Keep It Simple & Sweet. Ensure your site navigation is clean, your search functionality is operating, and your checkout process is fluid.
And please, for all that is holy, get with the times and offer a generous return policy.