Continuing our E-commerce and online shopping, we are going to take a look at the importance of an ecommerce sites appearance and its security.
Just like the more traditional stores, online stores need to worry about security and appearance, but what exactly does this involve with an online presence?

There are many terms that get thrown around with security online, such as SSL, payments gateways, transactions etc. Throughout this guide, we hope to give you a little more insight into how you can help improve your online ecommerce presence.

Appearance

A user usually makes up their mind on a website within the first 10 seconds. If the site is poorly designed or covered with unnecessary advertising, it can turn potential customers away. This is why it is important to have a very clear, well thought out design for your online presence.
A well thought out design can help raise the “wow” factor a customer experiences when they visit an ecommerce website. It also helps raise he customers trust in a website, as they have taken the time to produce a beautiful, functional website.

What can be done?

You can increase a customer’s trust in your online business by following some of the following points:

  • Make sure your site is secure: Make sure you have a valid SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) certificate installed on your server. Using valid SSL will make the customers web browser alert them of the secure nature of the site by displaying a padlock image in either the URL entry box or in the bottom browser bar in older browsers.
  • Show accepted payment methods: This may sound like a pretty straight forward point, however it can become complicated. Depending on what payment methods your website uses, customers may be turned away from your site. You need to display the trusted brands for online payments. If this is credit cards, show the logos of all accepted credit card brands.
  • Advertise specials and promotions: If you are offering a special or promotional service on your website, the customers need to be aware of it. One of the most common methods of promoting and offering specials and discounts with online stores is the user of “Return Client Codes” or “Coupon Codes”. These are a great way to get return business from your existing clients or to attract a new client to the site. The best way to make a customer aware of the special is to post it on the home page. A graphical banner detailing the special is a great way to attract attention and turn customers who are simply researching into purchasing customers.
  • Check for broken links and errors: It can be a very good idea to check your site monthly to make sure all links are functioning correctly. It is also a good idea to process a test transaction to make sure everything is functioning normally. Ecommerce websites usually rely on external services, such as payment gateways, therefore it is recommended to check that the services are functioning correctly to make sure you are not missing any transactions due to glitches or errors.
  • Take time with your content: Useful and well written content can increase a customer’s trust in an online store. It is important to take the time when writing product descriptions and general page content. Check for spelling and grammatical errors, and avoid cut and pasting large amounts of data from the products website.
  • Listen to customer feedback: Customers who provide feedback on a website like to see that their feedback has been considered. Attach a news page to your site and inform the customers when you have made improvements to the site.
  • Monitor your statistics: Most ecommerce packages and servers offer web statistics software and tools. It is important you monitor the stats. They can reveal useful information on how your clients move around your website, where they enter the site and where they stop browsing. IE, you notice overseas clients are leaving your website half way through the checkout process. Looking at the statistics, you notice it is at the stage where International Postage is calculated. This information is important for you, and you can look into finding cheaper alternatives for postage or offering incentives for customers overseas to purchase.
  • Have Terms and Conditions of sale: This can be a very important document or page to have on any ecommerce website. It will outline the terms and conditions of sales, as well as allow the store owner to specify return policies on goods and outline special circumstances or conditions that needs consideration during sale.
  • Implement modern security measures: Make sure you keep up to date with modern security features. Check your website and make sure all forms are secure and that the possibility of them being attacked by “bots” or “automated scripts” is as a minimal. A useful method to check that the user is human and not machine is to use a “Captcha”.

If you missed our last guide on ecommerce imagery, it can be viewed here: