E-Commerce Customer Expectations – 2. An overall professional and trust-inducing look
(Continued from E-Commerce Customer Expectations – Part 1)
Continuing with the findings of the previous article where we found these two usability points that induce customers to buy or not:
- Clear communication of price and total cost
- An overall professional and trust-inducing look
At the base of the second point is a clean and visually appealing look. I will not list any bad examples here as there are plenty of these and while they make me a little sad, I know you have seen them.
However, “visually appealing” ranks behind a “credible and trustworthy” look and “products displayed on homepage”, which we take to come from the overall user-interface and information flow.
The e-commerce arena has become increasingly competitive in terms of technical requirements. While you could get away with a basic “cart” in the late 90’s, nowadays even entry-level online stores are expected to provide the an extensive functionality list. This certainly is the main reason why Magento, the leading open-source platform enjoys so much popularity.
What we gather from these findings is that the stakes have gone up significantly, and that looks and user experience have to be delivered at a high level and go hand in hand to maximize sales.
