Website as Storefronts
A customer walks into the store, browses through products and
shelves, picks up items, inspects, considers the prices, chooses a product and
takes it to the cash register to pay.
Now if you want to sell your products online, then your site must
be enabled for e-commerce, where you must have the following features:
- You need to provide plenty of
content and product description like sizes, dimensions, colors and
comparisons with other similar products. It must allow the customer to choose
a product, get a clear pricing and shipping costs on the product, complete
the transaction and get an order number, and/or invoice confirmation via
email. Allow your customer to choose a shipping method.
- You must tell the customer if
the item is in stock or delivered against order. Ideally, you should have
an email contact or live help if the customer has a question. Most
importantly you must respond immediately! If you want to provide your own
live chat and help desk services on your website, specialized software's
are available for purchase.
- Be sure your customer service
links are large and clearly marked, so your client does not have to dig
around to find information.
- Provide an ‘about us’ section
or a section about your policies. If you have privacy statements and
customer satisfaction policies, your customer will feel better about
shopping in your store.
- You probably want to have
customer quotes and references on the storefront page, as well, to let
your prospective client know that others are happy with your service.
- Provide an FAQ with
information about your return-back policies, guarantees, shipping prices
and insurance charges if any.
- If you are so inclined, you
can offer a print catalogue if the customer prefers to order one from your
storefront and shop in the privacy of their homes.
- Do not annoy your customers
by presenting products that are marked ‘sold’ or pages that say ‘under
construction’ or ‘coming soon’.
- Do add new content
frequently, so your returning customers will not be bored by seeing the
same products they saw four months ago.
- If your site has got a date
tag or has current references, be careful to change these references
frequently so you don’t give the perception that nobody is attending or
reading your site.
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