Not everyone is patient to stand in long queues in a store to purchase products. Online retail stores have become the engine driving the e-commerce market. The shopping cart is like the heart of an online store. Many consumers drop off after checkout simply because they don’t feel comfortable with the transaction.
Images are the best way to promote a product. Functional images add more value. Zooming the picture and 3-d or 3600 view are some of the ways to help consumers gain confidence about what they are buying.
Price and highlighting feature of the product should be seen with the image to make the choice of the consumers more clear. The products should be easily searchable using keywords or even barcodes. It helps consumers to find their choice of products easily and quickly.
Customers should be able to save a wish list for later use. It is better to track and send them notifications about these products.
It is also important to display the products which are available and ready to ship in the shopping cart. Displaying a sorry message after ordering the product would annoy the consumers. Inventory management is an integral part of effective shopping cart.
It is not favorable to compel the consumers to pay by card. Options such as Paypal, cash on delivery or Google checkouts must be enabled. A merchant account is necessary to perform real-time payment gateway transaction.
A transparent redirect to net banking or any other banking option and smooth transition back to the shopping cart is another crucial feature. A minor mistake in payment module could prove costly.
Any details about promotional offers should be re-iterated while doing the payment. Accurate prices without any hidden charges should be displayed giving no room for surprises at the end of payment stage.
It is sometimes unnecessary to collect personal information from the clients online who would rather prefer to buy the product and finish their transaction. Logged in customers should be able to finish their purchase with their stored personal and credit card information.
Pop-up ads should be avoided in a shopping cart although it may be allowed on the other pages of the website. Single page buyouts and express checkouts are in vogue.
A progress bar indicating how many more steps to reach the final stage is a good way of keeping the consumers informed of what’s happening.
Once the order is placed the same shopping cart application should help the customers track the order. There are shopping carts which display estimated delivery time and update such details in real time.
Cancellation process should also be covered in the shopping cart in simple steps.
SSL certifications must be mandatory for web stores as they build confidence in customers about the authenticity. Payment options must also be made via secure payment gateways.
Password protection and not asking too much personal information would also be convincing to the customers. It is a recent trend to build Single Sign On (SSO) authentication and link the login with Google or Facebook or any such trusted forums.
As consumers are enticed by convenience, satisfying their demands would grow to be a larger challenge for web designers. Keeping it simple, safe and secure is the key to gain customer base.
The writer of the article is an experienced freelance ecommerce developer, working with a magento development company. Also offers custom php and wp application solutions.
Here are some features that a shopping cart should include to make it more consumer-friendly.
Product details
Images are the best way to promote a product. Functional images add more value. Zooming the picture and 3-d or 3600 view are some of the ways to help consumers gain confidence about what they are buying.
Price and highlighting feature of the product should be seen with the image to make the choice of the consumers more clear. The products should be easily searchable using keywords or even barcodes. It helps consumers to find their choice of products easily and quickly.
Saved products
Customers should be able to save a wish list for later use. It is better to track and send them notifications about these products.
It is also important to display the products which are available and ready to ship in the shopping cart. Displaying a sorry message after ordering the product would annoy the consumers. Inventory management is an integral part of effective shopping cart.
Payment of a eCommerce website
It is not favorable to compel the consumers to pay by card. Options such as Paypal, cash on delivery or Google checkouts must be enabled. A merchant account is necessary to perform real-time payment gateway transaction.
A transparent redirect to net banking or any other banking option and smooth transition back to the shopping cart is another crucial feature. A minor mistake in payment module could prove costly.
Any details about promotional offers should be re-iterated while doing the payment. Accurate prices without any hidden charges should be displayed giving no room for surprises at the end of payment stage.
Quick processing
It is sometimes unnecessary to collect personal information from the clients online who would rather prefer to buy the product and finish their transaction. Logged in customers should be able to finish their purchase with their stored personal and credit card information.
Pop-up ads should be avoided in a shopping cart although it may be allowed on the other pages of the website. Single page buyouts and express checkouts are in vogue.
Tracking
A progress bar indicating how many more steps to reach the final stage is a good way of keeping the consumers informed of what’s happening.
Once the order is placed the same shopping cart application should help the customers track the order. There are shopping carts which display estimated delivery time and update such details in real time.
Cancellation process should also be covered in the shopping cart in simple steps.
Security
SSL certifications must be mandatory for web stores as they build confidence in customers about the authenticity. Payment options must also be made via secure payment gateways.
Password protection and not asking too much personal information would also be convincing to the customers. It is a recent trend to build Single Sign On (SSO) authentication and link the login with Google or Facebook or any such trusted forums.
As consumers are enticed by convenience, satisfying their demands would grow to be a larger challenge for web designers. Keeping it simple, safe and secure is the key to gain customer base.
The writer of the article is an experienced freelance ecommerce developer, working with a magento development company. Also offers custom php and wp application solutions.
