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Articles went up everywhere after the Thanksgiving holiday on how online retailers are seeing a huge increase in mobile sales and stay-at-home black Friday shopping on the web.

Many retailers are changing their entire business model to accommodate more online shopping, and you should be doing the same thing!

There are many components that make an ecommerce website successful. If you miss out on these crucial components, you can very easily watch your visitors and paid traffic go to your competitor.

Customer Service:

Online retailers like Zappos.com are seeing huge gains due to their customer service. Online chat, 24/7 phone support, quick email responses are just a few techniques that Zappos boasts about. With Zappos.com, it’s never hard to get a hold of someone, and when you are speaking to their customer service department, it’s very unlikely that you will hang up unsatisfied. With policies like 365 day returns and free overnight shipping on the exchange, it’s hard to get upset.

I ordered a pair of size 11.5 dress shoes that ended up being too small. After calling, they said they would overnight me a size 12, and to just send back the other pair within two weeks. Sure enough, the following day, it was there. In a world full of online scams, customer service can go a long way, whether it’s making sure that customer places their first order or keeps coming back for more.

Take the time to write:

Whether it’s writing up a piece on how the company got started and what its goals are, or a juicy product description, it’s important to make sure you don’t cut time on content writing. Many, many people just want the “sales” and don’t want to invest the time to properly get everything up. This is a huge mistake. Throughout the entire website, content should be written to make sure you are not losing a single customer.

Take the time to write up a nice about us article that explains who you are and what you believe in. Although that might sound silly, there are many theories that indicate people don’t buy what you buy, they buy why you do. People want to buy from a company they believe in. (Check out this short 20 minute video that explains why Apple is so successful and innovative, from Simon Sinek: http://youtu.be/qp0HIF3SfI4). Also, make sure every product has lengthy product descriptions, so that you can lure them in and awe them over the product, and they know what they’re getting.

User Friendly:

We’ve talked about time and time again, and we will continue to until the web is a better place to shop. Your ecommerce website needs to have a clean, user-friendly design, that allows people to navigation through your store, products, and content very easily. The design should be very clean and should be very visually appealing and should entice people to want to shop on your website.

Also, it’s important that you don’t leave out any key shopping elements, such as the following:

- Easy access to customer reviews and testimonials
- Quick searches and search filters
- Product Photos
- Shipping options
- In or Out of Stock/Availability of Items
- Emails with Receipts, Order Info, Delivery Info, etc.
- Breadcrumb trail to easily let people know where they are in the store
- Contact information very visible but not over prominent

Many factors come into play when building, running, and maintaining a successful online store. It’s important that you consult with someone who has experience in building successful stores (notice I said successful and not just people that have built online stores). Many companies can build online stores, but few can build online stores that actually convert into sales.

Basch Solutions, LLC is a Rochester NY website design and website development company that has been building ecommerce platforms with high conversion rates since 1999. Don’t just take our word for it, check out our web 2.0 portfolio, or call some of our raving fans!