RatioSE - E-Commerce Best Practice Guide

e-Commerce Best Practice Guide

e-Commerce

BEST PRACTICE GUIDE

There are some standard practices and features that outstanding e-Commerce platforms
follow and ensure their web sites contain

The following guide will help us and our clients deliver exceptional e-Commerce customer
experiences. Not every feature applies to every web site, but trying to ensure that most of
these are included in the planning, design and development

Page 2 Ratio Software Engineering 2020


1. Overall site design and architecture

The way your website is designed and laid out makes a huge difference to a customer’s experience.
Design trumps functionality, by a huge margin - the entire marketing industry has been driven by this
fact for more than 100 years. The design should fit your audience and your design should channel your
customers to where you want them to go.

❖ Make sure the design, visuals and user interface flow in the direction you want - always use a
UX/UI professional to build the designs
❖ Build trust using elements such as displaying a security badge, shipping and returns policies, and
secure payment options
❖ Make sure your logo is prominently displayed on the home page (and every page) - ensure it is
high resolution, clean and visible, and make it link to the home page, it’s what visitors expect it to
do.
❖ Use colours and fonts consistently across the site
❖ Avoid unnecessary animations and carousels - it’s considered bad practice and distracting
❖ Provide live chat so customers can ask questions in real-time
❖ Give your customers multiple ways to contact you and make it visible everywhere on your site
❖ Do everything you can to speed up page loading time – this is a search ranking factor and also
influences user experience and conversion rates
❖ Have the email newsletter signup form on every page (generally in the footer)
❖ Have links to your social pages on every page
❖ Display a shopping cart at the top in case people saved items
❖ Make sure your ecommerce site is responsive and test it on all devices and browsers
❖ Show the checkout button clearly on each page
❖ Apply breadcrumbs on each page to help people find the products or pages they nee



2. Security

If customers don’t feel safe on your site, they won’t buy from you - if your site isn’t secure, someone will
try to rob you (or more realistically, your customers)

❖ Ensure your e-commerce website is secure and that your SSL certificate applies across your
entire site, not just to checkout pages. Make sure that your SSL certificate never expires (diarise
the expiry date!)
❖ Check that your url bar is showing the secure padlock and that the url says “https:” rather than
just “http:”.
❖ Make sure your website is professionally backed up on a regular basis by your service provider
❖ Conduct a PCI check and complete your PCI Self Assessment as a minimum. The potential fines
for failing a PCI check after a fraud incident will almost certainly bankrupt your business; if the
reputational damage doesn’t.

3. Take a mobile-first approach to design

Understand clearly that right now (2020) the average amount of internet traffic that will come to your
website originating from a mobile device will be at least 50%. And that number will grow every year. You
should never build a website that does not work fully on a mobile device; if you do you are potentially
losing half of the revenue that you could be earning.

❖ Build in time for your design to ensure it works on at least 2 mobile breakpoints (tablet and
mobile)
❖ Make sure it works across Android and iOS devices up to the most recent Apple iPhone device
❖ Optimise forms for mobile
❖ Optimise pop-ups for mobile
❖ Ensure cross-device checkout capability



4. Content

Think about the messages that you want to relay - treat content as a conversation, not a one way street.
And keep your text short and sweet. Modern website design preferences reduced text content and more
use of images and media.

❖ Include useful and informative information such as product reviews, testimonials, tutorials,
helpful internal or external resources, radio or podcast interviews, articles and/or recent news
about your brand or industry
❖ Content should be helpful and well-written, and also contribute towards your SEO
❖ Check for spelling errors, typos, and grammar mistakes
❖ Create a personal connection with an About Us page and photos of your team.
❖ Ensure formatting is consistent
❖ Include strong calls-to-action with engaging text to convert visitors to customers.
❖ Content should be ‘scannable’ using H1 and H2 formatting and tags
❖ Make your visitors feel at home and increase conversions by personalising your website as
much as possible
❖ Include helpful contact and FAQ pages, as well as privacy, shipping and returns policies, and
display links to these on every page, usually in the footer
❖ Display links to all your social media pages and make it easy to share information or blogs from
your site using sharing buttons.



5. The home page

Manage What Your Customers See First - this is your biggest moment and sometimes your one and only
chance so don’t waste it. Give visitors a reason to stay. A poorly designed home page is the no.1 cause of
high bounce rates; a boring home page equals visitors who leave and go elsewhere.

❖ Make this a clear summary page of who you are and what you do – and this value proposition
should flow throughout your site.
❖ Include at least one paragraph of text, more if possible.
❖ Design your homepage as a gateway into all the major sections of your website, answering the
needs of all your customer segments.
❖ Avoid carousels unless you really need them – they take up space, slow down your site and they
have become, frankly, pretty tacky
❖ Make sure your logo is prominently displayed on the home page (and every page) - ensure it is
high resolution, clean and visible
❖ You home page MUST have links to your most popular products (use analytics to inform this)
❖ Have CTAs (Calls to Action) to push people to important pages
❖ Have a clear search field at the top of your site
❖ Display any specials, promotions or free shipping options
❖ Include a latest news area
❖ An area to display popular brand logos or images, if you have these in your product catalogue
❖ A store finder link if you have physical stores as well as an online store

6. Navigation

Nobody will buy your stuff unless they can find it. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that the way your
products are ordered in your ERP system or back office spreadsheets is also obvious to your customers -
they may not think like you. Start by thinking about how you would find things if you didn't know exactly
what you were looking for. Bad navigation is probably the most common error on e-commerce sites -
and it has the potential to lose you a lot of revenue if you get it wrong.



❖ Make sure your navigation menu is simple and uses familiar terms
❖ Organise products in a way that makes sense. Taxonomy on an e-commerce website is an art
and a science – spending time on it is worth it.
❖ Include filters on category and product pages to help customers find what they want.
❖ Chose the type of menu carefully to fit your content (Megamenu, Vertical, Horizontal,
Fixed/Sticky, Fat Footer etc)
❖ Make sure the menu is responsive, but don’t use hamburger menus on the desktop view - it’s an
annoying gimmick

7. Forms

Everyone, but everyone, hates filling in forms. You want your customers to fill in forms because you
want information from them. Usually they fill in the forms because they want to get to something from
you. DON'T make it into a barrier.

❖ Forms are perceived to be a friction for most visitors and cause bouncing. So, limit forms to only
be used when absolutely necessary – and then make them as short as possible
❖ Auto-fill forms wherever possible, especially for repeat customers
❖ Don’t ask for things you don’t need. Are you really going to call the customer on his phone? If
not, then don’t ask for his mobile phone number
❖ Design forms so they are easy to fill in. Avoid drop down lists, they are UX/UI hell. Don’t force
users to enter data in a particular format unless you have a 100% business reason to do so -
most humans know their post code, they don’t need you to tell them how to format it
❖ When someone submits an order or form, they should be taken to a thank you page and receive
an auto-response email
❖ Be GDPR compliant (and polite!) explain why and what you will use their data for



8. Product Pages

Don’t assume that visitors get to your product pages via your homepage first. There is a good chance
that when people find your ecommerce site through search engines they land on a particular product
page. This means that you need clear information on each page, along with relevant tools, guides and
media to push people to buy the products.

❖ When people click a link in search results and are taken directly to a category or product page,
that page creates their first impression of your website.
❖ On both category and product pages, use uniform product photos. It is a design factor that
creates a clean and calm user experience and drives conversions
❖ Use the filters carefully and logically. Only use filters that are linked to the products in that
category. Use enough to narrow down decision making.
❖ Category names need to be descriptive and clear
❖ Optimise the product title so potential customers can easily see what it is.
❖ Show the product code or SKU on the product page
❖ Supply as much product information as possible, so they know exactly what they’re getting,
including photos, detailed specs, sizes and colours.


❖ Display high quality, optimised images from multiple perspectives and if possible, with zoom or
3D rotational functionality.
❖ Where needed include visible reminders to choose quantity, size and colour before adding to
cart.
❖ Make sure the actual size of the product is very clear. For example, provide clothing or jewellery
sizing charts, or show an art piece in relation to a standard couch.

❖ Make sure the price is clear. The price for discounted products should be struck through, with
percentage discounts shown.
❖ If possible, display live inventory levels so that buyers can see how many items are available
❖ Make it clear if a product is sold out and offer relevant alternatives. Also decide whether to
allow back ordering or notifications when the product becomes available again.
❖ Include any other useful content such as how-to guides or videos about the product.
❖ Highlight the Add To Cart button and offer an Add To Wishlist option.
❖ Add buttons that make it easy to share the product to social media.
❖ Cross-sell and up-sell by using “other customers who bought this also bought…”,
“recommended/related products” or “accessories you may need when buying this product” –
and personalise this as far as possible (35% of Amazon’s revenue comes from cross selling and
up selling)

9. The Shopping cart

We got there. Your customer is now poised to buy; now is the time to minimise any distraction and help
them focus on the product and the final purchase process. The shopping cart is a critical part of the
purchase process – make sure it works for you and your customers.


One of the most significant metrics for e-commerce is “abandoned carts” - do everything you can to
ensure this doesn't happen - the global average cart abandonment rate is 75%. Just to reinforce that - it
means that, on average, 3 out of every 4 of your customers will drop out during the purchasing process.
Just stop for a moment and imagine if that was happening in the queue in your local supermarket.

❖ Make the shopping cart, the number of items in the cart and order total visible in the header so
the visitor can see it wherever they are on the site
❖ Display the checkout button prominently
❖ Ensure customers can easily change the number and size of products in their cart
❖ Make it easy for customers to delete items in their cart or, even better, save products for later.
❖ Ideally keep products in a cart for 30 days, as customers sometimes browse and come back later
to complete their purchase. Inform the customer when their cart will be cleared to avoid
disappointment.
❖ Ideally allow users to access their cart anywhere, anytime, even from another device, by
associating it with their account.
❖ Make shipping costs and timeframes clear throughout the checkout process, and offer more
than one option (collect from store etc if you can)
❖ If you offer free shipping over a certain threshold, remind customers of this to tempt them to
add more to their cart
❖ Make several payment options available, with reputable badges, so customers can choose which
one they’re most comfortable with
❖ Send emails automatically at regular intervals to customers who abandon their carts.

10. Checkout process


Your customer went from filling their shopping cart and is now in the queue at the checkout. This is the
last step and the last chance for you to screw things up. So make sure that your checkout process works.
At this point on a lot of sites, barriers appear; users have to register (why?) or provide a lot of detail in
order to purchase. When you go to the supermarket, does the checkout operator ask for all your
personal details? What would you do if they did?

❖ Allow customers to order as ‘visitors’. Then integrate their registration into the checkout form,
providing an easy option to opt-in or -out. DO NOT FORCE customers to create an account
before they place their order. There is no business reason on this earth why they should need to
do this.
❖ Ensure you capture emails as early as possible, so you can follow up with customers should they
abandon their cart.
❖ Make checkout as quick and easy as possible, preferably one page. If you are using multiple
pages, show a progress indicator as they move through the process.
❖ Consider saving as much information as possible for repeat customers, so they don’t have to fill
in their personal and delivery details every time. Ask your payment gateway about saving and
displaying previous credit card details too
❖ Offer a space to type in promotional codes, but display this out of the way so it’s not distracting.
❖ Ensure that password recovery is quick and easy.
❖ Invite customers to continue shopping after they’ve checked out.
❖ Include explanations and advice on filling in fields that may be technical or not common
knowledge, for example, the CVV field.
❖ During checkout, the header and footer (and everything else from the main website) should be
removed from view, so customers aren’t distracted from the checkout process, or accidentally
click away
❖ Set up your system to automatically send a post-purchase receipt with details of what they
bought, delivery information, useful product information, an option to cancel, and an invitation
to join your loyalty club or sign up for notifications of new products.
❖ Provide delivery tracking and information via email or sms until the package (if there is one) is in
the customer’s hands.
❖ Send an invitation to review the product a few weeks later.
❖ Accept as many different payment methods as possible; not everyone has the same credit card
as you
❖ Make sure the security and payment seals are most prominent during checkout so that
customers feel safe and know what payment methods they can use
❖ Refrain from asking for a survey response after checkout; save this for a later follow up email -
nobody is going to respond at this point



11. Post purchase process and follow ups

We all know that it takes time to convert a visitor into a customer and then a loyal customer, so do
everything you can to save money, and automate the process of bringing them back to your site. Invest
in email marketing automation software as well as retargeting advertising to do this for you.

❖ Build an email list by either including a pop up form to capture addresses (intrusive, and can
annoy visitors if done badly) or offering sign up from the footer or CTAs on the page
❖ Follow up with useful information about the product they have bought.
❖ Send occasional and relevant promotions that you know they would be interested in.
❖ Build a loyalty programme so it becomes desirable and worthwhile to stay in contact with you.
❖ Offer a discount code if they haven’t ordered again after a few months
❖ Ask for reviews in exchange for specials and discounts
❖ Send a promotion for abandoned carts



12. Use SEO to ensure your site is found by new customers

Your site needs to be found by visitors who might not know you exist or who don’t immediately know
how to find you. Optimising your pages and content helps you move up the search rankings and capture
the critical first page on Google or Bing search pages. Good SEO takes effort and time - and needs to be
revisited and refined on a regular basis.

❖ Keep the URLs of all pages clean, short and descriptive.
❖ Give every page on your website a unique title tag that includes your keyword and brand name.
❖ Include a well structured meta description on every page – this shows below your search engine
listing and helps with click-through rates.
❖ Optimise the text on each page with the primary keyword or key-phrase and its variations.
❖ Each page should ONLY have one H1 tag.
❖ Optimise image file names and alt text to include primary keywords.
❖ For expired product pages, consider permanently 301 redirecting to a new or replacement
product. Otherwise, if the product doesn’t have a replacement or similar version, redirect to the
parent category.
❖ Ensure that you have compelling descriptions for your strongest products
❖ Make use of user-generated content to differentiate pages from other pages on your site and
from supplier pages - ask your customers to send you product reviews and personal stories
❖ Audit your site regularly to identify basic problems with indexing, duplicate content and broken
links
❖ Generate HTML and XML sitemaps on your website and submit them to Google and Bing
❖ Use SEO tools to track your rankings

13. Analytics and Reporting

You need to use analytics if you expect to understand visitor browsing behaviour and conversion
metrics - without good analytics and reporting you are operating in the dark. Analytics and reports will
guide you into understanding what your strengths and weaknesses are - what products sell best, where
your visitors go to on your site - and where your best successes and failures are.

❖ Integrate Google Analytics into your website as soon as you launch.
❖ If you are launching a new site consider setting up a “coming soon” pre-launch site page at least
a month before launch and enable GA so that you can gather early data on visitor traffic


❖ Set up Google alerts to monitor any mentions of your brand name.
❖ Regularly monitor your website’s page performance Use Google Search Console and Bing
Webmaster Tools to check frequently for errors on your site.
❖ Monitor any social media profiles you have, and include this in your regular analytics and
reporting - try to analyse where visitors and buyers are coming to you via your social media
accounts. Don’t spend money on social media advertising unless it’s clearly generating business
and revenue for your platform

14. Back end system Integrations save time and money

If you operate back office systems like a CRM, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), PIM (Product
Information Management) or Marketing platform then integrating this into your e-commerce platform
can provide huge savings on back-office processing and manual administration

❖ Automate as much as possible to eliminate errors and unnecessary admin
❖ Stock control is a key factor - if you can integrate your product catalogue into your stock and
ordering systems then you will eliminate a lot of failed orders and unhappy customers
❖ If you operate a bricks and mortar business alongside your website then a centralised CRM that
combines online customers and customers who shop in store is essential - it's far more cost
efficient to have customers shop online; integrated customer records will enable you to drive
your business online


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