In just its first-quarter earnings this year, Amazon reported a revenue of at least $75.45 billion. But nobody really needs to be told how big or successful Amazon is, or that it’s had an overwhelming influence on the marketing industry.

While e-commerce has evolved in the last 20 years, it was Amazon that did the most to alter how we buy, sell, and transact. During that time, the company has not only been able to adapt to the constant changes in shopping and technology trends, it’s been among the most innovative companies in the world, and now claims most of the e-commerce market.

Amazon changed the economics of how we shop.

According to survey data from Pew, in 2000 only 22% of Americans had ever shopped online, now 80% do, at least somewhat regularly. From its beginning in 1995 as a bookseller, its ability to innovate and constantly reinvent itself made it the powerhouse that dominates the market today.

While most other online stores at the time stuck to one type of product or service, Amazon did the exact opposite and expanded what it offered to its consumers.

This decision to diversify their services with the market trends allowed them to continually meet the interests and expectations of their customers. As a result, Amazon cemented itself as a leader in the ecommerce market, helping it evolve to the customer’s benefit.

A steady marketing evolution.

In the 2000s, besides selling almost everything you could ever want, Amazon opened up its platform to third-party retailers, and now sells more than 12 million different products, from sausages to sunflower seeds. This also meant it became easy for customers to compare prices and products, and see reviews, in a way that was impossible in person.

In 1997 Amazon introduced one-click shopping. Until 2017, Amazon was the only online retailer that offered this purchasing method to customers, where customers didn’t need to re-enter their information if they had shopped there previously. Instead, with just one click, the order would be ready.

In 2005 it launched Amazon Prime, streamlining the ordering process, allowing customers to choose their ordering process, receive a free two-day or same-day delivery, and stream their favourite movies and TV shows. Amazon then expanded this with their return policy that allows dissatisfied customers to return their product for a full refund.

And now we have the Amazon Effect.

Amazon’s impact in the ecommerce world is often summarized in one phrase: The Amazon Effect, which refers to the difficulty many companies face when directly competing with Amazon.

Amazon’s huge product selection, fast shipping 7 days a week, free returns, low prices and ‘Prime’ subscription service, all create high customer expectations for any retailer hoping to compete.

But of course this is just one aspect of how Amazon has changed ecommerce, because if other retailers do hope to compete, they must follow Amazon’s example by adapting their services to better meet their customers’ needs.

At Harrison Carloss we can integrate delivery platforms directly into your ecommerce website, making delivery quicker and seamless for both you and you’re customers. Get in touch with our team today to find out more.

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1. Unexpected costs.

One of the main reasons visitors leave without buying is unexpected costs. 25% of customers specifically cite shipping costs as the primary reason driving them away.

Solution: The most obvious answer is to remove shipping costs. If that’s not feasible, make them transparent while the customer is browsing. You could also bundle the extra cost into the product cost itself, or let customers know they can bypass shipping fees if they meet a certain threshold. This can also increase Average Order Value.

2. Trust/payment security.

When asked to hand over their personal and financial information, many customers are rightly concerned about website security. Major causes for suspicion include design flaws, outdated layouts, missing trust logos and no SSL certificate.

Solution: Show customers that their information is secure. Have a valid SSL certificate. Show trust symbols on your site such as well-known security logos (Verisign, PayPal Verified)

You could also use customer testimonials, product reviews, endorsements, and provide your full contact information.

3. Researching to buy later.

Around 37% of abandoned carts are left by people who are just browsing.

Today, online shoppers use the internet for more than buying; they research products, brands, and deals.

Often, customers will add items to a cart in order to easily reference items with the intention of coming back. Many will return several times before making a purchase, perhaps on a different device or channel.

Solution: Remarket to customers who abandon their shopping carts. If you don’t, you’re restricting yourself to just one shot at getting visitors to convert in a single session.

4. Having to create a new user account.

Customers expect convenience, want to do things quickly and have instant results. What they don’t want is to spend time and effort creating a new user account. 28% of all shoppers say this is why they’ve abandoned carts.

Solution: Don’t force first time buyers to create an account before they can complete their order. Offer guest checkout, or better still, take them straight to guest checkout if they’re not logged in. Then you can display a text widget asking if they have an account. If not, simply begin the checkout process.

5. Long and confusing checkout.

As in point 4, long and confusing checkout processes are annoying to customers. Unnecessary forms only contribute to a poor experience, resulting in 28% of shoppers abandoning their carts. You should aim to limit the time and effort needed from them.

Solution: Minimize form elements and only ask for necessary information. Streamline your site’s navigation and reducing the number of screens from initiation to completion. If your payment provider allows it, why not offer Apple or Google Pay for one click purchases.

6. Couldn’t find a coupon code.

Customers are hot on deals. If they can’t find a coupon or promotional code, they’ll look for one elsewhere. 8% of customers say not being able to find a coupon code is the primary reason for abandoning their cart.

Solution: Set a coupon to automatically apply to the cart for your customers. Most carts have the ability to do this, and can be applied via emails or pop-ups.

7. No express shipping available.

Nobody wants to have to wait for delivery. If you can’t deliver the goods in time, customers will abandon their carts.

Solution: Offer express shipping at checkout or bundle the extra cost into the product cost itself. Customers are more willing to spend more for expedited shipping. Or let customers know they can bypass shipping fees if they meet a certain threshold. This can also increase AOV.

8. Website had errors/crashes.

Website errors, crashes, and poor load times are no encouragement to complete a purchase.

Solution: Make regular checks on your site, right through from home page to checkout, ensuring that your site is still up to date and free of issues. Do these checks across a variety of screen sizes, especially mobile. You can also check your site speed through a free service like Google Pagespeed Insights.

9. Returns policy wasn’t satisfactory.

It turns people off if you put time limits on your returns, or charge for them, maybe in the form of shipping. Up to 66% of shoppers say they’d spend more if there was a good returns policy.

Solution: Track the number of returns and associated costs, then try offering free 30 day shipping. Run the test for a month or two and see what effect that has, compare this to the added costs and see if free 30 day return is a profitable strategy.

10: Lack of customer support.

Customers appreciate great service. A study found that 83% of online shoppers want help while on-site. Over half (51%) said they were more likely to make a purchase if they had customer support such as live chat during the session.

Solution: Try investing in live chat technology for a month or two and see if it improves customer shopping experience enough to have a measurable effect on sales.

Other things you can do:

The personal approach.

When you get an abandoned cart, reach out and personally ask them if there’s anything you can do to help. You might discover they had a coupon code that didn’t work, a problem with getting a card authorized or some other question.

Use cart abandonment emails.

If it happens at the end of the checkout and you have their email address, email to notify them that they left items in their cart. Follow this up with 1 or 2 additional emails spread out over the next 24 hours.

Looking to overhaul your eCommerce?

We offer a comprehensive eCommerce web design package to give your products the best platform for sales. Using tried and tested WooCommerce technology, we use a combination UX/UI and digital marketing techniques to help boost sales and keep your customers happy. Get in touch with the team and see what we can do for you!

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Website templates: the good points.

The benefits of website templates is, not only are they cheap, they’re easy and quick to get up and running. As that, they’ll allow just about anybody to build a low budget website, and you don’t need to be a coding whiz to create one. You don’t even need to know HTML and CSS. (A few of the coding languages of the web.)

Fair enough – as long as you’re satisfied with the limitations. But what if your ambitions happen to go higher than a quick, cheap and easy stop-gap measure website?

Website templates: the not so good points.

Ok, so you’ve gone with a template for your website. But precisely because templates are so quick, cheap and readily available, chances are that your competitors – and countless other businesses – are using the same website template as you.

So your website template isn’t unique, but so what?

It means your website’s look and feel – your brand’s ‘personality’ – is just a copycat of lots of others. Something else to consider is that website templates aren’t designed with search engines in mind, so they come low in the search rankings. Nor are they so hot on browser compatibility. None of which is ideal, especially if your website is your only ‘shop front’.

And don’t go thinking you can just customise your web template yourself. Web elements like images, videos and text are challenging with website templates, which only allow for so much to be changed. So you may not be able to do what you want.

With a custom designed website, you can.

Why is a custom designed website better than a website template? First off, it’ll be totally unique to you and your business. It’ll also stand out from the crowd and give you a competitive edge. It can be built to do whatever you want, and it’ll give your customers the user experience you want them to have.

With no restrictions, your site can always be developed and enhanced down the line, allowing it to grow with your business. And – importantly – custom websites are more search engine friendly than website templates, so they tend to rank higher on search engine.

Now you know why we don’t use templates at Harrison Carloss.

Using advanced UX/UI technology that’s fluid, natural, future-proof and user intuitive, we work with you to create amazing-looking and responsive web platforms that make you stand out in a crowded online world and grow your business.

Just give our team a call ?

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A web host allows your website to be viewed on the Internet. Your web host stores your website on a large-scale computer called a server. And when internet users want to view your website, they simply type your website address – your domain name – into their browser. Their computer then connects to the server, and your webpages are delivered to them through the browser.

Simple. Except that it isn’t.

There are lots of web hosting service providers out there, and you should expect more from one than just getting your site on the internet. You need a host who‘ll keep your site well maintained. Keep it secure from potential hackers. Deal promptly with any technical issues that might arise. Know how to handle backups, malware and virus scanning. Fix broken links. Manage your domain names. And the rest.

And what if your website went down?

How long would it take you to notice? To get it back online? How many leads would you miss out on? When running a business, the last thing you want to be worrying about is cyber security or the health of your website. And with our full service website support, you won’t ever need to.

Hosting for the ultimate peace of mind.

Our monthly website hosting and support plans ensure that your website is always online and running efficiently.
Not only that, we have a unique customer support portal which will give you access to our dedicated support team who can help with any issues your website might experience. The portal also offers you a simple and concise overview of how your website is performing by linking data from Google Analytics, so you’re never in the dark.

Our packages include:

• Fully Managed Hosting
• SSD storage
• Unlimited bandwidth
• Daily backups
• SSL security certificate for your website
• Monthly security checks of your website carried out by our expert team
• Monthly plugin and compatibility updates for your website carried out by our expert team
• Access to our customer support portal
• Access to our analytics portal providing daily updates to monitor your site’s performance

Get in touch with our team, and enjoy a stress and worry free way to run your website!

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There is a danger of SEO “specialists” “Gurus” or any other buzz word we can think of, to become overly focused on SEO. Of course it’s important – but so is the user experience. It’s quite common for websites to be so focused on other aspects of SEO that the user experience is poor.

For example, we are familiar with the idea that “content is king”, therefore make tons of great content and visitors will come. But unfortunately it’s a rather outdated statement. Today great content is just not enough — Satisfaction is an actual ranking factor, and it doesn’t come solely from the relevant content but also the Website Interface and User Experience.

It’s easy to emphasise a keyword. It’s much more difficult to stop visitors from clicking the back button on your website when they don’t find what they’re looking for. Satisfaction is very difficult to deal with — perhaps that’s why Google and other search engines place so much attention on it.

User Experience Metrics

Bounce rate, time on site and returning visitors are User Experience metrics.

There are still some SEO guru’s who do not believe in User Experience. But when we are talking about user experience, we are talking about how fast the pages load, how easy it is for visitors to navigate around your website and to find what they are looking for, how awesome your website is on the eye, amongst other factoring elements.

Practically if you do these, you are improving user experience. And guess what, the number one reason why everyone is not improving User Experience is because apparently it’s expensive to hire a creative UX agency when they have a cousin who once worked at google and that once tried to design a website. But hear this out:

“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design“ — Dr Ralf Speth, CEO Jaguar.

Metric #1: Page Loading Speed

The UX begins when the user clicks on your website. If they have to wait ten seconds or more for your site to load, they will leave your site. Site speed has long been a factor in SEO rankings, but it also provides users with a first impression of your site.

The bottom line is that longer load times directly affect your conversions and ultimately your bottom line as a result. According to a study done by Kissmetrics, every second past the ideal loading time of three seconds costs you a 7% reduction in sales!

Metric #2: Site Navigation

Something that defines a high-quality UX is how quickly and easily visitors can access various parts of your site. The best way to ensure is this is through the use of effectively designed menus and submenus. As a rule, make sure it doesn’t take more than two to three clicks for visitors to find anything on your site. One click for the category, and one for the post or page. Anything more and you risk overcomplicating the process.

Metric #3: Mobile Responsiveness

In April 2015, Google released a new algorithm update that focused on sites that were mobile responsive. This term refers to a website’s ability to display itself in a readable format on both a desktop and a mobile device. If it looks great on one, but looks poor on another, then Google’s update tanked their search rankings.

So it became clearer that Google is all about a high-quality UX. Since most people are now browsing the web on mobile devices, this kind of approach makes sense. People should be able to have the same level of quality on their mobile devices, especially since they use them primarily.

User behaviour in search results

We read an article that describes how Google engineers figured out how to improve search results by mining their user behaviour data:

…Google could see how satisfied users were …The best sign of their happiness was the ‘long click’ – this occurred when someone went to a search result, ideally the top one, and did not return. That meant Google has successfully fulfilled the query. But unhappy users were unhappy in their own ways, most telling were the ‘short clicks’ where a user followed a link and immediately returned to try again. “If people type something and then go and change their query, you could tell they aren’t happy,” says Patel. “If they go to the next page of results, it’s a sign they’re not happy.”

How do YOU improve satisfaction?

There are two types of SEOs: those that try to satisfy robots, and those that satisfy users.

The robot-focused SEOs build pages with just the right keywords and title tags, hoping to attract the bots on relevancy. I say “try” to satisfy robots, because search engines are actually watching the users. If the users aren’t happy, neither are the bots.

The user-focused SEOs works with the same keywords and title tag, but then they go one step further and ask their users to try the site. After that, they do whatever it takes to make their users happy.

Until next time…. Harrison Carloss out!!

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