The Five Most Commonly Encountered, Off-putting E-commerce Errors

While getting less public handwringing than during holiday season, the "abandoned shopping cart problem" continues to wreak havoc on online sales. Recently I judged a raftload of sites for the Webby Awards (my second time) and for the Inc. magazine Web Awards, as well as for my own clients. Here are the five irritants and obstacles that most frequently disrupt the visitor's shopping experience at e-commerce sites.

Lack of quick orientation for first-time visitors. What does the site sell? I've had to poke around for several minutes sometimes to understand the focus of a site. Jargon is one culprit. Another is lack of context, like an airline site that sells tickets not giving a single clue on the home page in what countries or even what continent it flies.

Explanations that don't explain. What does the product do and not do? Another basic, but it happens often that a site doesn't explain whether their "Turbocharge VT27-Plus" is a one-time download, a subscription, a Web-based service or something else. An alternative payment system's site failed to offer a clear, systematic description of how it works.

Missing prices and shipping charges. How much? You shouldn't have to put something into a shopping cart or enter your credit card information to learn how much an item costs, including shipping. Unfortunately, you still find this mistake at sites that have had plenty of time to get their act together.

Unreadable text. Say what? Creativity gone haywire seems to be the hallmark of some Web designers. Orange letters on a blue background, olive green on black, light gray on white and blue on blue were combinations that sent me packing, as did lettering too small for over-40 eyes.

Inconsistencies. Huh? One site says, "To sign up, click on the Sign Up link at the top of every page." But the site does not have any "Sign Up" link, only "Sign In." Such carelessness wastes the time of earnest shoppers and gets them frustrated and fed up, never to return.

Blunders are equally rampant at well-funded corporate sites and those from home-based businesses. The good news is that many of the errors are extremely easy and inexpensive to fix.

About The Author

Marketing guru Marcia Yudkin is the author of Poor Richard's Web Site Marketing Makeover: Improve Your Message and Turn Visitors into Buyers, from Top Floor Publishing (http://www.yudkin.com/mmakeover.htm) and numerous other books on marketing. She recently began offering Web site reviews for just $40 (http://www.yudkin.com/sitereview.htm).

marcia@yudkin.com

MORE RESOURCES:

FCC's broadband plan may help ecommerce development - EDL Consulting

FCC's broadband plan may help ecommerce development
EDL Consulting
According to Internet Retailer, the increased availability of high-speed internet will aid ecommerce on two fronts. As small businesses in rural areas begin ...

and more »

Barnes & Noble Shakes Up Executives; Names Lynch CEO - Wall Street Journal

Barnes & Noble Shakes Up Executives; Names Lynch CEO
Wall Street Journal
Lynch, 39 years old, joined the bookseller in February 2009 and has worked to develop the company's e-commerce business and launched its digital commerce ...

and more »

Profit From Ecommerce in the Cloud, with ePages - Web Host Industry Review

Profit From Ecommerce in the Cloud, with ePages
Web Host Industry Review
He begins with a bit of an overview of the German market for ecommerce, saying that only about 11 percent of the country's small businesses are selling ...

MoBeePay Announces Mobile eCommerce App - TMCnet

MoBeePay Announces Mobile eCommerce App
TMCnet
By Calvin Azuri, TMCnet Contributor Unlike PayPal (News - Alert), MoBeePay takes away the need for a web based store and moves the transaction to just about ...

Chase Paymentech and Kount Join Forces to Combat Fraud for eCommerce Merchants - MarketWatch (press release)

Chase Paymentech and Kount Join Forces to Combat Fraud for eCommerce Merchants
MarketWatch (press release)
DALLAS & BOISE, Idaho, Mar 15, 2010 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Chase Paymentech, a leading merchant acquirer and payment processor, and Kount, a Boise, Idaho-based ...

and more »

Latest Ecommerce Podcast Features Interview With Gary Ingram of The Diamond Store - Earthtimes (press release)

Latest Ecommerce Podcast Features Interview With Gary Ingram of The Diamond Store
Earthtimes (press release)
Ecommerce Podcast is a series of interviews with experts in e-commerce on a range of topics, including marketing, site design and usability, search, ...

and more »

Author Turns to E-Commerce to Augment Revenue - NY Convergence (blog)

Author Turns to E-Commerce to Augment Revenue
NY Convergence (blog)
For example, well known cooking expert and food writer Michael Ruhlman has taken to recommending cooking utensils on new e-commerce site ...

How to Succeed as a New Ecommerce Entrepreneur - Practical Ecommerce (blog)

How to Succeed as a New Ecommerce Entrepreneur
Practical Ecommerce (blog)
Many established ecommerce businesses, but also the “shoestring startup”, trying to make their mark (and dollars) with a new product, idea, or service. ...

Google mixes cloud computing with ecommerce - EDL Consulting

Google mixes cloud computing with ecommerce
EDL Consulting
Google's improved offerings to businesses come just before Microsoft is set to launch a cloud-based version of Microsoft Office, according to the E-Commerce ...

and more »

Lawsuit Alleges EBay Violates Disabilities Laws - Wall Street Journal (blog)

Lawsuit Alleges EBay Violates Disabilities Laws
Wall Street Journal (blog)
A deaf woman who claims she hasn't been able to sell items on eBay Inc.'s ecommerce Web site has filed a lawsuit saying the Internet giant ...

and more »

Google News

RELATED ARTICLES

Choosing the Right Online Shopping Cart
Are you a website owner or a web designer/developer? If either applies, I would venture to say that eventually you'll need an online shopping cart for one of your websites. In fact, almost all new websites today need some sort of ecommerce built-in, for the purpose of selling goods and services in the online marketplace.

Get Out of The Way
Get out of the way and make it easy for your visitors to find what they want.Recently I completed a report for a site that was the most 'peaceful' and among the most 'useful' I had seen in a long time.

5 Tips for Online Shopping
Shopping online has become more and more popular in America as we are all looking to save a little time and money. E-commerce sales are growing at astronomical numbers ranging from 20-25% per year.

Gooooooooooogle It!
..

Intranet Portals - Collaboration through Team Rooms
Knowledge Management for beginnersKnowledge Management (KM) can be defined simply as the process through which organizations generate value from their intellectual and knowledge-based assets. Knowledge assets are often grouped into two categories:(1) Explicit Knowledge Generally, everything and anything that can be documented, archived and codified.

Why Our Site Was Removed From The ODP
Our website, Best Of The Home, has been listed in the Open Directory Project for over a year. Recently, I conducted a search of the ODP for my site, to update it, and found that it was no longer listed in any category.

Google Catalogs - Old Gashioned Mail Order Meets High Tech Search
In addition to Google's Froogle shopping service (still in beta), which features a searchable database of online merchants, Google is also beta-testing their Google Catalog service. Google Catalogs provides a searchable central repository of hundreds of mail-order catalogs.

Working With Drop Shippers
Drop Shippers, the manufacturers or distributors who are willing to ship their products to your customers, bring a powerful benefit to ecommerce. Online businesses that engage in the wholesale-retail trade can cut down on all the hassles of shipping their products by simply establishing business relationships with drop shippers, and using them as part of their business model.

The House Of Print.Com
Publishing has always been a difficult business to promote successfully, which titles by which authors to promote, which genre, will it be fiction or non-fiction? Will they sell? Will they make money, both for the publisher and for the author? So many questions which there is no definitive answer and so the publisher takes a chance with his money and his time and resources and decides on which books to publish, promote and distribute to the bookshops. He may only distribute to bookshops in his own country and if they don't sell well enough, will not be seen by anyone else in the world.

How Measuring Key Performance Indicators Can Improve E-Commerce Strategy - Part Three
The first article of this series discussed page views per session as a kind of early warning system key performance indicator (KPI) for your website. The second discussed time on site as another warning flag.

Chinas Online Shopping May Be Booming In The Next Few Years
Data from China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) shows that till June 2004 Chinese online user has reached 87 million, of which, 7.3% has experience of online shopping.

Home Sweet Home Page
"Your home page is the world's introduction to you and your company. Make it COUNT!" - Heidi RichardsThink of your home page as the cover of your brochure.

What Are The Barriers of Implementing E-Commerce Solutions
What is electronic commerce?"Electronic commerce is about doing business electronically. It is based on the electronic processing and transmission of data, including text, sound and video.

Effective Management Of Your Customer Services
With a third party merchant account you will have a dedicated 24/7 support team to handle your credit card payment on your behalf as part of your package. You will also need to provide your own support for issues relating directly to your product.

Intranet Project - RAD or Waterfall?
Building BridgesI have often used the analogy of building a bridge to explain to business colleagues the difference between Rapid Application Development (RAD) and Waterfall.Let's say that we are in the middle ages and the Mayor of Kingston-upon-Thames is evaluating whether or not to build a bridge over the river to the north side, to replace the current ferry.

Your Readers are Publishers Too
Too often we charge ahead and treat the web as if it were just like any other medium. We know it isn't, but somehow we just can't resist retaining complete control of the creation and publication of our website and newsletter content.

Why This Is The Perfect Time To Start Charging For Website Subscriptions
If you're a writer, researcher, subject matter expert, enthusiastic hobbyist, or an authority on almost any topic, there has never been a better time to start your own subscription website or online newsletter.And if you're already publishing a hobby website, now is the ideal time to convert at least a portion of the content to fee-paid access.

A Beginners Guide To Setting Up A Successful Online Store
A beginner's guide to setting up a successful online store Online selling is by no means a simple task. To sell products online not only requires making use of high end marketing strategies but also involves lots of planning.

Web advertising e-Marketing Places!
Overview:What is web advertising?Internet Advertising is popularly known as web advertising. Internet webadvertising giving Opportunity to the advertiser to target geographic country wise, subject wise, targeted Customers only from more than 200 countries worldwide.

Products for a Successful Web Business
There are F words in business. We have seen many small businesses on the internet flourish and fulfil their dream, but sadly we have seen some flounder and fail because they had the wrong product.