Published on May 25, 2010 The little things do matter: 5 essential things your online shop must do
Getting your shopping cart website established and loaded with products is just the start of starting an online shop. There are many things that people overlook, and it is these things that become traps to business owners.
Here is a quick list of ten things that you should make sure that your online shop does do. It’s not everything that’s important but these are some of the things that many people overlook.
1. The Copyright Date – This Year
A valid copyright can be claimed from the date you first had that copyright or the most recent year that you hold it, but in ecommerce perception is everything and consumers do not know the ins and outs of law. If a consumer looks at your site and it says (C) 2003 Your Co, they don’t think “This company has been operating since 2003”, they think “Whoa that site is out of date”. So ask your ecommerce provider to ensure that their shopping cart software always puts in this year’s date in the copyright.
2. SSL padlock
SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. It’s computer jargon for the encryption system used to protect your personal details on the checkout of your store. A site protected by SSL encryption usually shows a padlock in the address bar of your browser, and consumer protection groups often tell consumers to look for padlocks on checkout. So even if your website doesn’t technically NEED SSL to meet your compliance requirements at the Bank, it’s a good idea to purchase SSL for your store anyway. As above, perception is everything in ecommerce.
3. Ipsum Lorem
When ecommerce websites are built, web designers put in padding text that looks like this: Ipsum Lorem Dolor. This text originated in the printing industry and is frequently used on websites today. While it’s good to fill out the pages so you can see what they look like, when customers see this type of text on your website it either shows them that you haven’t finished your site, or they think you speak a foreign language and don’t want to buy from you. Always check that you’ve removed any incomplete pages in your site.
4. Returns, Payment and Shipping Pages
If you’re accepting credit cards, your Bank will require you to have sound policies for returns, payment and shipping. Many people accepting other methods of payment like Paypal overlook these important options. Even if your bank requires you to have policies they will not review your policies, so you need to make sure they are appropriate to the type of industry that you are in. If your policies aren’t fair to your customers, nobody will buy from you.
5. Checkout
Test your checkout. Do you have the options you want turned on? Do the shipping prices you have turned on make sense? Do you have extra payment methods turned on that you don’t want to accept? Do you have your store name turned on in the contact page? Do you have your store address and ABN published?
There are lots of things to consider, but these are things that many online shops forget, and that can cost them sales.
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