Internet Marketing - Matt Bailey [123]
Just because your website works correctly doesn’t mean it is set up correctly. The function of the programming is only the beginning. The function of the instructions and the process for the user are where you need to be intimately involved in observing, testing, and analyzing. This is where you lose sales, because customers become lost in the process, unclear as to the next step.
Think Through Your Multistep Conversion Process
If your business requires multiple steps to convert, then your first step is the most critical. Getting the conversion is important, but the worst thing you can show the visitor is an error message, especially when they took the most logical action shown to them based on the layout, contrast, and call to action label. 1-800-luggage.com based a conversion action on a call to action of “add to cart.” However, the primary step was to choose the color of the luggage (see Figure 11-20). Adding the luggage to the cart produced an error message, which required the visitor to go back and select a color.
Figure 11-20: 1-800-luggage call to action: add to cart or select color?
Cases like this make the user think they did something wrong, when it is all based on the presentation of the website. Usability, at its essence, is making the task easiest for the visitor. What stands in the way of that task is usually the design, the label, or the lack of clear instructions.
In addition to required tasks, there are also unrequired tasks that seem to make their way into ecommerce applications. So, if your product has only one option, then you need to default to that option. Don’t require the visitor to take more steps than necessary to complete a simple task. In Figure 11-21, the visitor to Manhattan Fruitier has to check the item first (even though there is only one option) and then click the Add to Gift button. If the task is not performed in this order, an error is generated.
Figure 11-21: Get rid of useless steps.
PetSmart’s Add to Cart feature for a dog collar also requires a number of steps (Figure 11-22). However, PetSmart is very clear about the required information and the order in which it is needed. Rather than focus the design and therefore the visitor’s attention on the final conversion point, contrast and layout are used to bring the attention to the necessary steps needed to add this product to the cart. The visitor clearly sees the priority of actions, understands the steps, and is able to take them, and the process is clear.
Figure 11-22: PetSmart.com multistep conversion process
Assess Your Checkout Steps
In ecommerce sites, the lack of clear “next steps” or a specifically labeled action point to move forward in the process will hurt your sales. When the process is unclear or the next step is hidden, the visitor leaves. Unclear steps result in low sales.
Using a “temperature bar” that shows the visitor which step they are on and how many steps are left is critical to showing them what kind of time and commitment will be required to complete the conversion. The Hilton website uses the temperature bar at the top of the page to inform visitors of the stages in the process and where they are in the process (see Figure 11-23).
In a typical session, the visitor will go to the shopping cart in order to view their items. So, what is the next step after viewing their items and the final price? The checkout. Unfortunately, this is where many ecommerce companies just simply fail in this step.
Figure 11-23: Hilton website’s “temperature bar”
Figure 11-24 shows Manhattan Fruitier’s checkout page. The steps are not only unclear, but there are no differences among the button options. The most critical in this placement is that the Cancel Order button is on the far right where the checkout button usually is! The danger of visitors accidentally