Along with the Social media websites, businesses with online commerce is also taking the cream off the internet! From Amazon to eBay, there are online markets appearing everywhere! So what is e-commerce? As we learnt in class, E-commerce involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals.
E-Commerce today is very helpful to both consumers and business. This is because of the SEVEN Unique Features Of E-Commerce as given in the table below.
I won't go into the details of these features as we have learnt them in the class but these features have made e-commerce very easy to use.
Now that we know what it is, lets find out what we need to do to attract consumers if we make our own e-commerce website.
Firstly, to attract consumers, we need have a precise idea of WHO our consumers are. Once we know who our consumers are and what would attract them, we start with our website.
In 1997, the American Management Association surveyed 3,500 of its members on the business use of the Internet and identified three human interface design issues among the top six obstacles to increased e-commerce: slow response time, lack of user friendliness, and poor web site design. Two years later, Anders reports these are still among the critical success factors for an e-commerce site. The primary factor in determining e-commerce user loyalty, according to Anders, is having a web site that is "user friendly and easy to navigate." The other leading success factors are good previous experience, fast response time, and relevant, frequently updated content.
Secondly, the web site should be human friendly so using a human interface design becomes a necessity to attract users. Designing the human interface to an e-commerce web site should focus on gaining the user's attention, orienting the user to the business that will be transacted, and retaining the user's attention. The goal is to achieve active participation by the user in the web site. This requires understanding how to extend the human perception of the business transaction in such a way that the computer, and thus the web site itself, becomes virtually transparent.
There are three components of a user interface design for software user interfaces that are still relevant for discussing or evaluating e-commerce web sites. First, there is the user's conceptual model that helps the user anticipate the effect of the input he/she provides to the web site. The second component is the information presented by the web site, which should be consistent with the user's conceptual model. Finally, there is the feedback provided by the web site in response to user input.
To learn more about conceptual model, please visit the website: http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds7-1/ecuser.html
Information presentation is also a very big factor in attracting consumers. The look and feel of an e-commerce website should be based on the user requirement. The layout of the page should not only be easy to understand, it should also be attractive and sophisticated. Attractive features such as colorful pictures, videos etc should be added. However, if videos are added make sure that there is a mute and stop/pause feature in the video so that the user can interrupt the video whenever he/she wants to. Also, overuse of these attractive pictures may put off the users so avoid using them. Don't use clashing and too bright colors as they might make your site loose its credibility.
Along with the layout, the information included should also be concise and easy to understand. Include the information in a "flat hierarchy" which means that hierarchy of information should be apparent at a glance so the user easily understands the information available on a page.
Feedback is another important feature in your website. The interactive cycle between a user and a web site is not complete until the web site responds to a command entered by the user. A lag in loading a page or a blank page would result in skewing of the user's perception. This could mean a loss of the particular user. Finally, feedback should not distract the user. Actions and reactions made by the web site should be meaningful. Feedback should not draw the user's attention away from the important tasks of gathering information, selecting products, and placing orders.
There you go! Successful website building is related not only to your product and consumer profile, it also depends on the website layout and the feedback!
Here is a great video which effectively summarizes and adds to my points in the blog above!
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