Optimizing your business website to enhance the site user experience is often a great way to promote business and gain new customers.  However, when your business sells their products online, your website and how it interacts with its users is a fundamental aspect of the business.  How you go about creating a pleasant, stress-free user experience for your site doesn't have to be difficult; with the rise of online shopping many techniques have been tried and tested to create an optimal user environment. 

Studies show that more than half of all retail sales are influenced by online content. 

This means that the content for products on your site needs to be valuable to the user. 

For example, product descriptions and overviews should be concise and informational.  If a user is confused or still has questions about a product, they are less likely to buy the product.  Making information easy to understand isn't just true for product information; it's also true for the entire site.  The text should be formatted well and easy to scan.  Individual key aspects of the site should be easy to pinpoint. 

There should also be plenty of white space on the website so that site users are not overwhelmed- this also maximizes the focus on the important content.  Site users are more likely to buy a product if they feel that they completely understand what the product is and how it works.  They will also be more likely to be satisfied with their purchase decision. 

Another key aspect of the site experience is the look of the site itself.  This is especially important for ecommerce businesses that don't have a walk-in store to also represent themselves.  The website should always look clean-users will be unhappy and impatient if they have trouble trying to navigate through the website.  This may be as simple as formatting the layout of the site differently. 

Customer service is also an important factor in the site user experience.  When users have questions about products or services, they want to be able to contact someone who can help them with their questions or concerns.  In the case of e-commerce, the sooner the reply the better.  This contact between business and site user could be through many different ways, including phone and email.  A new way of contact that is being utilized on website is through IM (instant message).  This is where a site user can use the IM box provided on the website to talk to a representative of the business within minutes.  This provides users to get the answers they want without the wait, increasing satisfaction.

For more information on e-commerce businesses and utilizing the Internet in marketing, visit the Blue Archer website.

Michelle Hawley
Digital Content Writer
@BlueArcherPGH