Critical learnings we have applied to VAULTLife.com that should be used by all websites and businesses.
(*VAULTLife.com’s international site will be launched soon…all our critical learnings were implemented in the new site)
I’m focusing on the most up to date internet trends used by some of the most dynamic people within my team.
These trends are coming from people such as the former CEO of Microsoft Business, the previous CEO of i5 and th
e current CEO of Blacklight. These are giant names who are bringing the latest technology trends as well as how to best position your website to be responsive, dynamic and work effectively over smart phones and tablets.
All 10 lessons, if implemented correctly, will have a colossal impact on your business both locally and globally.
10 Critical items in eCommerce Design
Number 1
The best landing pages answer the following questions upon arrival without making you navigate somewhere else.
- What are you.
- What do you get.
- How do you get it.
- What people have received?
Here are some sites that have done this very well:
- www.greentoe.com
- www.superbalist.com and
- www.wigroupinternational.com
All these sites answer those four questions and explain what they are despite some of them being in very technical industry.
Number 2
Your website has to be responsive and works as effectively across all platforms, especially on mobile phones and tablets.
With 83% of the world’s Internet being accessed via smartphones, you have to develop with mobile at the forefront of your development. This will give you a global stage to operate.
Number 3
Your online presence is the key contributor to “believability”. If you can’t easily be found (Website, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter) potential clients will be far more skeptical. Regular updates, success stories and news is now fundamental.
Number 4
Retention vs Engagement.
The last 10 years have seen a major emphasis on the importance of engagement with your client base- get people to your site. That has changed, it’s now about keeping your clients coming back.
Sites like Groupon have seen share prices drop by 77% despite their 200 million strong subscriber base, where sites like RetailMeNot.Com with only 20 millions subscribers have skyrocketed. Which shows it is now definitely about keeping your clients coming back.
Number 5
Gamification has become a worldwide trend. It has created the ability for brands to be able to engage their consumers while making the interaction fun and getting more information across than previous advertising means.
Companies that have done this very well are applications that every time you push snooze you pay $5 to your favourite charity. Another applications is STRAVA where you can race local individuals, turning your fitness into a virtual race. Other fitness applications post to your facebook page if you have don’t go to gym.
They have taken a very standard interaction and have just gamified it, allowing people to compete and allowing people to be interactive.
The faster businesses adopt this concept and make the experience with the product more engaging via the internet, the faster they will benefit.
Number 6
The importance of the Fold. As you load your website the fold is the primary information you get on your page before having to scroll down. The fold changes from smartphones, to tablets, to laptops.
As a result you not only have to ensure your page is dynamic and responsive like we mentioned in point number 1 and 2, but more specifically what information comes across first. Is it clean? Is it cluttered? Is your message clearly coming across?
Your page is broken down into multiple folds, thus you have to ensure that you are aware of that fold line and that you are coming across effectively in that space.
Number 7
Your website has to allow people to discover. Discover is the capability to explore a website and discover things on your own.
The best example of this is an application is called “Two Dots” which has no instruction manual or explanation. All there is, is two dots and a need to explore as well as discover.
Allowing people to discover on a website means that a website is so well put together that they feel comfortable to explore, comfortable to play, comfortable to push buttons and work it out for themselves.
Very few websites get this right but when they do it creates “talkability”. It naturally gives a sense of accomplishment and just creates a greater rapport with the website.
Number 8
The two-step process you are either logged out of the website or logged in, there are no pages that refresh or reload. You don’t go to a page to learn how to play, you don’t go to a page to see what are coming items, you don’t go to a page to see sold items.
Instead everything takes place with the use of a new technology called infinite scroll that Facebook came up with. Infinite scroll means that you can scroll down or sideways to infinity, it never ever ends. The use of the two step process with effective use of infinite scroll allows you to get all the message across without forcing the individual to refresh or reload; which is where a lot of the ecommerce sites lose the people because they just don’t feel like waiting, particularly in 3rd World countries where internet is slow.
The whole point as well is that the transaction process must be seamless, it should be one or two steps maximum. Logged out, log in, transact. And the whole concept over here is that the payment portal actually imports into or is imbedded within your website. If they see an item and they could purchase once again only that like box or only that little screen opens up, it might actually be worth utelising some of the images of our new website.
The fact that the payment purchase process is not multiple steps it is a single, seamless step with no start or no multiple steps, but it is rather something with a start and a finish in one single process.
Number 9
The Belcher button is the most famous ecommerce button in all of time. In the early 90’s someone came up with the Belcher button. It was orange, and had an unusual halo. It received more successful purchases; more click throughs and generated more money than any other single ecommerce initiative in all of history. It was called the Belcher affect because of the psychological effect it had on you when you saw the button. So utilize at the point of a purchasing decision when you are trying to get people to add to your shopping cart or go to the next level on your website, be sure to look at the Belcher button and employ some of the physiological and strategic effects that it utilizes.
Number 10
Just an interesting story, it’s a case study between a game called Bejeweled and a game called Candy Crush. Bejeweled is almost exactly the same game as Candy Crush. Bejeweled was around for 10 years and very few people knew of the game.
A new game comes along called Candy Crush with the same Bejeweled concept. The difference is that it gives bright sweets and every time you do something it goes “ Yay, well done!”, it is dynamic, there are swooshes, there is excitement, there is craziness.
Due to the happy physiological feeling Candy Crush gave you, you landed up downloading Candy Crush and playing Candy Crush.