Jakob Neilsen’s Top 10 Web Usability Priorities to increase your company’s sales.
- Email Newsletters – publish an email newsletter as this will help you establish a closer relationship with your users. Don’t publish it too often and make sure the newsletter contains content that will be of interest to the users. This is the top method of bringing repeat business to your site and forging a closer bond with your online customers. [Always give users an easy way to opt-out of your newsletter or you run the risk of losing their trust].
- Informative Product Pages – ensure your pages contain all the information any customer may require on your products. According to Neilsen 10% of user failures (i.e. serious enough problem to quit the website) are caused by poor product information pages.
- High-Quality Photography – one of the big disadvantages of the web is that customers “can’t touch and feel your products”. The best way to compensate for that is to provide really large product photos, photos from different angles and photos showing the product being used in context (e.g. backpack viewed on a girl’s back to show scale etc). It’s ok to display thumbnails first but make sure that when users click for a large photo they are not disappointed. Users will endure a minor delay for a photo to load when they have expressly requested it.
- Product Comparisons – when users are worried they will make the wrong purchasing decision they tend to postpone their decision which means no sale! Explain clearly what differentiates your products, provide tools that allow users to easily compare price, features and specifications andclearly highlight the key differences between the products.
- Support Reordering – make it easy for previous customers to reorder from your website. One example is an online grocery that enables users to reorder using their previous shopping list. People are more likely to spend their money when you make it easy for them to reorder or buy supplemental items e.g. consumables or parts for items previously purchased.
- Simplified Text – rewrite the text on your website to follow the guidelines for online content. This is an ongoing process but when done correctly can double the usability of your site.
- Cater to Older People – some reasons to make your site cater to older users. They are the fastest growing segment of Internet users, they have free time and in many cases money to spend and they are more loyal to sites than younger users. However they are also the segment most likely to have physical or cognitive impairments and most website discriminate horribly against them. Make sure to adhere to best practice for Accessible Design. See the Web Accessibility Initiative website (opens in new window) for more information on accessible design.
- Wishlists & Gift Certificates – these cost very little to implement on your site but they tend to draw repeat customers and increase your online sales. Of course, for these to work they must be very usable so get your wishlists and gift certificates tested with some users to help this strategy fulfil its potential for generating sales.
- Search - users rely very heavily on Search to find what they are looking for on websites. [This is probably due to the huge improvements in Search Engine accuracy with sites such as Google over the past few years]. Most websites search is pretty poor and it is worth investing in better search software so users can find your products / information and do business with you.
- User Testing – this is the BEST way to increase your sales. Small usability projects can yield 100% plus increases in customers conversions and testing your site with real users is the only way to find and resolve the real usability problems.
