There are some common sense things that you just
wouldn’t do if you had a physical store. But some online stores seem to think
they’re good ideas, but they're no better online than they are in a physical store. You
wouldn’t make every customer stop at the door and wait while you sing your company
jingle. So … don’t use one of those silly splash screens that load up your logo
and then allow potential shoppers to "Click here to enter." It’s stupid and
it’s a time-waster. Instead, bring people in on entry pages that help them
immediately.
You wouldn't take people on a tour of the store before answering their questions or
showing them merchandise they're interested in. Remember, folks come to your web site to
solve problem or answer a question. Help them do that right away. Save your mission,
value, and philosophy statements for the company picnic.
You wouldn't talk only in your industry jargon, so your customer was confused. Don't do
it on your site either. Design your copy as if every visitor is a new visitor, then
provide shortcuts for the experience folks and longtime customers.
You wouldn’t hide the merchandise. So … don’t make it hard to find your
products or the services you sell. Instead make sure the ways you can help them are
visible. There are two good ways to do this.
Have a "Products" or "Store" link that’s visible on every
page. If you insist on having a graphic button to help folks navigate, make sure
there’s a text tag on the graphic.
Put links to relevant products at helpful places in interesting information. Product
links in context get followed more readily than product links in isolation. Use human
nature to help you.
You wouldn't pile up the merchandise so the customer was overwhelmed with choices. So
don't overwhelm folks online. Limit their number of choices at any one time to four at the
most.
You wouldn’t figure folks would find you without advertising and promotion. So
… don’t figure that registering once with search engines will do the trick on
the web. Instead promote your site constantly just like you’d promote your store.
Register with search engines and follow their rules. Seek out links from friendly
sites. Put your URL on your stationary and business cards. Put it in your ads. Mention it
in your sales calls.
You wouldn’t keep saying, "See if there’s anything you don’t
want." So … don’t do that with your shopping cart software. Instead look
for opportunities to cross-sell. It’s the online version of "Do you want fries
with that." Or "Do you have a belt that matches that?"
