This actionable guide will provide you with insights that will ensure you stay ahead of your competitors, our objective is to increase your online conversion, average order value and reduce cart abandonment. You have access to 8 guidelines that are essential to any business selling products online.

1. Ecommerce Usability Guidelines!
8 F R E E A C T I O N A B L E I N S I G H T S

2. 8 Actionable Guidelines!
This actionable guide will provide you with 8 insights that will convert online
shoppers to purchase your products.!
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To discover the guidelines we conducted qualitative research which highlighted
insight into the decision making process of online shoppers as well as usability
issues that stop shoppers from completing a purchase. This research has then
been translated into actionable guidelines that will not only improve the users
experience but also the conversion rate of an ecommerce website. !
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The full guide contains 100 actionable insights for further details please visit
http://uxapplication.com/ecommerce-guide.!
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3. Checkout Pages!
The revenue generating driving force of an online store is the checkout page. Your
customers experience during this process can lead to a sale or abandonment.!
Customers who arrive at the checkout page have already selected products they
wish to buy. Once a strong desire is displayed in one or several products, you
must pave the way for the sale.!

4. Capture the customers email address at an early stage of the checkout process, if a
customer abandons their cart you can trigger a recovery of their email address and
cart items. Cart abandonment can be detected when the browser is closed or based
on a session timeout.!
Action #1 Cart Abandonment!

5. Best Practice #1 Cart Abandonment!
There are many reasons why a customer will leave the checkout process from loss of internet
connection to being disturbed by another task. Greats Brands http://greatsbrand.com/ capture the
customers email address as the first field on the checkout form which will allow them to detect cart
abandonment.!
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6. Shopping Cart!
The Shopping cart plays a key journey in transitioning your customers' interest in a
product to a desire to purchase. Improving the presentation and features of the
cart page will instigate the customers' actions to click the checkout button.!

7. When the checkout button is clicked don't show any intermediate pages, take the
user straight to the checkout page.!
Action #2 Intermediate Pages!

8. Best Practice #2 Intermediate Pages!
Beta Brands http://www.betabrand.com/ take their customers to the first page of the checkout form, a
link is displayed for customers who already have an account. During our testing we noticed that many
merchants are showing an intermediate page were the customer needs to select 'guest checkout' or
'existing customer login', in most cases this is not necessary. Merchants should apply the rule of guest
checkout by default.!
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9. Site Search!
Search in fundamental to an ecommerce store especially if you have a wide range
of products, allowing customers to search is an effective method to increase site
usage and in-turn improves online sales. If your customers can find what they are
looking for quickly they are more likely to make a purchase.!

10. There are scenarios where a search term does not return positive results. A
customer should never see a page that displays "No Results" in such instances
recommend products that will allow them to go forward. Displaying a list of
product categories or your best selling products will offer an opportunity for the
consumer to find an alternative method to navigating the site.!
Action #3 Negative Search Results!

11. Best Practice #3 Negative Search Results!
Gaps http://www.gap.com/ implementation of negative search results provides 3 routes for the customer
to continue with searching for their desired product, they can select a department from the left menu
bar, they have also been provided with search terms that might be useful. Finally based on the
customers search term they have been provided with results that best match the search term.!
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12. Product Pages!
The product page showcases valuable details for customers to make an informed
decision to make a purchase. The design and layout of these pages need to be
optimized to include all the information a customer requires to make a decision to
purchase.!

13. Offer alternative items if the specific product has been discontinued, this could be
the same product but a newer model or a different brand.!
Action #4 Discontinued Products!

14. Action #4 Discontinued Products!
Currys www.currys.co.uk have displayed a link to similar products for a product that is not in stock, this
method can also be applied to products that have been discontinued. There are many reasons why
discontinued products remain on a website, they may hold valuable SEO ranking that drive traffic to
your website or if a product has been recently discontinued most consumers may not be aware of this
fact.!

15. Product Category!
The key objective of the product category page is to get customers who land on it
to click through to the product page or to add the product directly to their basket.!

16. The product category page should provide clarity of the product that the customer
is interested in without having to click through to the product page.!
Filtering allows users to narrow down their product search based on a specific
criteria. If the product is clothes then filters should be based on color, size and
style. Filters are generally position in the left hand column of the page.!
Action #5 Product Filtering!

17. Best Practice #5 Product Filtering!
This is the product category page on Asos www.asos.com for dresses, customers are able to refine
their search based on filters that are specific to this product category.!

18. Header & Footer!
The header and footer of the website should link to valuable information that will
aid the visitors positive shopping experience.!

19. Recent studies have shown that 20% of shopping carts are abandoned where
customers wanted to ask a question before they completed a purchase. Create an
extensive help page that will answer the most obvious questions like "what is the
return policy" or "do you ship internationally".!
Action #6 Help Section!

20. Best Practice #6 Help Section!
Asos www.asos.com have a help section that provides all the necessary information for a customer, it
offers a search feature as well as displaying popular questions further alleviating the need to click on a
question to get the required information.!

21. Mobile Optimization!
Customize your ecommerce website to support mobile devices, this can be
achieved by using a responsive framework that will resize the layout and positions
of elements to match the customers device.!

22. For email fields automatically switch the customer to the Email keyboard <input
type="email"> which will display the @ symbol.!
Action #7 Email Keyboard!

23. Action #7 Email Keyboard!
Entering an email on a standard keyboard is not possible without the customer switching to the correct
keyboard to access the @ symbol, display the email keyboard for email fields as seen on
Asos www.asos.com.!

24. My Account Pages!
Customers who login to purchase are your loyal customers who will return if they
have a great shopping experience.!

25. Get product feedback from your customers, next to each order display a link to
allow the user to review the product they have purchased.!
Action #8 Review Purchase!

26. Best Practices #8 Review Purchase!
This example is from Marks and Spencer http://www.marksandspencer.com their customers can either
rate the product by selecting a score for Style, Quality, Value for Money and Fit as well as type a
personal review.!

27. How can we help?!
If you have any question regarding this guide please contact
support@uxapplication.com!
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Download the full guide!
For further details please visit!
http://uxapplication.com/ecommerce-guide!
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