[September 19th, 1998]

See Also   Want A Sticky Website That Sells? Forget Content!   Giving Customers What They Want   Rule Busters Lose   Building Your Web Site's Sales   Abandoned Shopping Carts: Enigma or Sloppy E-Commerce?   The Only Visitor That Counts Is A Repeat Visitor   Three Steps to Get More Customers   Your Web Site - Do It Yourself? or Get Serious!   How To Make Them Buy Now   The Future of E-Commerce Stinks!   Beware Overload   Does Your Site Have Stopping Power?   Online Sales Psychology That Works   And the Broadband Played on, and on...   How Your Web Site Can Learn From Newspapers   Promise Not to Tell   Where's Your Community?   Understanding Your Visitors   The Seven Deadly Web Site Sins   The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Part 2   The Good, The Bad and the Ugly - Part 1

Regular readers of this column will know that I am a true Web commerce enthusiast. I genuinely enjoy shopping on the 'Net and I am fortunate enough to be able to earn a living writing and consulting on the topic.

In the course of my daily business I am often asked what makes a successful Web store. There is, of course, no definitive guide available to what makes a good or a bad Web store. And at the rate things are changing on the 'Net there is unlikely ever to be one.

My belief is that in order to understand how to build a great Web store it's first necessary to understand what makes a bad one. So here is a list of my pet peeves.

Poor design

Many of my beliefs about what constitutes a poorly designed Web stores are equally applicable to all Web sites whether commerce enabled or not. Slow downloads, inconsistent navigation, and hard to find information are the curse of many sites.

However, many of these shortcomings are magnified within a Web store. Take for example, having to download and install a plugin before being able to start shopping. Whilst this can be highly frustrating on any site, it is commercial suicide in a Web store. Can you imagine how long a bricks-and-mortar store would remain in business if they refused entry to customers until they had first visited another store to pick up a tool?

In addition to these, there are some Web store-specific design shortcomings. Examples include the absence of secure order forms, the lack of a shopping cart, the inability to accept credit cards and the requirement for the shopper to provide personal information before they can begin shopping.

No tie-in to legacy systems

In my mind this is the biggest problem with many Web stores today. And no, this is not an IBM e-business ad. But if Web stores are not tied in to their legacy systems (for example accounting or shop floor control systems), then orders are accepted without reference to stock availability and shipping dates can therefore not be accurately predicted. And customers then have to place their orders with blind faith, assuming their goods will be shipped in a timely fashion.

Failing to sell

At the risk of oversimplifying the selling process, there are two key elements: to explain the benefits of your product to your customer and then to ask for the order. But many stores hide the products or services they want to sell deep within their Web sites. And when prospective customers eventually find them there is often little information provided to allow a buying decision to be made. Usually though, that is not a problem. These types of stores are typically so badly constructed that shoppers can't figure out how to place an order anyway.....

Keeping customers in the dark

Much has been written about how the Internet makes one-to-one communications with customers so easy. Yet many Web stores provide worse communications than their bricks-and-mortar counterparts.

Any seasoned Web shopper will know the sinking feeling they get when they click on the "submit order" button on the final order screen and no further communication is received. They are not transferred to a page that acknowledges receipt of their order along with a unique reference number for tracking. And no follow-up emails are received to acknowledge the order or to confirm its dispatch and to provide shipping details.

This is my pet hate. I have been burnt badly a couple of times having "ordered" goods from a Web site only to find out they have no record of my order when I 'phone later to progress it. Needless to say, I never shop in these Web stores again.

Ignoring international customers

Being based in the UK, this topic is obviously close to my heart. There is nothing more frustrating than visiting a store, selecting the goods, and filling out an order form only to find out on the final page that the store does not ship to international destinations.

Not only is this frustrating to international visitors, it just doesn't make good business sense. According to a recent report from Forrester Research, a U.S. company can expect 30% of the traffic on its Web site to come from outside the United States.

It's not all bad news

Now I don't want to leave you all on a downer. For whilst there are some awful Web stores out there that do exhibit most of these failings, there are a lot of great stores too. And in my next column I'll take a look at some of the characteristics of the great Web store

Do you agree with me? I'd love to hear your comments.