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Home ECommerceECommerce check list

ECommerce checklist

Download a copy of the ECommerce checklist

Essentials

• Add to / change cart
• Analytics
• Availability
• Best sellers
• Categories and brands
• Collect mobile phone # for text alerts
• Colour options
• Contact us
• Date added
• Delivery options (card address / gift address)
• External feeds to Google, Amazon etc.
• Featured products
• Gifts & wrapping
• Images (thumbs / views / zoom)
• Links to internal databases (accounting / CRM / stock)
• Mobile optimised site
• My account (user / password / password reminder / change password)
• Navigation and selection; breadcrumbs
• Offers (bogof / loyalty / discounts / vouchers / free postage)
• Order online, pickup in store
• Order tracking
• Past orders
• Payment methods (cards / PayPal / Google Checkout)
• Price (currencies)
• Price drop alert
• Product / advanced search
• Product categories
• Product descriptions (short / long)
• Product detail (materials used / dimensions / weight / cleaning / washing)
• Product title
• Product videos
• Recently viewed
• Registration, purchase, abandoned basket, new product emails
• Shipping (weight /delivered to / carrier options / fees / offers)
• Shop and content management / administration
• Sizing / size guide
• Store locations
• Store name, address and phone number
• Tell a friend
• Trustmarks (security signs, testimonials)

Ratings, reviews, sharing and storing

• Add to wish list (item / seller)
• Bookmarks / sharing / tweet this / send to a friend
• Item followers
• Item ratings
• Item reviews (and / or comments)
• Rate item (‘love this’ / 1-5 stars, etc)

Credibility

• Complaints
• Cross-selling / up-selling (buy with X and save £££)
• People who liked this also liked…
• Privacy
• Returns policy
• Security
• Sitemap
• Surveys
• Testimonials

Richer, deeper

• Build a ... room / set / relevant group
• Colour chart
• Customer product images
• Customer product tagging
• Flag item (spam etc)
• International pricing / currency converter (e.g. £99, EU110, $165)
• Number produced
• Product code
• Screen share with a friend
• Stats (views / fans / item follows / sales)
• What others are viewing now

Things to get right in ecommerce

Arrival date

Show me a date when I should expect to see the item at my door.

Calls to action

Have clear calls to action, ‘add to basket’ buttons, annotated forms, and images.

Differentiation

What makes you different to your competitors? Explain why I should buy from you.

Don't change negative reviews

If I write a negative review about a product, please don’t moderate the review to put a positive spin to my content. Remember that customer reviews are supposed to be unbiased and any attempt from your side to hide or suppress the negative reviews is a sure way to lose trust.

Don't duplicate

If I have told you anything about myself such as my postcode, please try to remember it. Don’t make me re-enter that information at checkout. There is a good probability that I will not change that information, but just give me an option to change it later if I need to.

Ease of use

Customer experience is everything. Pages must load quickly and navigation must be intuitive. The mantra is this: test, tweak, monitor, repeat.

Email addresses

If you take my email address during checkout, please make good use of it. For example, if would be nice of you to follow up few days later to check if the item arrived properly, and if I would be interested in writing a review for the item. I don’t mind writing an honest review – you just have to ask and remind me.

Features

Order tracking, check stock, reserve and collect, book home delivery etc

Forms

Fields must be properly labelled and annotated. Clarity is essential, if you want to avoid frustration. Shorter forms tend to be less daunting for consumers, and have lower abandonment rates.

Help

People need to know that assistance is only a moment away, should they need it. Visible contact numbers on every page are a good idea if you want to guarantee the sale. Easy to find contact details are essential if you want to engender trust. Let people know that you will be responsive and keen to help should problems arise.

Incentives

Free shipping is easy to understand and obviously delivers value to the customer. Cross selling / promotions can also work a treat, such as Amazon’s “buy this with that and save £££".

Jargon

Use plain English not jargon.

Key information

Key information needs to be above the fold. Shipping information (options / fees) must live on the product page, and not just the checkout.

Legals

Make sure all legals – privacy, disclaimer, terms, copyright, returns are easy to find and clear.

Navigation

Make it structured and clear - L1, L2, L3 etc and one click as far as possible from Page A to Page Z.

Out-of-stock items

Don’t let me add something to the cart if later you will tell me that it is out of stock. If you already know that something is out of stock, can you please show that upfront on the product page so we don’t waste each other’s time?

Payment Options

The more payment options, the higher the conversion rate. The fewer navigation options in the checkout process, the lower the abandonment rate. Flexible shipping options and returns policies also help drive conversions.

Recommendations

People who bought this also bought this, you might like suggestions, what’s new, top sellers, personalised recommendations.

Referrals

People that visit from a search engine will have a referring keyword query that you can replicate and highlight on the page. Match PPC ads to smart landing pages that reflect the search term. Ad campaigns should have dedicated landing pages.

Registration

Offer registration for future ease of use and larger customer database but do not force me to register during the checkout process.

Repetition

Repeat key statements and offers. Leave prospective customers in no doubt about the price, the shipping commitment, the price, the service guarantees. Experiment with repeating ‘add to cart’ buttons and search boxes (above and below the fold).

Returns

A clear returns policy is essential. The easier you make it for customer to return unwanted goods the better. This can include paid-for shipping and multichannel returns (buy online, return in store). There are also a variety of things that you can do to minimise online returns.

Show me the shopping cart

Don’t wait until the final step in the checkout to show me the final price including the coupon discounts, taxes and shipping costs. I would like to know that information at the shopping cart page so there are no surprises during the final step.

Trust

No trust, no sale. It’s as simple as that. What can you do to boost trust? Try testimonials, trustmarks, clear policies, visible contact details, and plenty of user generated content…

User generated content

Reviews, ratings and testimonials are known to help improve trust, loyalty, conversion rates and therefore sales (and profits).

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