The Supermarket Approach to E-Commerce Web Development PDF Print E-mail

Irrespective of which part of the country the supermarket is located it in, every store in the chain is laid out in a logical order, so that customers have absolutely no trouble finding whatever they might be looking for.

It doesn't matter how the products are arranged-whether from left to right, or from right to left. The most commonly available products continue to be arranged in the following order: produce, canned goods, dry goods, toiletries and medicines, paper goods, frozen foods with the dairy section and beer last and meat along the back wall. In spite of that, the decor of each supermarket may be distinguished from the others in the neighborhood, because of the stiff competition. The most important distinguishing factors include service, price, convenience and quality selections.

Even though application of such a concept for a website may not have occurred to too many people not very long ago, perhaps now people are beginning to realize that this is not such a bad idea after all. Shoppers, whether in a departmental store, or on an e-Commerce website, don't like having to hunt for the products or services that they wish to purchase, and that has been previously advertised. If the customer is made to read numerous pages of uninteresting information like the shipping and return policies of the product or service he or she desires, then chances are that the customer will never want to visit the e-commerce website in question, ever again.

Most companies now realize that the formula for a successful e-Commerce website is a combination of beauty and functionality. All owners of e-commerce websites should see to it that their websites are designed in a way so as to ensure that the customers know exactly what the website has to offer within 3 seconds of visiting it. That is the exact amount of time taken by a customer to decide whether he or she is interested in the website or not. Also, the owners of the company must ensure that the website is easy to navigate, the server is not too busy, the shipping and contact information easily available, and the return policy transparent. In case of contact forms for gathering leads, the visitor should know exactly what is to be done with the information, and how soon the company intends to correspond with him or her. Make sure your site is easily navigable, not overwhelmingly busy, and simple to check out of with your shipping info, contact information and return policy obvious.