Usability and design will not give online store profits!
In RuNet and Uanete, the great importance has recently been attached to usability and design, as tools that can increase sales of online stores. To diminish the value of usability or design in an online store, as a factor in high sales - is stupid. But I want to draw attention to the fact that most store owners, especially beginners, give usability and design paramount. It seems that store managers forget about logistics, accounting, assortment, direct marketing, event marketing and content (I would even introduce a new definition of content marketing).
Even managers with experience, when the question arises “how can we make a website so that there are more orders”, first of all think about usability and design, forgetting that the buyer comes to the store to buy goods; and the order is made only after receiving the necessary information, and not at all to be super-comfortable in 5 seconds. to place an order or enjoy a beautiful “unique” design and other design pieces.
The statistics of many stores shows that once they are ready to buy (and therefore, have made a firm decision), the client will overcome the problems that arise during the checkout process. Attempts 3-4 he will do (not counting the mandatory registration).
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What is the most important role in an online store: usability, design, work with clients or management? (by management, I understand logistics, accounting, turnover, personnel and other factors directly affecting the quality of the company)
I want to start with a reminder: an online store is to a lesser extent the site, and to a greater degree what is happening in the company's office. But why do I start so from afar? Because I want to let you know where the root of all problems and successes grows, so to say, start from the beginning, in order to understand the essence of the question as efficiently as possible.
Website or company - chicken or egg - which is the first?
An online store without a website is a dummy. In turn, many companies that call themselves online stores (with a website) are one single person, sometimes with a courier or a business for two.
But let's move away from these archaic concepts. And, despite the reality, we will evaluate IM in terms of a successful full-fledged business. So, IM has a staff of at least 3-4 office workers, couriers, a manager, “corporate” relations and warehouse stocks (optional). And accounting with all income, expenses and profits.
So no successful IM can function if the financial balance is not positive. This is not the work on his pocket, with the sole ID. A successful store gives a profit to a manager, pays salaries to employees. Financial well-being is the main criterion for the success of any business.
The IM will never be successful if: the manager extorts money from the company, employees are incompetent and rude to customers, delivery works with systematic failures and financial reports consist of fake numbers. There is no need for consistency and coherence of factors, even one at a time, each given factor will ultimately lead to the collapse of myocardial infarction.
And what about the site? Yes, he may have a lot of nominations, as super cool, but customers are people, company are people, business is interaction of people with people . Therefore, everything depends primarily on the company itself, and only then on the site.
Now imagine that the store, taken for the article, has a standard site, with common, but not critical errors in usability, standard, unremarkable design, good (quantitative and qualitative indicator) customer base, staff of several employees, its courier service and a small warehouse. Standard online store with its structural problems, errors and questions.
It's time to go to a new stage of development, the manager decided for himself. He has several options where to invest money in order to increase revenues:
The cost of development + drawing + layout of high-quality design costs from $ 700. The figure is slightly from the ceiling, but sure you will not find cheaper, only more expensive, maybe even, at times.
What does he give?
There is a lot of talk about the fact that a good design pleases the visitor’s eye; The visitor has the impression that once the design is cool and expensive, it means that the store management is serious about its business, customers and the product that sells. The level of trust among new customers increases significantly.
There is also a feature of high-quality (but not already for 700 cu) of design to stimulate purchases. Certain types of goods, often falling under impulsive purchases, for which high-quality design directly affects the decision to buy. There is an interesting study on this topic.
In confirmation of the words rate the site Victoria's sicret . Someone will say that there is no design. But! There are cool photos, and minimalist design, does not distract, but emphasizes the temptation of photos. Or browse the Burberry store. I left there because I began to flow saliva on a beige coat for 1400 bucks.
But in essence, its design solves little. There are few product categories related to impulsive purchases, and the audience of impulsive buyers is small, weighted decisions are more often made based on the quality of the product, or the store’s conformity (as a supplier of goods) to the customer’s conditions in a market where competitors trade the same.
In contrast to the opinion that you need a beautiful design, there are many well-known and successful stores with unpretentious: Strawberrynet , Atbatt , Amazon .
Usability - the overall degree of convenience of the subject during use. In our case, the online store.
Qualitative usability audit costs a lot of money, according to the market in the region of 700-1000 cu The figure is absolutely real. Add here the cost of making changes that cost the same or slightly less.
What do we get in the end?
We will improve the convenience of the site with an acceptable and familiar for old customers, on an intuitive super-convenient for everyone. In usability audit does not include an assessment of the quality of the information provided, but only the availability of this information. This is me to the fact that usability does not completely solve the problem “the customer did not order the product, because did not receive sufficient information "if this information is not mentioned. We have in our hands a website that has navigation that is familiar to visitors, with its drawbacks, but simple and understandable for the majority of the audience.
There are Top10 stores with a conversion of tens of percent. Dmitry Sergeev decided to figure out what was happening, as it turned out with usability conversion is little connected. Let's also look at the website Yees.cd of the largest seller of licensed discs in Ukraine, standard usability errors. I did not immediately understand how the order form works, and I barely found the basket.
Western companies realized that usability is an appendage, not a panacea. Please note that all sites from the top 10 are covered with promotional offers.
Of course, improving the usability of the site is an important and really effective thing; most sites have problems, and improving their usability can bring a noticeable increase in orders. True, I did not meet stores that would unequivocally say that after the introduction of changes on the recommendations of usability audit, the growth in the number of orders was explosive.
I knowingly singled out the word " orders ". Because in this case it would be more correct to say the number of calls in order to purchase goods . I want to remind you that orders are not even income yet, and even less profit. With high overhead costs, non-optimized costs, low employee efficiency, and amorphousness (lack of a clear system) of the workflow, the growing volume of orders will not give the necessary profit growth, and even can play a disservice — unpreparedness of corporate processes to increase orders may cause serious disruptions existing system. This is by the way to the question of management, which I will discuss below.
Direct marketing refers to working with new and existing customers. Let's add here and various sales promotion activities and various bonuses that customers receive with the order over time, working with the store.
I will begin to explain again from afar. What should the online store of the client first of all cause? The trust! This is the factor that makes a casual customer loyal, ready to make purchases in your store time after time. Usability and design can only arrange for a random purchase. Of course, since we are talking about a store with average parameters, it means that the level of service allows you to “earn” regular customers. But are these volumes?
To begin with, imagine what a loyal customer to a company does for a store:
The main disadvantage of trust is its fragility. The higher you take off, the harder you fall. Remember this.
From my experience, I felt that loyal customers are the hen ryab for an online store that will lay golden eggs.
How can you earn the trust of a casual buyer if he has agreed to be in constant contact with you, but made only one purchase? Seth Godin says that the most powerful marketing is trust marketing. Constantly maintaining contact with the client, gradually you will cause him trust and he will agree to make a purchase with you.
In our case, everything is easier. The client has already made a purchase and received the first positive experience. Your next step should be to explain to the client the advantages of the second purchase and to remind you of the benefits of working with you. Repetitively remind yourself of a variety of proposals, congratulate him on DR, create notes that will help to learn more about the client. Communicate with the client, as with your friend.
Is there a difference in quantity between customers who slowly and gradually become your loyal customers, or with all your customers with whom you have friendly relations? There is, and it is huge. And this huge difference affects sales.
Direct marketing is not limited to mailings. Spend it on the site. Talk more about yourself and let your customers talk about you. Add new services and features to help customers get more product information.
For example, a year ago we introduced the function “report on appearance” and “order a rarity”. It turns out that so many people come to my site, looking for a product that is nowhere and difficult to get. Delight the client, give him the opportunity to buy from you a product that he can not find anywhere. And besides the profit from the sale, you immediately get a loyal customer.
How much does it cost to organize a newsletter and introduce simple functions? We are not talking about complex CRM systems, just competent delivery and a couple of functions - a penny, compared to usability auditing and a new cool design.
Management
I have already said a lot about the management of IM. I remind you that in this case we are talking about logistics, staff, warehouse, processes of work with orders and customers.
Honestly, I find it difficult to explain in detail the obvious dependence of the success of any marketing activities and investments in the site on the atmosphere in the company.
Anyway, the level of customer service depends on the willingness of your employees to work. Any attempts at information (website, direct marketing) to motivate customers to make purchases can break about the incompetence of managers and couriers. Incorrect calculations of accounting will lead to the fact that bonuses and discounts will cause losses.
And, on the contrary, streamlined business processes will allow processing any number of orders and providing quality service to customers. Service and speed of delivery are the key quality points for buyers.
Many shops forget about it. For example, the same About zones had big problems (at the end of the article) with the processing of orders, which adversely affected customer loyalty.
That is why the primary task should be optimization and systematization (in some processes - automation) of most internal processes. This will not only improve the quality performance of the company, but also reduce overhead costs. Which in turn will increase profits.
Promise the audience competence, information and efficiency of work with each client, keep promises, and in a short time the income will increase significantly.
I hope I have convinced you where to invest money: management, marketing or design and usability?
Even managers with experience, when the question arises “how can we make a website so that there are more orders”, first of all think about usability and design, forgetting that the buyer comes to the store to buy goods; and the order is made only after receiving the necessary information, and not at all to be super-comfortable in 5 seconds. to place an order or enjoy a beautiful “unique” design and other design pieces.
The statistics of many stores shows that once they are ready to buy (and therefore, have made a firm decision), the client will overcome the problems that arise during the checkout process. Attempts 3-4 he will do (not counting the mandatory registration).
')
What is the most important role in an online store: usability, design, work with clients or management? (by management, I understand logistics, accounting, turnover, personnel and other factors directly affecting the quality of the company)
I want to start with a reminder: an online store is to a lesser extent the site, and to a greater degree what is happening in the company's office. But why do I start so from afar? Because I want to let you know where the root of all problems and successes grows, so to say, start from the beginning, in order to understand the essence of the question as efficiently as possible.
Website or company - chicken or egg - which is the first?
An online store without a website is a dummy. In turn, many companies that call themselves online stores (with a website) are one single person, sometimes with a courier or a business for two.
But let's move away from these archaic concepts. And, despite the reality, we will evaluate IM in terms of a successful full-fledged business. So, IM has a staff of at least 3-4 office workers, couriers, a manager, “corporate” relations and warehouse stocks (optional). And accounting with all income, expenses and profits.
So no successful IM can function if the financial balance is not positive. This is not the work on his pocket, with the sole ID. A successful store gives a profit to a manager, pays salaries to employees. Financial well-being is the main criterion for the success of any business.
The IM will never be successful if: the manager extorts money from the company, employees are incompetent and rude to customers, delivery works with systematic failures and financial reports consist of fake numbers. There is no need for consistency and coherence of factors, even one at a time, each given factor will ultimately lead to the collapse of myocardial infarction.
And what about the site? Yes, he may have a lot of nominations, as super cool, but customers are people, company are people, business is interaction of people with people . Therefore, everything depends primarily on the company itself, and only then on the site.
Now imagine that the store, taken for the article, has a standard site, with common, but not critical errors in usability, standard, unremarkable design, good (quantitative and qualitative indicator) customer base, staff of several employees, its courier service and a small warehouse. Standard online store with its structural problems, errors and questions.
It's time to go to a new stage of development, the manager decided for himself. He has several options where to invest money in order to increase revenues:
- New design;
- Improve usability;
- Creating a good loyalty program (and not just discounts);
- Increasing the efficiency of internal business processes: reducing overhead costs, finding less costly solutions, automating core processes, improving customer service and logistics performance;
New design
The cost of development + drawing + layout of high-quality design costs from $ 700. The figure is slightly from the ceiling, but sure you will not find cheaper, only more expensive, maybe even, at times.
What does he give?
There is a lot of talk about the fact that a good design pleases the visitor’s eye; The visitor has the impression that once the design is cool and expensive, it means that the store management is serious about its business, customers and the product that sells. The level of trust among new customers increases significantly.
There is also a feature of high-quality (but not already for 700 cu) of design to stimulate purchases. Certain types of goods, often falling under impulsive purchases, for which high-quality design directly affects the decision to buy. There is an interesting study on this topic.
In confirmation of the words rate the site Victoria's sicret . Someone will say that there is no design. But! There are cool photos, and minimalist design, does not distract, but emphasizes the temptation of photos. Or browse the Burberry store. I left there because I began to flow saliva on a beige coat for 1400 bucks.
But in essence, its design solves little. There are few product categories related to impulsive purchases, and the audience of impulsive buyers is small, weighted decisions are more often made based on the quality of the product, or the store’s conformity (as a supplier of goods) to the customer’s conditions in a market where competitors trade the same.
In contrast to the opinion that you need a beautiful design, there are many well-known and successful stores with unpretentious: Strawberrynet , Atbatt , Amazon .
Usability
Usability - the overall degree of convenience of the subject during use. In our case, the online store.
Qualitative usability audit costs a lot of money, according to the market in the region of 700-1000 cu The figure is absolutely real. Add here the cost of making changes that cost the same or slightly less.
What do we get in the end?
We will improve the convenience of the site with an acceptable and familiar for old customers, on an intuitive super-convenient for everyone. In usability audit does not include an assessment of the quality of the information provided, but only the availability of this information. This is me to the fact that usability does not completely solve the problem “the customer did not order the product, because did not receive sufficient information "if this information is not mentioned. We have in our hands a website that has navigation that is familiar to visitors, with its drawbacks, but simple and understandable for the majority of the audience.
There are Top10 stores with a conversion of tens of percent. Dmitry Sergeev decided to figure out what was happening, as it turned out with usability conversion is little connected. Let's also look at the website Yees.cd of the largest seller of licensed discs in Ukraine, standard usability errors. I did not immediately understand how the order form works, and I barely found the basket.
Western companies realized that usability is an appendage, not a panacea. Please note that all sites from the top 10 are covered with promotional offers.
Of course, improving the usability of the site is an important and really effective thing; most sites have problems, and improving their usability can bring a noticeable increase in orders. True, I did not meet stores that would unequivocally say that after the introduction of changes on the recommendations of usability audit, the growth in the number of orders was explosive.
I knowingly singled out the word " orders ". Because in this case it would be more correct to say the number of calls in order to purchase goods . I want to remind you that orders are not even income yet, and even less profit. With high overhead costs, non-optimized costs, low employee efficiency, and amorphousness (lack of a clear system) of the workflow, the growing volume of orders will not give the necessary profit growth, and even can play a disservice — unpreparedness of corporate processes to increase orders may cause serious disruptions existing system. This is by the way to the question of management, which I will discuss below.
Direct marketing
Direct marketing refers to working with new and existing customers. Let's add here and various sales promotion activities and various bonuses that customers receive with the order over time, working with the store.
I will begin to explain again from afar. What should the online store of the client first of all cause? The trust! This is the factor that makes a casual customer loyal, ready to make purchases in your store time after time. Usability and design can only arrange for a random purchase. Of course, since we are talking about a store with average parameters, it means that the level of service allows you to “earn” regular customers. But are these volumes?
To begin with, imagine what a loyal customer to a company does for a store:
- Buys for your friends and acquaintances your products. Despite the fact that a loyal customer has a big discount store earns. And after some time, these same friends and friends will buy from you directly.
- In a situation where many IM, instead of satisfaction and product, cause problems for many customers, your loyal customer advertises your store as an example of a high level of service and product quality. The irresponsibility of many IM - the real situation on the market.
- Buys those products that you sell him. The client with confidence applies to new product categories from your range, which allows you to quickly increase sales of new products.
- The customer buys non-salable goods. This is another beauty of trust in the company. Without trust, the store never sells such goods.
- It treats with infrequent errors and problems encountered during the service order. Everyone is mistaken, the main thing is that you have a good track record confirming that the problem allowed is an exception.
The main disadvantage of trust is its fragility. The higher you take off, the harder you fall. Remember this.
From my experience, I felt that loyal customers are the hen ryab for an online store that will lay golden eggs.
How can you earn the trust of a casual buyer if he has agreed to be in constant contact with you, but made only one purchase? Seth Godin says that the most powerful marketing is trust marketing. Constantly maintaining contact with the client, gradually you will cause him trust and he will agree to make a purchase with you.
In our case, everything is easier. The client has already made a purchase and received the first positive experience. Your next step should be to explain to the client the advantages of the second purchase and to remind you of the benefits of working with you. Repetitively remind yourself of a variety of proposals, congratulate him on DR, create notes that will help to learn more about the client. Communicate with the client, as with your friend.
Is there a difference in quantity between customers who slowly and gradually become your loyal customers, or with all your customers with whom you have friendly relations? There is, and it is huge. And this huge difference affects sales.
Direct marketing is not limited to mailings. Spend it on the site. Talk more about yourself and let your customers talk about you. Add new services and features to help customers get more product information.
For example, a year ago we introduced the function “report on appearance” and “order a rarity”. It turns out that so many people come to my site, looking for a product that is nowhere and difficult to get. Delight the client, give him the opportunity to buy from you a product that he can not find anywhere. And besides the profit from the sale, you immediately get a loyal customer.
How much does it cost to organize a newsletter and introduce simple functions? We are not talking about complex CRM systems, just competent delivery and a couple of functions - a penny, compared to usability auditing and a new cool design.
Management
I have already said a lot about the management of IM. I remind you that in this case we are talking about logistics, staff, warehouse, processes of work with orders and customers.
Honestly, I find it difficult to explain in detail the obvious dependence of the success of any marketing activities and investments in the site on the atmosphere in the company.
Anyway, the level of customer service depends on the willingness of your employees to work. Any attempts at information (website, direct marketing) to motivate customers to make purchases can break about the incompetence of managers and couriers. Incorrect calculations of accounting will lead to the fact that bonuses and discounts will cause losses.
And, on the contrary, streamlined business processes will allow processing any number of orders and providing quality service to customers. Service and speed of delivery are the key quality points for buyers.
Many shops forget about it. For example, the same About zones had big problems (at the end of the article) with the processing of orders, which adversely affected customer loyalty.
That is why the primary task should be optimization and systematization (in some processes - automation) of most internal processes. This will not only improve the quality performance of the company, but also reduce overhead costs. Which in turn will increase profits.
Promise the audience competence, information and efficiency of work with each client, keep promises, and in a short time the income will increase significantly.
I hope I have convinced you where to invest money: management, marketing or design and usability?
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/68454/
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