Ecommerce Principles

What is E-commerce? In one sentence E-commerce can be defined as On-Line Credit card transactions where a payment is made through a website.

The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily since the spread of the Internet. A wide variety of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems

Making money from online sales is a realistic ambition for many organisations large and small as it is both cost effective for the business owner and the consumer. As more and more website users convert to online shoppers E-commerce business owners ultimately will benefit. ECommerce websites have their own unique character that is designed to lead the visitor to one simple task – make an online purchase. However, a web designer needs to consider a variety of online philosophies while designing an eCommerce website.

Ecommerce work flow

The consumer moves through the internet to the merchant's web site. From there, the consumer decides to make a purchase. One the purchase is added to the shopping basket it is moved to the online transaction server; this is where all of the information concerning the order is encrypted. Once the order has been finalised, the information moves through a private gateway to a Processing Network of the merchant’s choice, where the issuing and acquiring banks complete or reject the transaction.

Design Principles

So, what web design principles need to be followed when creating an eCommerce enabled website? An ecommerce website fundamentally acts as the online storefront for the products and services the merchant is selling online, where the website visitors are in effect window shoppers and browsers. So obviously the storefront needs to be attractive enough to entice the visitor to take a closer look – after all the aim is to convert these ‘browsers’ into buyers. The site also needs to be designed to with a seamless format – one which maintains a smooth passage through the website that leads the visitor to the appropriate page. Images are important for ecommerce websites, they can encourage a browser to make a purchase and assist in the online sale of the products on offer. Above all it is imperative that an ecommerce website offers absolute security for the transactions that are carried out using credit cards. For the success of any ecommerce website it is necessary that a proper choice of payment gateway is made.

A well designed and thought through ecommerce application will lead the visitor to the product they are looking for in one or two clicks at most. There are many other advantages to ecommerce websites;

Shrinks the Competition Gap

An ecommerce application has helped to reduce marketing and advertising expenses of many online companies, this enables them to compete on equal footing with much bigger companies; allowing them to compete easily on quality, price, and availability.

’Always open’ Market

The Internet gives customers the opportunity to browse and shop at their convenience and in their own time. They can access the services on offer from home, the office or when mobile, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Internet allows the merchant to reach consumers around the world, often offering their products to a global customer base from a small office in the UK.

Lower Cost

ECommerce can help reduce inventory, employees, purchasing costs, and order processing costs associated with faxing, phone calls, and data entry, ecommerce even helps to eliminate the ‘middle man’ meaning you can reduce the employee wage bill by selling direct to your customers, this also frees up existing staff, allowing them to concentrate on the jobs that will drive you business forwards.

If you are about to open an eCommerce website or you are already own one, make sure you understand ecommerce web design principles. Consider consulting an experienced website designer preferably someone who has experience with eCommerce websites.

 

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