Yesterday I came across this fabulous post by Avinash, which I added to my Readability list to go through in the quiet night at home, in my iPad, of course (yes, mobile). So there a couple of very good pieces of advice on his post that one can not stress enough:

1. The famous excuse that no one will be buying it from their phones because it’s still a PITA to fill out an order form on it. Yes, that might be true (even on the such great ecommerce experiences as the one Abercrombie has to offer), yet, people might just take a spare minute on the subway to browse for shopping items hoping to buy them later on a desktop computer or at the store:

 

Now, I was not looking to buy on my phone. I had a few minutes, I wanted to research the inventory and go buy it at a local store. Guess what store I did not go to buy my camera? I call it the silent death from not having an acceptable mobile strategy – you don’t even know you are getting killed. And you are guessing why store sales are down (and because of such a simple fix!).

(…)

It used to be silly to not have a smart phone and tablet friendly experiences of your digital existence. It is now profoundly harmful to your bottom-line. Silent death.

2. You need to make sure where your customer stands. If I know nothing about the product or service don’t start by making me fill out a tedious form because first I need to make sure that what you are offering matches my needs. If I would like a sales rep talk on the phone, I would have called in. I want to learn by myself first and then maybe I’ll get in touch. Or else your site is like:

(…) the person that comes to a first date completely naked. If you are not interested in jumping into bed right away, they are happy to walk around the bar and look for someone else. They care that deeply about you. On. The. First. Date!

3. Personalization and reviews do matter. I should be able to filter out what I don’t want and your website can focus on my needs. If I’m shopping for some brand new tennis shoes, let me state my needs upfront (maybe I’m a pronator or I want some really light competition shoes) and make the whole experience more worth-some. Also, if  I can related to other buyers I will be more at ease to commit with buying so reviews are as good as they came.

4. Make it easy and straight forward. Again, just try Abercrombie european ecommerce site and you’ll find a really great online shopping experience.

 

If you care for ecommerce user experience make sure you take 10 minutes to read the full article here.