4 Critical eCommerce Website Tests Every Retailer Should Complete

In this report, we discover the 4 key eCommerce store evaluations that each and every retailer should regularly undertake to stay ahead of fierce online competition.

In a recent study, 57 percent of Australian respondents stated they discard their carts occasionally, or all the time, compared to 41 percent of European respondents and 47 percent of North American respondents. This, coupled with the benchmarks for eCommerce encounter being set so high by the big global online players, means that Australian and New Zealand retailers will need to regularly evaluate and enhance their online store presence to keep up with ever-demanding user expectations and Google search rank criteria.

It's vital Your online stores are analyzed regularly to:

  • Make sure all attributes are all working correctly
  • Make sure You're search-friendly
  • Optimise conversion rates, revenue and customer lifetime value by making the website as easy as possible and enjoyable to buy from (and return time and time again)
  • Detect security issues and bugs

Conducting regular testing may be a time-consuming procedure, however, optimization directly raises customer engagement and earnings.

The following are the key areas of optimization and testing that should form a part of your eCommerce and omni-channel growth strategy:

1. Performance

Your site's load rate, mobile-friendliness and safety will directly influence your search rankings and visitors, the time clients spend on your website, abandon rates and sales revenue.

Mobile-friendly

61 percent of users will probably not return to a cellular site they had difficulty accessing, and 40% see a competitor's site instead. (3)

Mobile-friendly sites are more important than they have ever been. Google ranks this as the next most important element when determining a site's rank (3).

You can use Google's Mobile Friendly Test see how well your website performs on mobile devices.

If your site isn't mobile-friendly, this should be an integral priority on your eCommerce action program. Either by fixing your current website or looking at a brand new eCommerce software solution that's mobile-friendly as standard.

Load Speed

Website load rate directly impacts your SEO. Google uses website speed as a rank determinant, and it continues to function as one of many variables that determine where your site shows up in search (2).

A site that's slow to load may also drive traffic back into search results, and straight to a competitor.

You can use Google's Page Speed Insights instrument to check how your website performs on both desktop and mobile devices.

Security

There are a wide assortment of security and privacy variables which will need to be regularly tested on your website. Among the most critical is ensuring your complete website is HTTPS not HTTP. This is particularly important today that Google will alert Chrome browser users if your pages aren't protected, risking a spike in bounce prices.



2. SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

A website needs to be designed based on SEO best practices such as URLs, headers, high--quality content, site design, plugins, meta descriptions, key words and themes, backlinks, sitemaps, and image alt attributes.

With multiple pages, it's easy to forget a header or leave off the alt-text for a picture. Though these might seem like small problems, at a highly-competitive, hunt orientated world, each component counts.

There a wide assortment of search engine optimization tools you can use to analyse your existing performance and openings including Alexa, Moz and SimilarWeb.

3. Usability

64 percent of shoppers said "easy website navigation" as a factor influencing their decision to purchase (5).

Usability testing appears to identify disconnects (or areas of good performance which may be replicated) from the users experience with your website and with your brand. The intent is to understand how easy (or hard) it's for them finish what they had planned when visiting your website in addition to how the total shopping experience plays out to them. This can include navigation in addition to the access to features and information they need to make a buy decision.

Usability testing should expand to the way in-store interactions and fulfilment of products play a part in the consumer experience. A disconnected omni-channel experience is becoming one of the greatest challenges for Australian and New Zealand retailers so usability testing now takes a holistic approach.

Testing can concentrate on the end-to-end expertise or hone in on certain areas of the customer journey.

There are a number of different types of usability testing methods including:

  • Hallway Testing-- with arbitrary folks to check the web site as opposed to people that are experienced and trained in analyzing sites. (4)
  • Remote Usability Testing-- This is an insightful process of testing since it's completed in the normal environment of the consumer rather than a controlled'laboratory'.
  • Expert Review--an expert in the area is requested to rate the usability of the site. These tests are typically not as comprehensive as other kinds of endurance tests, but their benefit is they can be completed quickly and offer a selection of best-practice conversion optimization (see point 4) hypotheses to check out.
  • Questionnaires and Interviews -- interviews allow the viewer to ask direct questions to the users and vice versa.
  • Do-it-Yourself Walkthrough--the viewer sets up a usability test scenario by making realistic scenarios. Then they walk through the job themselves just like a user would. This may be done in a group or individually.

Navigation testing ensures all links, both internal and external, are working. Make certain every single possible travel throughout your site leads to where it's meant to. In case you have an onsite search bar, make sure it provides accurate results. With eCommerce, it is important to be aware that the purchase method is simple for the consumer, such as check-out, payments, receipt generation, etc.

References

  1. benefits-of-pos-system-for-brick-and-mortar-stores/
  2. 8-tips-boost-online-presence-for-fashion-brands/
  3. pos-transformation-in-physical-store-workflow/
  4. pricing-options-for-different-pos-systems/
  5. 6-must-have-pos-integrations/

4. Conversion Optimisation

Running proactive experiments to test out new ideas and hypotheses that could increase overall conversion rates, transaction value, repeat purchases, named sales and other important KPIs is essential to eCommerce growth. Usability testing can help unveil thoughts to test but they can also come from brainstorming sessions and suggestions from internal and external stakeholders. You will find an endless array of components that can be analyzed including:

  • Navigation
  • Website features
  • New products
  • New policies and services
  • Personalisation
  • Content (including text, pictures, video and all other formats)
  • Service (phone, live chat etc)
  • Promotions, offers and incentives
  • Loyalty and reward programs
  • In-Store discussion

The two most common methods to check conversion is through A/B testing and multivariate testing:

  • A/B testing lets you make a new variant of a strategic page and compare its conversion results with the results of the first edition. There may only be one component that differs the two pages, the component that supposedly triggers customer actions (a call to action button, a picture, a headline). (6)
  • Multivariate testing is a sort of internet testing with that you compare various versions of the exact same page with one another. Multivariate testing permits you to change a number of elements of a webpage and find out how different combinations of these elements influence the conversion speed.

Just like any sort of testing, site optimisation is an ongoing process and the many successful Informed Retailers have the aforementioned tests threaded into their enterprise and process business rhythms.

A number of them appear simple but are often not implemented well, if at all. Bear in mind that your eCommerce store has to be user-friendly, quickly and as frictionless as possible -- not just for your clients but also to ensure it is optimised for search.

Sources

https://www.connectpos.com/magento-pos/

https://www.connectpos.com/shopify-pos/

https://www.connectpos.com/bigcommerce-pos/

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