According to studies, online shoppers carry out more than six searches before making a purchase. This could eventually mean that the potential buyer may visit your website anywhere between one to six times using different search terms before they decide to buy.

In our last newsletter we discussed how you could get maximum ROI out of your marketing budget. In this newsletter we would further this discussion and understand how the website can be made more functional to arrest the bounce rate. A website should adhere to certain design and development requirements to be attractive to the potential visitors. Having discussed the design requirements in our previous newsletter, we will focus on the functional requirements in this newsletter.

Sites that are designed to sell products and/or services must go the extra mile to enhance the visitor's engagement with the website. Instance like Shopping cart abandonment (shoppers abandoning their carts before deciding to pay for the "items" they've added to their cart) can result in a significant loss in potential sales. But much of that can be reduced when the shopping process is streamlined and geared for shopper satisfaction. A good user experience is essential for conversions. The conversions can be enhanced by considering the following points that make the visitor experience more fulfilling.

As the topic for discussion is exhaustive, we will break it into two parts to keep you engaged. We would discuss the technical requirements in the second part.

From the time that the visitor enters the website to the checkout page, the website must be able to grab the visitor's attention and drive them through to the finalization of the sale.

The objective while developing a website should be to find areas where visitors are not finding what they need, or are leaving the site, comprehend the reasons for abandonment and then correct the problem. In order to become a Destination Website, you have to have a site that users enjoy returning to time and time again.

The website should act as a catalyst to conversions. This can be achieved by following certain guidelines that are intended to make the visitor experience more palatable. The following seven guidelines will enhance your shoppers overall experience, and bring them back for more.

The endeavor while developing the site should be to help the visitors navigate through the website without any impediments. The visit should be effortless and help the visitor move from page to page towards the conversion goal. The website should engage the audience.

All the websites that are developed to sell products and/or services must ensure maximum visitor engagement. Customer engagement is not just getting the customer's attention, but to keep their attention. This can be achieved by providing the visitors near instant gratification. The content should capture the attention of the visitor, tell them what they need to purchase and link to other important pages that would help them make the purchase decision.

Shopping cart abandonment often results in a significant loss in potential sales. However, much of that can be reduced by making the shopping process streamlined, and geared for shopper satisfaction.

The content of the website should be so structured and displayed so that it facilitates the purchase.

The content of the website is the primary sales tool. The content influences how users interact with the website, as well as also determines how visitors are able to figure out what is on offer and what each page of the website is about. The attempt should always be to write for the visitors. The content should be geared to address the needs of both the experts and novice users. It would help to remember that not everyone coming to the site may be fully knowledgeable of the topic.

It may also help to display images on the website to complement the content. However, the images and content must work together to provide the user with a palatable experience. Relying too heavily on images and other media may be distracting, particularly to those visitors who need to read more about what they are buying before they are comfortable making a purchase. Also, too much content on the wrong pages may turn potential shoppers away. A proper balance between the content and the images must be struck.

The key to good content is to provide such information to the users as they desire, in a way that spurs them to action.

Layout of the content should stimulate the audience to take action. The content must be purposeful and have a beginning, middle and end. Each page should highlight need, show the importance, feature the benefits and, provide a call to action. The objective should be to address the emotions of each visitor.

One of the most important things that the content of the website should do is to tell the visitor what they should do. Should they call? Add a product to cart? Sign up? Order for the service now? All these are important calls to action. A mistake that most website developers commit is, to think that people will figure it out on their own. While some visitors may, but most, without the call to tell them what need to be done, may not move forward in the process.

There are two kinds of call to action that may be used: visual and textual. It is observed that visual calls to action in the body content, often gets missed. However, these can be created by adding a button image within the body content area. Such images help to break up the text, and also capture the attention of the reader when they are scanning.

Textual calls to action are as important as the visual calls. Instead of always using a graphical image to convey the message, the calls to action can also be linked to the body copy. Some visitors may get image blindness and start perusing the content. In such cases, these hyperlinked calls to action become conspicuous and help propel the visitors towards closure.

A well laid out page would thus make the visitor’s experience pleasant and help in engaging the audience.

We would be discussing the technical aspects of the website to enhance visitor engagement in the next edition of our newsletter. Since one month will be a long time to wait to end this deliberation, we would break our tradition and publish the newsletter within a fortnight. In the meantime, do tell us your feedback and anything that you would like us to include in our following newsletter.