[thelist] What makes a good e-commerce website?

Richard Bennett richard.bennett at skynet.be
Tue Feb 1 07:48:15 CST 2005


On Tuesday 01 February 2005 01:47, Tim Burgan wrote:
> Please add to the list.

Give the option to order by email or telephone.

As a repeat customer of my registrar I simply send them a mail 
"Hi, please register xxx.xxx and point it to these nameservers xxx, thanks." 
far easier than ploughing through a multi-page form.

Also, remember that (especially outside US) not everybody has a credit card, 
and of those that have, many are reluctant to use it online, so they'll 
research their purchase on your site, and then go out and buy it in the 
store.
Offer POD (payment on delivery) where possible, as well as check, 
international money order and bank transfer.

Don't go overboard validating the input data, there's nothing more iritating 
than a form that refuses to submit because the office-fax box is left empty.

Allow freeform address-writing, just one multi-line box for the address. It's 
a lot faster than scrolling through long dropdown boxes, especially if they 
don't contain the values you need.



Richard.


More information about the thelist mailing list