How Faulty Website Design Can Impede E-Commerce Sales

What's standing between your e-commerce website and more sales? The answer might surprise you: too many photos, too many choices and too many websites.

Too much of a good thing can actually be bad.

Does this sound counter-intuitive? Keep reading to see why it makes perfect sense when it comes to e-commerce--and to see how three simple web design mistakes can cost you in sales.

Too many pictures

You've been told since time out of mind that a picture is worth a thousand words. That axiom is dead wrong. A thousand words is worth a thousand words--and a heck of a lot more in dollars on an e-commerce site.

Sure, your site needs pictures, and it also needs words. In fact, it needs more words than pictures. You see, pictures turn your website users into prospects, words convert them into customers.

Say you're selling sheets, for example. A visitor can't determine a thread count from a photo. But they can if you tell him or her by using words. Words are powerful. If you've eschewed them in favor of pictures, you may be costing yourself in sales.

Too many options

According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the average attention span of a human is eight seconds. That's how long you have to get them to look on your site for a product, find it and then decide to explore a little deeper.

Eight seconds isn't a lot of time, which is exactly why you need to make sure your site is well-organized and not offering too many options. Use categories to display different products--even if they're in the same category. Keep it simple and you'll keep it quick--and then you'll keep making sales.

Too many websites

If you're new to the e-commerce space, you may have created an additional website to sell products (in addition to the site for your traditional business). Get rid of the second site. Nobody wants to click away from one site to make a purchase. It seems shady. It's unnecessary. And it often takes longer than eight seconds.