My friend Murray is giving me a hard time. I tried to convince him to embrace eCommerce and expand his online business but he says that online business is saturated. He says there is no point in creating or upgrading online stores and sites because people are already confused by all the choices they have. I disagree!
My friend Roland sells football memorabilia. Last year, Roland signed up to do a holiday sale at a local community center. When he got the venue, he found that none of the prospective customers wanted his products. The event had been advertised as a ‘handicraft’ show, featuring hand knit baby sweaters, handmade aprons, blown glass tree ornaments, etc. Roland didn’t sell any football memorabilia that day
Why am I telling you this story? To prove the adage, ‘Know your audience’. That adage applies to any kind of customer, including an eCommerce client! If you are launching, migrating or upgrading an eCommerce site, you must design a site to attract and retain your target audience. It is important to understand more than the technical aspects of the site. Yes, performance, architecture and mobility is crucial but if you don’t know your target customers, their buying behavior and preferences, you will not get the results you want.
Shopping behavior continues to shift to the web and apps, but many top retailers under perform across a series of important e-commerce metrics, including mobile-web load.
