When dealing with eCommerce, one thing is crystal clear, use the KISS principle: Keep it simple stupid.
First off make it easy to find products. Seems so elementary but I can’t tell you how many times people go to an eCommerce site and can’t find what they need.
Second, if you have add ons, make it simple to add them, either have a dropdown menu or checkboxes on the same screen as the product. I was recently on a client’s website and after you add a product to your cart, you get a popup window (really). Then you can select one of the items. BUT you then have to again hit add to cart. At that point you get another popup and have to again pick an add on and again get a popup. The result is very few add ons.
Third, and the most important thing is the checkout process. People want easy and quick.
As Bruce Lee once said: “In building a statue, a sculptor doesn’t keep adding clay to his subject. Actually, he keeps chiseling away at the inessentials until the truth of its creation is revealed without obstructions. It is not daily increase but daily decrease; hack away the unessential.”
So when working on your checkout make the process as easy as possible, either a simple step AJAX checkout or a one page checkout.
If you follow these 3 simple rules, you will have success, provided of course you are selling a product people want. You won’t have abandoned carts, and you will maximize your profits with increased add ons.
The beauty of eCommerce today is that there are many options to choice from. Because there are several which are open source, the cost is low and many times free. If you need help, contact me and I can walk you through some options.
“If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.” ~Napolean Bonaparte
In many cases I would have to agree with the little guy. But he died centuries before WordPress and other Content Management Systems came to be.
So a few questions:
Do you feel comfortable making the changes to your WordPress and plugins?
Have you made changes to your theme? If you update the theme files, will your customizations be wiped out? (this happens when there is no child theme)
Do you have a backup plugin in place in case one of the updates cripples your site? (it happens)
Setting Up a WordPress Website
Although the thousands of available themes look nice and fit the requirements of many businesses, they are not all easy to set up. The more available features, the longer it takes to get up and running.
Conclusion
Don’t get me wrong, WordPress is fabulous, you certainly can blog yourself, edit content, add photos and more with little or no help. But unless you have the time and the skillset needed to keep your WordPress site up to date, hire a professional to help you to set up and manage your website.
