This document discusses things consumers hate about ecommerce sites and provides examples of good and bad design. Specifically, it notes that unreachable customer service and required logins contribute to high shopping cart abandonment rates. It also provides examples of outdated design elements to avoid, as well as recommendations for standard pages and features that constitute good design, such as search boxes and customer service contact information. The document concludes by evaluating the checkout processes of several example sites and suggesting cutting-edge features like automatic form filling based on email or zip code.

1. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
eCommerce Websites:
Design
by Sharon A. Dawson
Project Manager at TheeDesign Studio
919-341-8901

2. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• Unreachable Customer Service
• 22 percent of shopping cart abandonments were due to
unreachable customer service.
• Required Login to Order
• 20 percent of shopping cart abandonments were due to
forced registration.
Things Consumers Hate
About Ecommerce Sites

3. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• No Way to Sort or Filter Results
• Sort and filter category pages and search results.
• No Search Options
• Don’t make your visitors click through your site’s product
hierarchy, when they could have gone directly to what
they wanted via a search.
• Poor Graphic Design
• 42 percent of folks do not trust poorly designed sites.
Things Consumers Hate
About Ecommerce Sites

4. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
http://www.pennyjuice.com/htmlPages/gotjuice.htm

5. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
http://www.lingscars.com/
What did they do right?

6. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
http://msy.com.au/index.jsp
What did they do right?

7. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• A “Shop” section
• Customers navigating via Sitemap
• Text heavy
• Lack of images
• Flashing or scrolling items
• Visit counter
• Credit Card Type field
• Coupon code to get free shipping at a price point
So Last Century

8. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• Search Box
• Customer Service phone number
• Login, Cart in upper right hand corner
• Product Categories in top navigation
• Cart quantity in header
• Message boxes on homepage (in addition to slider)
Great Homepage Design

9. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• FAQ page relating to eCommerce, not just company or
products
• Standard Pages in footer
• Terms of Use
• Privacy Policy
• Shipping Policy
• Returns Policy
Great Designs Include

10. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
http://www.davidstea.com
Great Design Example

11. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
How Did They Do?
http://www.writtencards.com/

12. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• One column, clean layout
• Phrasing – “Continue”, “Apply”, “Proceed”
• Button locations
• Explain why fields like telephone are required
• PayPal, BBB, Authorize.net seals on Checkout page
• Customer Service phone number
Checkout Flow

13. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
How Did They Do?
http://www.hobbytron.com/cgi/sc/order.cgi?rd=1&storeid=*125ec4ba87b608763b40c9&s
bid=SSMSB1388161395.2730&redirect=yes/

14. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
How Did They Do?
http://www.teavana.com/shopping-bag

15. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
How Did They Do?
https://www.teavana.com/checkout/billing

16. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• Email address at start of checkout auto looks up if current
customer or not (no checking of boxes for user)
• User enters zip code, and then city, state, country are auto
populated
• Shipping auto calculates once zip code is entered
Cutting Edge Checkout Flow

17. TheeDesign.com | @TheeDesign |
• http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/2707-6-Things-
Consumers-Hate-About-Ecommerce-Sites for Things
Customers Hate
• http://www.slideshare.net/Gammameyepiaw/7-examples-of-
good-and-bad-ecommerce-websites for the Bad Design ideas
• http://sixrevisions.com/user-interface/e-commerce-website-
features-tips-examples/ for inspiration on Great Designs
• https://blog.kissmetrics.com/1step-checkout-right-way/ for
Above and Beyond ideas
Bibliography