In part 1 of this series, I mentioned that your website must be easy to use. However, just because it is easy, doesn’t mean it is efficient.
Improved efficiency means getting big results from minimal effort and work. Your website should be efficient to both you and your customers.
Customer Efficiency
Because visitors to your site don’t have to drive to your store or office, your website could be considered efficient. However, let’s not stop there. Your site should help your customers:
- Save time
- Save money
- Find what they are seeking quickly
- Answer their questions
- Provide them the information they need to make the decision you want them to take
Company Efficiency
The beauty of ecommerce is that it is automated. Your website should be an efficiency gain for your company, not a burden. Not surprisingly, there is some overlap here with what a customer needs. Whereas your customers need your website to be efficient one at a time, you need things to be efficient on a larger scale. Your site should:
- Save you time – you can automate processes that you currently do manually
- Save you money – by automating your sales process, customer accounts, etc. you can do more with less overhead.
- Make you money
- Be scalable – can it handle 1 customer as easily as 1000?
- Work while you are sleeping – Your store or office doesn’t have to be open all day to serve your customers. Leave that to your website.
When your website is efficient, your customers are empowered and you reap the benefits. Examine the points above and see if your ecommerce solution is really as efficient as it needs to be.