At present, no one disputes the influence that the Internet has on many aspects of life: work, studies, entertainment and even commerce. Thanks to the Internet, it is no longer necessary to leave home to buy everything from food, clothing and books to electronic equipment and furniture. Everything comes to your door with just a couple of clicks.
If you think about it a little and establish a comparison, you will realize that there are more and more businesses that operate online through transactional websites, that is, sites where companies show their products or services and users can purchase them securely using different payment methods, for example, credit and debit cards or online purses such as PayPal. This is because the Internet represents a market in which commercial transactions are carried out at any time and from anywhere in the world.
The features of a good transactional website
Who has never made an online purchase? At this point in history, I think we’ve all bought, even if it’s a product, through the internet.
Recently, I was looking for a laptop in various online stores, I visited about 10 websites until I found one that offered me what I needed. I must mention that all the online stores I visited are dedicated to the sale of technological equipment and enjoy some prestige in the city where I live, but only one convinced me to make the purchase, so what are the companies doing wrong from the other sites? Simple: they are not complying with the characteristics of a good transactional site. Let’s see which ones:
- Web design and usability: a transactional website must have a design that is capable of guiding customers until they complete their transaction; it must be tidy, so that the customer quickly finds what he needs; otherwise, he will leave the site and look for another. A good web design will increase the credibility of your site and the user’s trust in your company.
- Provide information about products or services:if you sell computers, for example, the minimum your potential client expects is that you provide the specifications of each model you offer, the warranty time, the colors available, if there is a shipping cost and how much it amounts … not just the price and brand.
- Having a good hosting service:the last thing you want is for your website not to load when a customer is about to make a purchase, right? That’s why you should have a good hosting provider, that will keep your site in top condition all the time.
- Responsive design: your transactional website must have a responsive design, that is to say, it must adapt to the visualization from mobile phones and tablets, in this way you will not let potential clients go who are looking for information, through their mobile devices, about the products you offer.
A transactional website is not only an excellent investment because it allows you to increase sales, but also because it reduces operating costs for businesses, facilitates inventory management and provides information on user preferences, which you can use to focus your marketing strategy.
Competition in the online marketplace is not easy; however, there are many aspects that you can exploit to get your business off the ground, and the main one is taking care of your website. Studies have shown that “customers prefer to visit and buy from websites that represent desirable qualities” (Ranganathan and Grandon, 2002), ranging from design to meeting delivery deadlines and that the products shipped are the same as the published products.
If you have an online business and you want to make the most of your website, ally yourself with web design experts and hire a good hosting server, you will see how you get positive results in a short time.
