When it comes to web site design, e-tailers today face many choices. They have more technology than ever at their fingertips to create a site full of bells and whistles, but at the same time, they want to deliver a quick and seamless shopping experience so consumers can get in, get their product, and get out.

The smartest e-retailers leverage advance­ments in site design to make buying easier.

It all starts at home.

A clear and simple home page is the way to go. From there retailers should place the most emphasis on helping consumers find products, even if they're not exactly sure of what they want.

Corfun Inc. (www.corfun.com), which has designed sites for e-retailers for several years, has learned from experience that search, for example, is about a lot more than serving up a laundry list of prod­ucts.

Less is more

Retailers should create a simple path for customers to follow, use a clean design and make sure the important features that lead to sales are obvious. "Buttons should look like buttons," Glen Chancy CIO of Corfun Inc. says, "Put your logo on the top left; add top and left hand navigation, and a search bar either top left or center. Simple is effective, complicated web sites fail."

Many retailers aren't so focused enough on the end benefit to customers, says Glen, "Too often merchants add features because they look cool, not because they will help the shopper," he said.

Glen continued, "Too much Flash tires people. While 3D images can showcase product features, they can be obtrusive if overused."

The worst, in Glen' opinion, are popup ads. As he notes, "Pop-up ads can be annoying."

The wrong implementation of technology-no matter how sleek-can frustrate consumers. "I don't like it when a Flash presentation is given before they let you go to the store," he says.

Video value

Adding videos that offer user control - that is, a user can choose when to watch and when to stop watching - can help boost brand awareness and loyalty. "Never undervalue the creation of your own video," Glen says.

You can incorporate videos both on your site and at your in-store kiosks, so an investment in video production can be leverage across multiple advertising channels. Clips showcasing customers using your product help fuel the imagination of consumers. And if consumers have the choice of when to load them and when to close them, you will enhance the shopping experience rather than upsetting your customer base with unwanted input.

A web site concept that Glen believes shows promise is The Wisdom of the Crowd, in which a retailer asks frequent customers to weigh in on potential items before they offer them. Customers can join a club or program and offer feedback in exchange for loyalty points or discounts. "Say you are a fan of a clothing retailer and they have three or four alternative designs they are considering, so they ask for your opinion." This can give a retailer a good idea of what's going to sell before adding an item, and it brings customers closer to the brand.

Figuring out which features will add value and which will simply add confusion isn't an easy process, but help from an outside Web design firm like Corfun Inc. and lots of testing can help.

Top to bottom

Many retailers today need to get their site reviewed and think about redesigning it from top to bottom.

The key when it comes to site design is to cater to the customer. "It's not about how you want to sell to them. It's about how they want to interact with you," Glen sums up.

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 [Catering to the customer in your web design]

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