Dos and Don’ts of Shopping Cart Design

An easy to navigate and even easier to find shopping cart is a must for any business owner who maintains a web site as part of their business. The shopping cart is the area of a web site that allows a visitor or shopper to add whatever items they would like to purchase from the site. After the shopper has picked out all the items they would like to buy, they “check out” the shopping cart, which means they have started the payment process. With a few simple clicks of the mouse, the shopper will have bought the items and the cash will be transferred right to the business owner’s account. For this reason it is a necessity to have an effective and simple shopping cart design on a web page.

One of the simplest features an e-commerce site can have is a shopping cart icon. The icon should be very easy to find, so it should be at the top of the page- usually in the toolbar or menu section- and it should be visible (so perhaps slightly larger than any other icons seen on the web page.) If there is anything a user can’t stand, it is a difficult to navigate site. Usually, it is also a good idea to have a larger shopping cart section, like a separate full-page shopping cart section. A single page section will allow the shopper to browse all the items they have decided to purchase.

When the page has a full-page and/or a mini-icon set-up for the shopping cart, the next thing to evaluate is the process in which a shoppers checks out the items and finalizes the purchase. The easiest process is a step-by-step one. This allows the user to double-check the items and price, then check how much the total cost will be with taxes, shipping and other applicable costs, then enter their credit card information and shipping information and then finalize the process and complete the entire purchase. The step-by-step process ensures that the shopper does not skip over any information and thus ensure the legitimacy and ease of the entire process. Along the same lines as the other steps, it is important to make sure the check-out button is visible to the shopper: ease is the name of the game for shopping cart design.

When it comes to what the user sees when looking at the shopping cart page, it is important to make it easy to read and understand. The simplest way to ensure this is to make the shopping cart lay-out in the format of a chart. Shoppers are used to seeing a receipt when making a purchase, so the shopping cart page should look a receipt as much as possible. This also guarantees that the shopper is entirely aware of what items they are purchasing.

The next tip is a way to entice the shopper into shopping more: A “continue shopping” link. It is well known that people like to buy on impulse, and to help guide shoppers along, it is useful to include a “continue shopping” link on the check-out page. This feature will give the shopper incentive to look for more items to buy and thus impact the website owner’s bottom-line.

The final thing to keep in mind for shopping cart design, is to include a lot of “help” buttons. These buttons will help inform the shopper in case they become confused some time during the shopping process. With these simple tips, the shopping cart design should end up being painless for both the owner and the shopper.

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This article was written by Karl Stockton for the team at Insurance Swami. Contact them in the future for your questions pertaining to insurance.