Have you ever wondered why Amazon and eBay continue to rule the e-commerce business despite such stiff competition in the market? If you check these two sites, you will realize that both of them offer a hassle-free shopping experience. They use powerful and user-friendly shopping cart solutions to make the buying process as effortless as possible

Shopping cart is the most important element of every e-commerce website and you should choose it carefully. You can either buy it from a reputed web development company or hire an offshore team of programmers to develop a customized shopping cart. Offshore staffing helps you reduce it’s development cost and you can also add several custom features in your shopping cart.

However, whether you buy it or develop a customized one, you must pay attention to its usability. Here are some common usability problems and their solutions.

Sign-up before Entering – Web users love to check products in different e-commerce sites and compare their prices before finally buying a product(s). If you ask a potential customer to register immediately after he visits the site, he may skip your site completely.

Avoid asking for customer registration to “sign up and enter”…it’s like stopping a customer at the door of a shop because he has never shopped there before!

Not Showing Product Availability - Every time a customer adds a product in his shopping cart, show him the “in stock” or “out of stock” message immediately. A “product not available” message during the payment process can be extremely disappointing.

Suggesting Products - Showing related products during shopping is an intelligent marketing technique, but make sure you suggest products only when customers select a product for shopping. For instance, if a customer adds a mobile phone to the cart and proceeds to the payment option, suggest a “screen guard” or a “headphone”.

Product suggestions are like stopping a customer mid-step on his way to the payment counter. Ensure a smooth check-out before piling his cart with suggested products.

Remove Product to Change Preference – Ask your developers to design a user-friendly shopping cart. Customers should be allowed to change color, size and quantity of any product directly from it..

Not Offering Any Order Confirmation Message - Truly functional shopping carts send a product confirmation email and SMS to its customers as soon as they click on the “buy” button. Not sending a confirmation message is like refusing to hand a customer his bill. So, buy only that which has automated message sending facilities.

Not Showing the Shopping Cart Data on Every Page -You must display It’s information on each and every page of your site. Some of your customers may like to order several items. Not showing the number of products one has added to his shopping cart is confusing them and making them lose count of things.

These are some common shopping cart usability problems that most online buyers face everyday. If you want to develop an e-commerce site, then hire a professional web development company for quality web design and development services.