Knowing the nuances of the modern ecommerce today and incorporating the highly necessary good practices that are no more a luxury, as in, responsive websites/responsive web designs, user friendly eStore and the best suiting ecommerce software in web development of an ecommerce platform for an estore in view of sales & business growth, if we are missing out on certain inconsistent/uncertain yet basic errors then it’s sure we are going to have dissatisfies users. While the error pages are unavoidable & we keep improving on them, it is required we, as businesses/web designers follow a few practices.
- Know the recovery rate: Exit rate is not agreeable in any page. Exit % is not of a value unless it’s due to a step in check out or during any of the basic steps in the linear flow (or) the 404 error in the website. Exit rate during check out means an unsuccessful process & the highest exit rate pages require a fix. Exit from the 404 pages just means how many have come across 404 & never recovered; this definitely requires a fix!
- Make meaningful 404s rather than just good looking 404s: A good comprehend-able, accurate & helpful error pages would make some sense to the end user. Having said it’s not hard to design a good 404 page, why shouldn’t we as web designers create a simple yet sensible error pages rather than strange outdated pages?
- Let the users know their tasks from your 404 pages: One way of getting the users stay on your site even in circumstances of erroneous pages, is giving them the information they need in the 404 pages as well. For example a ebay user looking a travel option might be interested in knowing on a hotel in the area so how about giving related options on the page and helping in recovery then and there?
It is not just about hotels/ebay but for any ecommerce website, it is good to deduce the users’ tasks and provide things around them in the error pages if you target to retain the users even in uncertain web issues.
- Ensure a recovery at any cost: Giving a directory or file not found in 404 pages is the worst experience you can provide to an end user. Customizing the error pages is a highly recommended good practice giving them reasonable information or the details they searched for in the previous searches or recovery details or something that tells them you are not happy as well if they are not happy and you do care to get them out of the situation!
“Well that hurt”, “We’re sorry that went wrong”-Do you think these make any sense? It’s quite obvious the user is hurt and something did go wrong, so there’s no point in reinstating the same.
Make sensible error pages, implement the recommended good practices in landing page and in linear processes, give the best experience possible to the users! Ask us if you believe you need the best; we assure you the best in ecommerce services!
