Biggest Factor Driving Online Success
Ease Of Use
Ease of use for online weapon sales can be broken down into four sub-categories:
• Mobile Friendly
• Navigation
• Search Functionality
• FFL Locator At Checkout
In today’s world if a website wants to be successful it simply must be mobile friendly. This means that your site is going to look nice on mobile devices such as cell phones the same as it does on full screens such as desktops and laptops.
Many people do not understand that being accessible online is NOT the same as being mobile friendly. Thanks to technology virtually all platforms can show even the worst websites online. If there is a need to toggle back and forth across the screen or zoom in for basic elements such as navigation or to read text this means the website is NOT being mobile friendly. A good mobile friendly website and ecommerce platform will adjust to meet the screen size of the user so there is no need to toggle the screen or use the zoom for basic site functionality.
Years of experience helping retailers sell online and through in-depth statistical tracking of user behavior we have personally estimated that over 60% of online sales now are conducted through the use of a mobile device. It is soon expected to be closer to the 80%. Having a mobile friendly website is critical for any weapons related site that desires to make online a key part of their business revenue model.
From a user perspective being mobile friendly is critical to most. This is also true if one wishes to seek positive ranks in search engines like Google. In fact, as of July 1, 2019 Google adopted the “mobile-first” standard as their default for positive search engine rankings. (Google Source)
For the serious online retailer careful consideration should be given to both desktop and mobile presentation. It is not wise to focus on one at the cost of the other. Why focus on 60% of the pie or 40% of the pie? Success in almost any industry online means focusing on 100% of the pie. At online-ecom this is our focus as we provide a great user experience throughout. We constantly strive to meet the needs of today’s modern mobile experience for both admin and end user.
Next up in terms of importance, for the best user experience, is a well-developed navigation structure. Navigation should be intuitive. This sounds like common sense, but you would be amazed at the various navigation schemes we have seen people come up with. While an occasional dropdown to a sub-category may be necessary dropdowns on top of dropdowns on top of dropdowns is almost always a bad idea. The goal of a well-developed navigation should be to get the user to where they need to go, in as few clicks as possible. At online-ecom we invested years into coming up with the most logical menu arrangements that have proven themselves through millions of online user tests. With the online-ecom ecommerce platform this menu system is included automatically in the base product. Administrators can certainly choose to go a different route as their navigation structure and specific needs may differ. Along the way, our pre-defined structure will help best define one's own unique requirements with vast examples of goby’s to help along the way.
While a solid navigation structure will be the best way for a user to narrow their search, in many cases a user may already have a very specific idea of what they are looking for. They may know the model, brand, SKU or even the UPC code. This is where a robust internal search feature is ESSENTIAL. Through the online-ecom platform your users will be able to search any number of variables no matter how numerous or obscure they are. As long as products are entered correctly finding those products is as simple as the user entering the data in the search box. Once the search is enacted the user will receive a comprehensive list of all items that meet their search requirements.
