Common Mistakes in E-Commerce Design

There’s a really useful article at the moment on Smashing Magazine which explains a number of usability issues when dealing with e-commerce design.

Here’s the topics it covers:

1. A lack of detailed product information
2. Hiding Contact Information
3. A Long or Confusing Checkout Process
4. Requiring an Account to Order
5. An Inadequate Site Search Engine
6. Poor Customer Service Options
7. Tiny Product Images
8. Only One Product Image
9. A Poor Shopping Cart Design
10. Lack of Payment Options
11. Not Including Related Products
12. Confusing Navigation
13. Not Including Shipping Rates
14. Not Including Store Policies
15. Not Putting Focus on the Products

You can read the full article on all these topics in the following article 15 Common Mistakes in E-Commerce Design.

The subject matter is mainly focused around e-commerce web design but the same principles should apply to a lot of designs so it’s a good check list to consider when building any kind of website.