How online shopping websites should be designed

Recently I was looking for a new floor rug for our house and I was so frustrated about my lack of options when browsing online. I actually have the same problem with most products that I search for. Even if I do eventually find something, there are a limited number of online retailers that are willing to ship to Australia. Some how this time I hit the jackpot! Rug Couture seemed to have everything I am looking for in a website. It made me realise how much further websites have to go with their design and usability. So for that reason I thought I would do a website review. Here are some points that I think people should consider when designing websites for online shopping. P.S please note I am not an expert. I am just sharing my opinion.  

1. Make your website clean and easy to read and navigate around. There is nothing worse than not being able to figure out how to find something you want on a website. The most common one I have found is lack shipping information and contact details. Usually I have to look hard for this. I will stop looking at a website if I cant figure out whether they ship to Australia or not. You should also provide the estimated delivery time and cost of delivery. I hate having to go through the whole checkout process before it provides these details. I also like an easy sorting system. I like to be able to have search preferences. E.g. to sort by price, size and so on. If I cant sort things easily I will get frustrated and give up.

2. I hate a website that is badly designed. Even if the product looks ok a horrible looking website will turn me off. Be careful with the use of colour and font. Pick a colour that does not distract from the product and have a font that is easy to read. 

3. Be clever in the way that you market your product. Make it interactive and unique. For example, this website gives you the ability to customize the shape, colour, design and size of floor rug you would like. 

3. Be consistant with the images that you put up. For example, If you decide to crop your products then do it to everything (like below). Or if not, at least make them look appealing and consistant with your website design and feel.  

5. Make sure that you display the product in a way so that people have the flexibility to view it on different angles or close up images. 

6. Make the ordering process easy. There are lots of little things that you can do to make it a whole lot easier for the customer to select what they want. Think about how people are going to want to oder things. This website provides size options that you can customize yourself, however it then it gives you an easy option of picking from popular sizes. It also allows you to pick your measurement preference e.g. cm or feet and inches. 

7. The 'suggestive product' feature is great. It should provide examples of other products that the customer might like based on what they are looking at, or have looked at. For example this website has provided some suggestion of other colours and styles that are similar to the selected product. 

8. Being able to actually visualise the colour of the item that you want its a such good option to have. 

It is much easier to decide if you have a real example in front of you.

9. Allow people to make last minute changes at the checkout. E.g add or remove items.

10. Make the payment process easy. If they have to add lots of details it gets really annoying. Have an       asterisk to help people know what details are required and which ones are optional. An automatic tab can     also help when people are putting in their contact and payment details. Provide tick boxes where   appropriate so that people dont have to put in their details twice if they dont need to.