What we have Learned about eCommerce Website Development from our 18+ Years of Experience
E-Commerce Website Development – The Fastest Growing Platform:
eCommerce is one of the
fastest-growing platforms and has become a joint investment decision among most
business owners, retailers, and entrepreneurs. Commercial enterprises choose
this platform to transform the competitive benefits of online shopping into a
compatible revenue source through a professional eCommerce online store. The
invincible comfort over in-store shopping has paved the way to attract a wide
range of consumers to eCommerce websites.
Due to this increased demand, the
number of eCommerce development companies has increased. Starting from budding
firms to experienced companies, the field currently has a high population rate.
Despite this enormous number of eCommerce development
companies, only a few companies got flourished. Successful companies
have their tales of struggles and accomplishments that led them to reach their
current status.
Things to Consider during eCommerce Website
Development:
Appropriate communication is the
key. Proper communication is the key to solving every issue with customers and
will also help gain more reach. If you take our eCommerce store development
company as an example, we have become the most promising and best affordable
eCommerce website development company
from the past many years. Proper communication has boosted us a lot to reach
this level of success.
Our communication is more likely
to be in an open manner. Yes, we talk straightforwardly regarding everything
that needs to be communicated. And it includes all the shady practices that
many big eCommerce companies are doing currently. Because we believe that we
have to respect our customers who are investing their money and trust in us. Our
responsibility is to guide them appropriately regarding eCommerce website
development or eCommerce mobile app development based on their requirements. It
is always better to choose to be open and transparent in communication to lay
our first step towards trust.
Each website you craft on the
internet is a piece of hope for the customer. They are investing mainly in the
hope that this website can be a compatible revenue source for them. And hence
it is evident that customers will expect the website to stand unique or stand
as a benchmark in the competitive field.
Other Important things to consider
when building an eCommerce website
·
eCommerce
plug-in to make adding features easier
·
Choosing the
best platform for eCommerce website development
·
Appropriate
design
·
Safety
·
Search engine
attractions
·
Site speed
·
Guest check
out
·
Mobile
optimization
·
User reviews
and testimonials
·
FAQ section
·
User-friendly
approach
More than talking about our
learning, we would like to draw your attention to some dark practices that eCommerce
website users typically do to get more business. As a reputed, promising, and
affordable eCommerce website development
company having 18+ years of experience, we believe that it is our
responsibility to bring the dark practices performed by website owners to
public attention.
The Beginning of Dark Pattern:
A dark pattern is not a new
terminology now. It was the brilliant Harry Brignull UI specialist who first
brought up the term dark patterns in 2010.
Dark patterns are consciously made
user interface (UI) design choices that falsify the user into performing a
behaviour that users don't want to do, finding difficult to do and aren't aware
they are doing.
The use of dark patterns is not
encouraged. They demolish trust and take benefit of the people using that
product.
Brignull has recognized a myriad
of dark patterns, precisely 12 in numbers, and interestingly, each has unique
names. It includes;-
1.
Bait and
switch
2.
Confirm
sharing
3.
Disguised ads
4.
Forced
continuity
5.
Friend spasm
6.
Hidden costs
7.
Intentional
misdirection
8.
Price
comparison prevention
9.
Privacy
suckering
10.
Roach motel
11.
Sneak into
basket
12.
Tricky
questions
Why are they bad?
Dark patterns are considered
harmful because they create a deceptive design that nudges users to make
forceful decisions on what they don't want to make.
The Current Situation of Dark Pattern
As per researches, dark pattern
practice has increased. One of the essential studies held in 2019 by Princeton
University researchers and the University of Chicago has found 1in 11,000 uses
dark patterns.
Standard Practices on Dark Patterns:
Standard Dark Pattern practices
that are practised by many big and small eCommerce websites
Here is a small glimpse of various
dark patterns, especially those which we have experienced on many eCommerce
websites from our 18+ years of experience
1-
Sneaking
Items or Charges into the Shopping Cart
Adding additional charges at the
time of order placement is a prevalent thing that we all might experience at
least once. An array of undisclosed charges or other charges will show up at
the end, which is big trouble for many customers.
This is a common problem. Some
websites will add additional products without user consent or add up some
undisclosed extra charges just before the checkout.
Charges such as service fees, surcharges,
etc., are a typical example of this. Many researchers have already spoken about
this and are explained it as the method used for exploiting the user. It is
tricky which users are confused about order placement because they feel so
invested in the process and waste their long effort to select the appropriate
one and add up in that cart.
2-
Hidden
Subscription
Most of the customers typically
used to fall for a free subscription offer. But this is again another tricky
method that is used to gain recurrent fees. Users will fall for such things
believing that they have the option of unsubscribing after the trial period.
But hidden subscription charges are another threat where users will only know
about the hidden charges at last once their money got deducted.
3-
Countdown
Timers and Limited-Time Messages
Limited time messages generate a
fear of missing out among the users. They make users think about losing that
offer after some time and are indirectly forcing customers to buy the things if
even they are not necessary. So recommendations can make customers fall easily.
The product might not be an essential thing for the customer, but the
unbelievable offer showing for a particular period pulls customers to buy
those.
The irony is that timers of many
such offers will reset after a timeout, or the deals will remain the same after
the timeout.
4-
Activity
Messages
Some eCommerce websites are very
open and frank and show some real-time values of customers who are life or the
number of customers who have added the item in their shopping bag. This is to
create a tendency of buying among the users. (affordable eCommerce website development)
Websites use fake number
generators to fool the customers and make them buy the product. These are
randomly created without any authenticity just for the sake of boosting the brand.
5-
Low
Stock or High Demand Messages
These are again some ill
methodologies used to fool the customers. Website creators typically use some
random number generator to show the decreasing stock or increasing demand. The
purpose of these is to create a fake impression and thereby force the customer
to buy the product.
We believe those who use such
tricks generally exploit the users and never have loyalty to their customers.
6-
Misdirection
Some websites used to pressure
their users to choose expensive products. These are commonly achieved by asking
unnecessary questions like "yes, I like the discount" or "no, I
don't want any discount."
Or even "no, I will take it
for the full price". Misdirected questions are very tricky to make
customers expensively buy the product.
7-
Obstruction
One of the popular dark practices
is the frustrating procedure of cancelling subscriptions. This is again
cheating the customers by initially showing up as simple as just a click away
from unsubscribing. In reality, it will take a reasonable amount of time and
many frustrating steps. The hardships in unsubscribing may force some users to
continue their subscription at least for a few periods.
8-
Forced
Registration
This is a very hateful dark
pattern. Website Owners know this fundamental trick of increasing account
users. They make it compulsory to register to add items to the cart. Every time
users try to put items on a cart. Maybe even just for price analysis, the
website forces them to register first. This is hateful because the website can
get helpful information such as email addresses and contact further, especially
to send offer notifications.
9-
Harmful
Trials
These are deducting charges after
trial without even asking the customer whether they want to continue or not. As
soon as the trial expires, the website will remove further money and not refund
after subscribing.
For an experienced professional,
it will cost only some minimum eCommerce tools and basic e-learning eCommerce
knowledge to perform that.
10- Extra Small Buttons
The use of extra small buttons is
another cheap dark pattern to lead the customer to the website. A widespread
trend is via ads. The website owners purposefully keep the extra small size to
make the user click on the ad and lead to their website.
Big Brands using Dark Patterns:
If you thought small-scale owners
use these dark patterns to boost their business, then you are wrong. Many big
multinational brands still use these dark patterns to flourish their online
business. Here are few examples of such brands.
Google's Dark Pattern Usage
In the case of Google Ads, these
dark patterns are used to maximize the revenue from the platform. In Google
ads, we can advertise on the display network as well as search network.
The most extensive dark pattern is
less information on search and more unnecessary ads when we search for
something. Nowadays, it's becoming tough to discern between ads and search
results. That is how their design has become. They focus more on ads based on
user's previous search results to distract their minds, increase their revenue,
and make money for their stakeholders.
The Dark Patterns of Bing
The eCommerce development process
is different for the Bing search engine. The opaque behaviour of Bing makes its
dark patterns a way other than Google. And hence the eCommerce website
development tools also vary. Bing uses a very different method that
keeps the AD disclosure under the header section to get massive attention from
the users. Through this method, only a faint outline is shown to develop
curiosity, and they are by gaining the user's attention.
The Dark Pattern of Amazon
The eCommerce website development
process of Amazon uses very tricky dark patterns. It has been found that Amazon
users face difficulty leaving prime after the trial period. Joining prime is
way more difficult during the free period. They offer a free trial period to
attract customers as well. But if you like to leave from prime subscription
after that trial period, it is hectic.
Confirm shaming of Amazon is very
evident. Amazon has a sophisticated navigation menu, skewed wording, repeated
nudging, etc., making their users stay long on prime subscriptions. They will
never forget to warn you once you find out the cancel option. They will list
all the super benefits and try to persuade you it is a tremendous loss.
Government Vs Dark Patterns:
It is unfortunate to know that
even the government has started supporting shady practices nowadays. Still, in
many countries, the government is interested in shady practices to fulfil their
gains. But California government set an example for all these. In March
2021califormia government banned companies from using dark practices and
involved it as a part of privacy as per law.
Conclusion
Everything is marketing nowadays.
And every day, everyone wakes up with a thought on how to gain more money. The
lifestyle is changing, and demand for money is increased as well. Hence
everything can be reasoned. Finally, the question of many eCommerce websites
regarding their dark pattern is, the established sites are doing it, and why
can't we?
Choosing the best platforms can
always bring miracles along with an appropriate application of eCommerce
website development solutions. Affordable eCommerce website development is
always popular among small-scale enterprises. Having a prominent e-learning
eCommerce development knowledge can also significantly contributes to making
the best eCommerce websites development company.
There is nothing correct or wrong.
Just do your work and go with the flow. Yes! Dark practices are commonly done
on every eCommerce site. In one way or another way, there is the reasoning for
it. After our 18+ years of experience, our most extensive learning was that we
all are a part of such reasoning.
This is eCommerce website
development. There are vast business and dark marketing strategies that make
them one of the most popular revenue investments among entrepreneurs.
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