How to Evaluate an E commerce Website

There are a lot of reasons you might want to evaluate an e-commerce website, like refining the e-commerce strategy of your own website, checking out a competitor, or comparing e-commerce platforms. No matter the reason, there are a few key metrics you need to assess across the site. Our how-to guide will walk you through the process of evaluating the site's performance across different criteria, including user experience (UX), web content, functionality, and more.

Steps

Two or more evaluations will help you account for what is subjective and come up with an average score.
Ask your fellow evaluators to rate the website on a scale of 1 to 5, 1 to 10 or simply by checking a box if the website has that feature.
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Navigate the website for 5 to 10 minutes before completing the evaluation.
4
Review and mark scores for the e-commerce website's content. Answer whether the website provides the following content:
- Decide whether the website provides all the relevant information for each product on the website, including prices. This should include technical specifications that are easy to understand. Review whether the website clarifies and explains technical aspects of the products themselves.
- Decide whether the website offers anything that other websites don't offer. This can include exclusive products, free shipping, bundle offers, specials or anything else that is unique to this site.
- Decide whether the website adequately explains its payment and shipping options.
- Decide if the website posts reviews or gives adequate feedback from users about its products.
5
Review the website's functionality. This is the ease of navigating and purchasing from the website, as well as finding help, if it is needed. The following are good criteria for judging website functionality:
- Review or rate the ease of navigating the website. Any e-commerce website should allow you to move from homepage to product pages to shopping carts.
- Review whether the e-commerce site encourages customers and users to get involved. This is the ease of reviewing purchases, posting comments on articles or asking questions to support staff.
- See whether the customer can perform 1-click shopping. This means the customer can click on an "add to shopping cart" button and be able to check out immediately. This is an important feature of any website.
- Decide whether the website provides relevant links to other products, reviews or websites. The site should encourage interaction with its customers.
- Evaluate the customer service provided by the website. Are there easy ways to access staff by phone, email, and even instant messaging? The more options and hours per day they provide customer service, the better the experience will be if there is a problem.
6
Review the authenticity or authority of the website. E-commerce sites are sometimes built to scam customers, so it is important the website feels safe and authentic. The following are ways to judge whether the website is authentic:
- Find whether the website offers a secure checkout and options to PayPal or Google Checkout, so the consumer can decide how to pay and what details to give to the site. Look for a written assurance the personal information of all consumers is kept private.
- Review whether the site answers Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) which explain the company and its authenticity. They may also explain this in an "About us" section. Look for ways the company is involved in the community or news links to services it provides.
- Decide whether the site has several interactions and ratings between its customers. This can help to show how long the site has been in business. Although it is not essential, it is a preference over newer sites that have not yet proved their authenticity.
7
Rate the attractiveness of the site. Although this is a subjective portion of the evaluation, it may gauge the willingness of a customer to come back in the future or visit the site often to check for specials. The following are good ways to rate the attractiveness of the site:
- Decide whether the site has an attractive brand or image that is consistent through each page and checkout. This may also include emails or newsletters that a customer receives after making a purchase.
- Review whether the website is "fun." An enjoyable site often features videos, music, entertaining articles or links to social media sites.
- Rate the experience of using the site as either positive or negative. If the experience was positive, it is likely to be an attractive, user-friendly site.
- Ask yourself or fellow reviewers whether they feel inclined to come back to the site or recommend it to another person. A recommendation is 1 of the highest compliments a site can get.
Decide whether it is easy to find on a search engine or through advertisement placement. Try to find them using 3 of 4 of the main search engines to see how the site performs.
Encourage people to write down their impressions at the bottom.
Many e-commerce websites have this problem, which can result in a Google penalty.
Evaluate whether the site provides all the necessary details on shipping details and additional taxes if applicable
Find whether the site provides assurance to it's users on the website's legality which can include associating the website with company claimed and its credibility.
Verify whether the website provides genuine information of the developers and organization responsible for maintaining the site
Make sure that the who is information of the domain can be viewed and is not hidden, so it is easy to trace the owner of the site and the location where it is hosted.
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Tips

If you are comparing sites against each other, be sure to evaluate specific costs related to products and shipping.
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It may be beneficial to buy a product from the site if you want to become intimate with all the features of an e-commerce website, such as shipping time, emails, customer service, and returns.
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