Since the invention of the internet, ecommerce sales have greatly enhanced a business’s earning potential. However, if certain precautions aren’t attended to in the ecommerce design process, the practice can actually cause business owners to lose profits.
Ecommerce Sites and Chargebacks
As a creative type, there is a chance you’ve never heard of chargebacks before. Unless you’ve experienced one first hand, you probably have no idea how devastating these financial nightmares can be.
A chargeback is a form of consumer protection. They were intended to bolster the general population’s trust in credit cards. If something goes wrong—someone used the card without permission, the purchased item never arrives, the item is poorly constructed—the cardholder can file a chargeback and the money is refunded.
It may seem like a pretty straightforward practice—perhaps even quite efficient. If chargebacks were only used in the manner intended, they might be. But too many people are lazy, regretful, or determined to take advantage of loopholes and commit fraud. There’s actually a term for it—chargeback fraud (you can learn about it here).
This friendly fraud makes chargebacks bad news for business owners. In fact, half of all online companies close up shop because of chargebacks and the fees associated with them.
Why?
Because chargebacks are expensive! Each time a cardholder disputes a transaction, the merchant (website owner) is charged a fee—usually between $20 and $75. And since the customer filed a chargeback instead of a traditional return, the business owner will never see the originally purchased item again.
If chargebacks get too out of control, the company that processes the transactions will fine the website owner (usually $5,000). If chargeback management doesn’t effectively bring the ratio down, the bank will simply close the merchant account. That means the website owner can’t process credit card purchases any more. And for an ecommerce site, that means shutting down.
What You Can Do About It
Now that we’ve drawn your attention to how damaging chargebacks can be for business owners, let’s look at the specific web design blunders that can cause them.
Not Enough Images
Receiving unsatisfactory products is one of the reasons customers file chargebacks. The customer thought the shirt was red but it ended up being pinkish. Chargeback. The customer could only see the front of the jeans and didn’t know there was a giant butterfly on the back pocket. Chargeback.
Make sure the customers know exactly what they are getting. Each sale item needs to have images—lots of images. Show the product from different angles. Zoom in on details. Display all the available colors.
Because slow loading webpages are the bane of everyone’s existence, make sure you only display a handful of products per page.
Insufficient Product Descriptions
Again, confusion is often an instigator of chargebacks. Even if you weren’t intentionally keeping things from the consumer, they’ll be annoyed when the item they receive isn’t what they expected.
In a brick-and-mortar store, the customer can handle the item, deciding if it is the quality, shape, size, weight, fabric they are looking for. For ecommerce sales, you need to be their eyes and ears. Accurately describe everything you can—the length, width, height, weight, fabric, size, materials, construction technique…anything the consumer might want to know.
Poor Policy Pages
The policy page is tied for the most important page on the website (the other important piece of the design puzzle is up next).
If the customer doesn’t know how, when or where they can get a return, they’ll likely just file a chargeback instead. While returns are annoying and sometimes cost a few bucks, they are far better than chargebacks.
Write accurate, easy-to-understand return and exchange policies. Then, put them somewhere that is easy to find.
You’ll also want to include a link to the policy page in all the product descriptions.
Playing Hard to Get
How do you expect the customers to communication with the company regarding their complaints and return requests if they can’t find the contact information? A disgruntled customer won’t waste much time trying to find contact information; they’ll just call the bank for a chargeback since that information is clearly printed on their statement.
Put basic contact information—like a phone number and email address—on every page of the site. Then, design a thorough contact us page. Include as much information as possible: physical address, email address, contact form, telephone number, fax number, GPS coordinates, a map, social media accounts, and anything else that might be useful.
If you have specific people or departments that handle various aspects of the purchasing process, list those out individually.
Web designers don’t often think of the business ramifications of their creative expression. But in order to prevent chargebacks and hang on to those hard earned profits, it really is important to take certain things into consideration.
