However, despite considerable data available what is missing is anything to tell webmaster what visitor was thinking. Did they like or dislike site? Was layout easy to understand or just plain confusing? Did they find it easy to navigate and maybe most important thing, did they find information they wanted?

A website may be generating sales but why are some people that visit website not buying anything? Was it because they didn’t like what was being offered or they couldn’t find what they wanted?

Website surveys provide webmasters with an excellent and accurate method of answering these types of questions. Direct feedback from website visitors cuts to chase, no need to guess, just ask visitors themselves how they found site and if they found what they were looking for.

With an online survey webmasters can find out:-

How often do people visit website?

How did they arrive at website?

Today there are a range of e-commerce software packages that make building online stores easy. Generally they are database driven and have shopping cart functionality built in. They are written by programmers and provide core element of an online store.

But having a website needs to be more than having just an online catalogue.

One of biggest mistakes that most online retailers make is they do not take into account typical buyer behaviour. The conversion from real world to online provides many benefits to retailer, but present some real challenges for customer because their buying decision is made more difficult in an online environment.

What to I mean? Lets use a client’s site that sells sterling silver jewellery as an example.

Their site was: -well structured, -items pages were neatly laid out, -product images were clear, -add to cart button clearly visible -there was a short description of item. -a page describing their 14-day money back guarantee, -a privacy page saying your details would be kept secure.

But sales were slow.

They tried discounting.

But sales were still slow.

What was missing? What could be done to encourage visitors to purchase?

The answer lies in addressing buyers needs and purchasing behaviour. Lets think about buying process when we are in a physical store.

Imagine if sales person just handed you a card with a photograph, price and short description of item on which to make you buying decision, would you buy? Lets go one step further – that they even let you look at item through glass counter top. Would you buy? At this stage we are providing more than average website, but I bet you still have not said yes to buying.