CUSTOM_UK wrote:Looking at web sites from a shopper's perspective.

Actually, your question is mostly my answer.
I've built very shopper-friendly websites by paying close attention to how *I* shop on the web. Anything I come across that annoys me, I make sure my stores don't have or do that.
That's the simple answer, but it's really all you need.
My
personal pet-peeves:
(1) Don't make me go to great lengths to figure out what my shipping cost is going to be, or what method you use to ship. If I have to give you billing and shipping info before you even give me the shipping costs, I'm gone.
Also, this isn't true for very many people, but you can't send stuff to my street address by US Mail. So before I even start to give you my shipping address, I need to know how you're going to ship.
(2) Like Jay said, lose the banner ads. It makes you look tacky, and like you're there to sell ad space, not product.
(3) Are you a professional web business, or are you an amateur or scammer? You're probably the latter if I can't see a phone number immediately visible.
Plus, without a phone number you're going to lose all those people who: a) are afraid of not having someone to contact if something goes wrong, b) don't even have a computer (they do their searching at the library, or their friends do it for them), or c) won't enter their credit card details online, or know how to search but not really how to shop online. Most of my phone orders are from the latter two categories.
(4) I'm not a big fan of Paypal, but there are some folks out there who are
really wary of shopping online, and only feel comfortable using it (just a word to the wise, since I know I lost a few orders early on when I didn't offer it as a payment method).
OTOH, we've all run across businesses who offer Paypal Standard as their ONLY payment method. That, too, looks really amateurish. Unless your site just solicits donations, play with the big boys and get a merchant account.
(5) Don't assume I know the details of what you're selling. Try to look at the product you're so familiar with, with completely new eyes. Ask yourself: what information could my customer get from looking at/handling this product in a store, that they can't get from a little photo on my website? And then give it to them.
If you're selling downloadable product, I'm going to want to know how and when I can download my product before I give you my cash.
(6) I seldom check this out, but I know there are people who've been burned and will always want to know how you handle returns.
(7) For most people this goes without saying these days, but just in case: if your website plays music or sound as soon as it loads, I'll immediately close your browser window. Don't care who you are or what you're selling.
(8) And for god's sakes, if you can't ship something immediately, do us all a favor and CALL your customer to let them know. I've heard a lot of complaints about other websites from my customers. The more webstores that don't treat their customers right, the more it hurts all of us, because people will just get more and more distrustful of shopping on the web.