Odds are you’ve already interacted with a chatbot without realizing you’ve done so. If you have an iPhone, Siri is essentially a voice-activated chatbot. Another example is Amazon’s Alexa. According to Amazon, Alexa provides capabilities that enable customers to interact with devices in a more intuitive way using voice. One of the capabilities of Alexa is reminding Amazon customers of purchases they need to make. So far, it’s working pretty well for Amazon and Siri is an unquestionable hit too. But are chatbots right for your ecommerce site?

Precisely put, Siri and Alexa, while sterling examples of chatbot platforms, are more properly considered virtual assistants. The type of chatbot with which you’re more likely to come into contact in an ecommerce situation is primarily found in messaging apps. These are capable of providing basic communication, such as responding to FAQ queries and ordering products and services.

These chatbots have gone a long way toward improving consumer acceptance over their earliest deployments. We’ve all called banks, the local utility, or other large institutions that routinely field thousands of calls a day for repetitive requests. That voice you get saying something to the effect of; “If you’re about lose your mind because you really want to talk to a live human being, press 0 for the operator,” is also a chatbot.

When viewed in those terms, they don’t have the best reputation. But the fact remains, if they are implemented strategically and programmed to respond as organically as possible, chatbots can be of tremendous service to an ecommerce enterprise.

Uber employs chatbots for scheduling rides, fast food restaurants have incorporated them for placing orders and some airlines are using chatbots to schedule and book flights. Any situation in which there are a finite number of closed-end responses to a specific set of questions can usually be handled by a chatbot. With the potential to considerably lighten the customer service load of an ecommerce enterprise, chatbots can be very useful when you create an ecommerce website, You just have to be sure the ‘bot you deploy is the same one with which your customers interact.

And this brings us to the cautionary tale that is Microsoft’s Tay. Rolled out for Twitter users in March of 2016, within 24 hours, Tay had taken on all of the worst traits of the Twitter-verse.

Designed to think and talk like a millennial, while learning from Twitter content, Tay began issuing racist, misogynistic and anti-Semitic Tweets, as well as bragging about Marijuana consumption to police officers. One of her more benign Tweets, “Chill, I’m a nice person! I just hate everybody…”

The lesson here is to make sure your chatbots are never subjected to undue influences. Counter to the basic rule of commerce, the customer isn’t always right. Sometimes the customer is absolutely vicious. When you’re considering deploying a learning chatbot, you have to make sure its responses are carefully scripted and not open to outside influence.

Check it regularly to ensure it is functioning properly. Update it continually as new functionalities, concepts, situations and opportunities emerge. Used well, chatbots can be a significant asset, saving you both time and money.

Just know, if left totally unattended, they have the potential to go off the rails.

There is no doubt about it, if you have a web presence; you need to make sure it’s accessible from as many different devices as possible. If you do not do this you stand to lose out on a significant potential audience. If you speak to a specialist in ecommerce website design, they will tell you how important responsive website design is, in order for your business to be as accessible as possible.

As important as responsive web design has become; it still has to be done well to be successful. Just using a responsive web design solution is not enough to ensure an effective web presence. We are going to take a look at three of the most common mistakes that are made which can potentially reduce the effectiveness of responsive web design.

Thinking desktop not mobile

There are many web designers out there who are still in the mindset of thinking about designing for desktop first. The whole concept of responsive web design is that the content fits to the screen on which it is being viewed.  The problem is that content which reads well on desktop does not necessarily always read well when using a mobile device.

If you automatically consider desktop first when designing a website you run the risk of adopting a design that causes mobile uses to disengage. It’s generally a good idea to start with the mobile device user in mind when designing a responsive website.  Of course, now that Google’s mobile-first indexing is officially being tested you have another good reason for putting mobile first. Pretty soon your search engine rankings may depend on the effectiveness of your mobile website.

Not creating the simple navigation required

Problems with creating a navigation system for a responsive website often stem from thinking desktop first. If you adopt a rigid navigation system that is best suited to the desktop experience it may not translate very well to being used on a mobile device. The only way to avoid doing this is to experience your website using a mobile device. You need to make sure that your website is designed from the mobile experience point of view.

It’s important to remember that ease of navigation is very important when it comes to attracting visitors to your website, and keeping them engaged. If people access your website using a mobile device, and then struggle to find their way around the pages, they are unlikely to want to visit the site again.

Neglecting the touchscreen experience

The touchscreen experience is no longer just restricted to mobile device usage; many laptops now use touchscreen technology. The fact is that a large proportion of people who access the Internet now use their fingertips to do so. These people want to be able to just touch the screen, and swipe, to access everything they want to see.

One of the most common mistakes that designers make is to not take into account the touchscreen experience. If a user is touching the screen they need to be able to touch an individual element without interfering with other elements on the screen. You should always bear this in mind with your online content. Remember, you do not want people to have to zoom in in order to easily access your content by touch. All users need to be able to read your online content easily so you need to pay attention to font size when designing your website.

Using responsive web design is an excellent way of enabling people to view your content using different devices. That being said, you still need to bear in mind the end user experience for each type of device. The fact that you decide to adopt a responsive web design solution when creating your website does not automatically mean that your site is optimised for viewing across all devices.

Hopefully, we have shown you how important design is when it comes to making the most of responsive web design. You need to ensure that the design of your website is geared to mobile first as this means that the viewing experience should end up being of a high quality no matter what type of device is used for viewing.

If you are running a business, you must be hearing a lot about responsive web designs lately. But what is a responsive web design and why is it so important for businesses online?

With technological advancements, and through the introduction of smartphones and tablets, more and more audiences prefer browsing from their handy devices. These devices make checking emails and performing searches convenient and easier, compared to laptops and PCs. According to a survey in the UK by Ofcom, tablet was the most popular device used by people to surf on the internet and around 30% of the people voted for tablet as their ideal device for online shopping.

What does Responsive web design do?

Responsive web design helps in making your website easily accessible through cellphones and multiple screens. With such a designing strategy in place, websites easily adjust to the size of the screen of the user and make it more user-friendly. According to the report released by Smart Insights, around 50% of the people make use of tablets and smartphones for the purpose of searching; whereas in the UK, 57% of the people daily use the internet from their cellphones.

From April 2015 onwards, Google has also started ranking websites on the basis of their mobile-friendliness. This addition has drastically impacted online businesses and their ranking on search results. Here is how your business can benefit from a responsive web design:

Greater Audiences

The surveys mentioned above show that a lot people use a lot of different devices to access the internet. However, as the number of tablets and cellphone users are increasing worldwide, the importance of responsive web design is also increasing. It will facilitate in reaching out to wider audiences which will eventually work in favor of your business and elevate sales.

Increase in Conversion Rates

Conversion rates get a boost when the visitors of your website become buyers. When the user gets an outclass experience and consistency while surfing on your website, it will have a useful impact on the conversion rates. As they get familiar with the working of the website, they will visit more often and eventually buy something too. Difficulties in functioning, consistency, and performance are often eradicated with the use of a responsive design.

Search Engine Visibility

Websites that have responsive designs can easily and efficiently be managed with one set of hypertext link. This means that you don’t need to manage separate SEO strategies for all the devices such as; desktops, laptops, tablets, or cellphones. This will also save your time and money as all of them require a single SEO strategy. A responsive design will enhance your ranking on search engines with fewer resources by applying the strategies on just a single site.

With all these added benefits, responsive designing saves cost for maintenance and development. It is the demand of the time, as the future predicts an increase in the use of mobile devices and tablets. Companies such as WSI are hired by businesses to make responsive web designs for their websites, as it helps businesses prosper by reaching out to potential customers in a better manner.

One of the most beloved aspects of WordPress as a content management system is that it makes SEO easier to manage and improve on a site-wide basis, mainly due to the extensive library of SEO plugins and add-ons that the CMS has become famous for. However, in addition to providing a simple way to install and utilize powerful extensions, WordPress also allows for the quick and easy installation of themes that incorporate responsive design elements, which make it possible for your pages to be viewed ideally on any display size, browser type, operating system, or device. You probably know that responsive design can make a site more user-friendly, but did you know that it can work wonders for SEO as well?

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1. Decreasing Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a metric used to determine the percentage of visitors who leave your site after only visiting a single page. Obviously, if your site isn’t set up to look good on every mobile device, then there’s a good chance that a significant majority of your mobile visitors will be bouncing off the site after seeing that the first page looks horrible on their device. On the other hand, when a mobile user notices that pages are loading fast and look great on their device, there’s a great chance they’ll want to keep browsing the site, especially if the site easy to navigate due to effective mobile menus and interlinking.

2. Increasing Page Visit Time

According to Sioux Falls SEO specialists, the amount of time a visitor spends on a page is one of the most important metrics to consider, as it directly indicates how engaging and useful your site is. Search engines know this all too well, which is why page visit times can have a huge impact on whether a page is able to rank highly in the search engine results pages (SERPs). Themes that include responsive design features are able to keep more visitors on the site longer because there are no display compatibility issues that would otherwise cause them to leave prematurely.

3. Promoting Return Visits

Finally, themes that include responsive design improve SEO and overall site traffic by motivating visitors to return for repeat visits to the site. Of course, a site that doesn’t have responsive design will find it more difficult to retain an audience of mobile users, and being that mobile browsing has exceeded desktop browsing as of 2014, non-responsive sites are losing a huge chunk of their potential visitors.

Not All Responsive Design Themes Are Created Equal

Before you go rushing to install just any theme that includes responsive design as a feature, keep in mind that each theme will “respond” to a device in a different way, so preference and experimentation still plays a huge role here. Thus, whenever you’ve installed a theme that supposedly includes responsive design elements, be sure to test all of the pages on your site from every device you can get your hands on to ensure the utmost visibility and compatibility.

According to studies done on web browsing habits, the average user looks at a website for less than four seconds. This means that your blog, social media account or e-commerce store has less than four seconds to capture the attention of your audience.

Via commons.wikimedia.org

What kind of impression are you leaving in four seconds?

Here are just a few tips for improving both the speed and the efficiency of your website. Even with a limited time span, there are steps you can take to ensure that you grab your customers from their very first look.

1. Don’t Use Flash

It’s a flashy element of web design, so it’s appropriately named. But it also takes time and the right plug-ins to load. Even if your visitors already have the software, something that isn’t guaranteed, they’ll still have to wait around for your Flash elements to load. How many customers will click away? How many customers might you lose because of a silly Flash fade effect?

2. Load Your Pages Top-to-Bottom

Instead of letting your webpages load haphazardly, insert a script that forces them to start from the top and work their way down. Not only will this bring a streamlined appeal to your site aesthetic, but it will also give your users something to look at while the rest of the page loads below it. If your content is engaging enough, they might not even notice.

3. Use Thumbnails

This is especially useful for online stores or any other website that uses a large amount of images. Instead of forcing your customers to load full-scale graphics all at once, give them small thumbnails that they can click and enlarge if they’re interested in the product. You’ll save on loading time and increase your number of unique clicks.

4. Compress Your Images

High-quality images are essential for professional website design. That said, you don’t have to let their file sizes run rampant. There are special compression techniques you can use to reduce their megabytes and therefore their loading times, and you can also specify things like size and width allowances in your coding so they’ll never exceed those parameters.

5. Throw Out the Table

While table layouts still have their uses, many businesses have switched over to Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) for faster loading times and more efficient site-to-user downloads. You don’t have to be an expert in programming languages to use it, either; CSS is a common skill among many web designers, so you can outsource the job for all of the benefits and none of the personal stress.

6. Reduce Server Requests

HTTP requests are made every single time your webpage loads external content. This includes ads, links, graphics, videos and audio clips. To cut down on HTTP requests, you’ll need to start storing things internally, and this may mean upgrading your servers or increasing your bandwidth. It isn’t cheap, but it will translate directly into faster loading times, so it’s up to you whether or not the benefit outweighs the cost.

These are just a few tips for improving the load time of your website. If you’re serious about capturing the attention of your audience, you have less than four seconds to do it, so every moment counts. Consult experts in things like Sydney website design,  to learn more.