The internet is full of niche markets. I'm not talking about all the different things being sold, i'm talking about all the b2b people and services who power everything being sold. Many sites hire 'experts' and 'strategists' who are as specialized as an F-16 pilot. In reality, most of these guys are making a boat load of money by being out-going and knowing just a little bit about something you know nothing about. To tell the truth, chances are your 12 year old daughter probably knows more about Facebook than half these 'experts'.

 These guys go from market to market as the fads change. Last week it was myspace and digg, this week Facebook and Twitter. I'd be willing to guess tomorrow will still be Facebook, but twitter will be as dead as the steak i had for dinner and something new and fresh and innovative will be around. 

These guys are fad-chasers. Just like ambulance chasers, they ride the wave until it's gone, then hop on the next one. Today they preach the joys of Facebook, tomorrow social shopping. 

The tough guys to find are the steady guys. The guys like myself who pride themselves on being versatile and full of a wide range of knowledge. I manage Adwords campaigns with 7% CTRs, a Facebook page with a post quality score of 18.5% (whatever that means though i'm seeing people online proud of 5%) and an e-commerce site that makes more than yours. I manage SEO campaigns, usability studies, and customer feedback surveys. I design system platforms and backend user interfaces to streamline business functions. All of this, I do better than the guy who can be hired in a niche market to teach you nothing but that one thing.

The secret to my success? Simple. My overview of the entire landscape makes me the general on the battlefield. However I'm no ordinary general. I've spent time in every area of combat possible. I've been in the trenches, I've flown the fighters and bombers, I've gone on the black ops, and I've driven the tanks. I've done it all and done it all well. 

This makes myself, and guys like myself, the threat your competition is scared you'll hire. It also makes me more valueable than any one guy because i don't focus on a little portion of your plan, i write your plan and focus on the entire thing. This is the secret to successful e-commerce, not one silver bullet, but an large plan that uses every avenue possible.

I am!

Well, besides from that, a usability expert fills a very important role. In simple terms, a usability expert is an architect of web sites. Let's start with some background....

History
A little over 10 years ago, back in the age of the internet myself and some other old schoolers come from, you had your internet "guy". He did it all. He build your site, he designed your site, he setup the servers, he got you high search engine rankings on Lycos, he setup your e-commerce, and he made all the decisions because you didn't know what to do or what was possible. He was your 1 stop shop for your website needs. From design to server, he did it all..... I miss those days.

Well, now that everyone knows it all, no one really knows it all. That guyis now not even 10 different guys so much as 10 different departments. You have your SEO specialists, your copywriters, your designers, your IT department, the business unit in charge, internet marketing unit, affiliate marketing unit, front end developers, back end developers, etc... and finally your usability specialist.

Explanation
So what is a usability specialist again and why are they important? Back to the construction analogy. If your website is a home, your business users are the home owners and the project manager is the, well, project manager. Your designers are you interior designers and you marketing people are your real estate agents. Then, depending on how you have it setup, either your lead front or backend developer is your contractor with your back end folks the sole sub-contractor.

Your usability guy? That guy is your architect. He won't do the labor. He won't lay pipe, run wires, do the frame, pour the foundation, install the toilets, or paint the walls. But what he will do is design the house. He'll tell you how big the rooms will be. He'll tell you how many outlets will go in a room and how big the windows will be. He'll design your staircase and he'll make sure all your bathrooms have enough fixtures. He is the guy in charge of your house's design.

So where do normal graphic designers fall into place? Easy! The usability guy will deign your house, your graphic designer is like your interior designer. They will pick your brick color, your counter-tops, your carpet type and style or it's its hardwood or tile. They will pick your toilet fixtures and the drapes on your wall. They even pick all the furniture. But would you ever let your interior designer  actually design your house?

How We Work
Usability designers use process to accomplish their goal. We start with taking requirements from the business users. Then we make wire frames (blue print) and a list of features. We design a system much like you design a house.

Then, we hand off the project for approval. Once approved, we get the graphic designers involved to make it look pretty based on our layout. Then we go to our front-end team who actually develops the system with the back end team. All the while, we are making sure it gets done write, making last minute adjustments, and writing surveys. We then manage the launch and get feedback to see how it went. We then enter stage two to fix any little things we may have missed or didn't go over so well. And that's how it works!

Done
So, if you are wondering what a usability designer is, it's that. It's a mix between everything because you need design skills, and a skill set from all the other organizations to make sure it all goes together smoothly. That's why an old school dude like me works so well. We know what it takes to make a web site work.

I went to convient care. It's like an ER except without the ER part. A good place to go for head colds, muscle aches, or sports physicals. All those things you would normally go to see your family doctor for, but don't want to wait to get in. Anyway, they told me to get some pills from the pharmacy conviently located in the building.

So, after feeling sick, walking into a convient care office, seeing a convient doctor, getting pissl from the conviently located pharmacy, I went home. Then I realized something often over looked; convience.

Most people know that convience is good. However, what most fail to see is what is convient and what isn't convient. Sometimes, you will do things in your custoemrs best interest thinking it's very convient for them. Other times, you will do things to better your busines because it's convient for you.

A perfect example of this is requiring registration to checkout. You may do this so you can collect email addresses, track user history, etc... But what advantage does it really offer the consumer? Can they track their history? Normally. Can they see what on the site they have purchased live? Maybe. Can they be asked to give reviews on products they purchase? Hopefully.

A good example of someything you might think is convient is a recomendation engine. Normally, these can be very affective. Whats not affective is their placement. Looking at Newegg, they are located off to the right. Out of the way, but still noticable. Placement is everything.

Remember, with convience, placement is really the key. The pharmacy was conviently located in the clinic. The care facility was conviently located in my neighborhood and not downtown. Convience is all about placement and ease of use. Make sure you don't make your customers jump through too many hoops to make a purpose. It's just no to convient.

Trust is a funny thing. It's somewhat easy to gain the first time, but really hard (if not impossible) to get back if you lose it.

On the internet, trust is what makes someone purchase with you the first time. If you do everything correctly that first time, it's really hard to lose that trust. Simply put, they place an order, you communicate a lot through emails about that order, ship it promptly, it arrives well packed and as the customer expects.You have now gained a customer.

The thing about trust on the internet is that it does not rest in actively "trust" related things.  These active things are showing the online BBB logo, the SSL logo, HackerSafe, etc. Most savvy shoppers don't put to much stock in these items. They are all easy to get with a small fee. In fact, the only one i feel is worth while is the HackerSafe logo. This is because HackerSafe implies in it's title "we're safe from hackers." The fact of the matter is they are just PCI certified which all sites that accept credits cards on the internet are required to be.This is just really good marketing.

The main thing people use to trust you is the look and feel of your site. It also comes down to the small features you offer such as order tracking, showing order status online, and regular emails such as; when the order has been confirmed, when your credit card has been charged, and when the order has shipped.

But those items are fairly standard in even open-source ecommerce platforms. Let's talk about design and layout. Below, I have three competing web sites. I have personally purchased from all three. They sell disc jockey equipment which is a hobby of mine if you couldn't already tell.

1. http://www.123dj.com/
2. http://www.cheaplights.com/
3. http://www.pssl.com/

As you can see, the first two are very amateur looking. However, due to cheap prices, i purchased from both of them. I had good ordering experience so I will order again. However, the third one, the one that looks the best, I ordered from first. Only price and selection drove me to the other two otherwise it would be PSSL all the way. The look and professional feel got me to pay more for the security to know i wasn't being screwed. The item i ordered was in stock, and shipped quickly. The other ones it was like rolling the dice.

So here are my rules for being trustworthy the first time:

1. Good Looking Design
2. Plenty of product information
3. Great account section tied in closely with your ERP and warehouse system for easy order tracking.
4. Useful and professional looking features.
5. Ample ways for the customer to contact you
6. Quick response times on all emails
7. Sales staff knowledgeable of the web site and all company policies(after all, they are the first line of defense)
8. Professionalism
   

Simply put, caring about your customer and their experience more than the company bottom line and the rest will fall into place. The more you care, the more they buy. The more transparent and accessible you are, the more they trust you. Lose that trust, good luck getting them back.

As many top 500 e-comm site operators know, a web site is only as good as it's features. Last time, I talked about the small things that make e-comm sites popular. Today, I want to talk about those who help you get there and what to do when the budget isn't there.

Most e-comm sites don't go it alone. You have a cart solution provider, a payment transaction provider, analytics provider, hosting provider, a search provider, a channel provider, an affiliate provider, SEO / SEM campaign, user recommendation provider, review provider, etc... You get the point. The fact of the matter is that all of these solution can be done in-house by your IT department. They can make anything themselves if given the time and enough developers. So why are so many companies contracting out?

The answer is simple and two-fold; Lack of knowledge of the solution, and external development. The fact is, if you have a search solution, you call the search provider to make changes to it. It's all they do and they do it very well. If your IT department did it, it would be one of a few things they did and one guy would probably be the expert. When that one guy leaves, your expert is gone and you are back at square one. Someone in IT needs to learn the code before making changes or fixes and then things get lost or forgotten. Not the best scenario.

On the other hand, good documentation, code comments, and using basic and widely accepted processes can help anyone pick up where someone else left off. Doing it yourself can also save money because contracting it out can be expensive. A normal e-comm operation with integration partners can cost a few million in start up costs dependent on size, along with $50,000+ a month in "service fees" to the solution provider. Think of it as a retainer so they do whatever changes whenever, unless it's big. Then they charge you more to spend time on it. 

I personally have been a fan of doing it yourself. You can get exactly what you want and customize the solution 100%. It's your branding and works your way. No comprosimise. However, to do this documentation is key as well as very knowledgable programmers. It's a good money saving tactic and can prove benificial in the long run.

On unlimited budgets, of course i would fimd 3rd party solutions 100% of the time, but if money is not there, I don't let that stop me. That's what it comes down too. You have to figure out what you want, then figure out how to get there. Remember, nothing is ever a brick wall, just a bigger hurtle. 

No, not the Blink 182 song (though I do own that CD), I'm talking all the little things on your web site that make a difference. These all make up the user experience. Individually, they won't help your sales but together, they collectively move the needle.

In e-commerce, there are three basic things to focus on:

• Content
• Price
• User Experience

 While content makes for 30% of most e-comm sites and price about 20%, the user experience is about half the battle. This is because the user will not shop on a site they don't understand or can't find anything on. Even more so, they won't shop on a site that does not look professional.

The user experience are all the things that the visitor "can't put their finger on." They are also the things that the visitor will say "hey that's cool" but wouldn't push them to make a decision. 

These things are small. They are how your image gallery works, how you recommend articles to read or other products the user might be interested in. This is the flow of your cart and how you search integrates into your product pages. This also includes how much ajax you use, if it's too much, and is it useful.

The bad part about the small things is it's hard to measure. Adding features such as a quickview, reworked search, and better design won't noticable move your needle. However, all of the them comined and constantly being improved upon will keep your needle moving in the right direction. Albiet slowly, but it'll move.

Remember, keeping up on the small things will improve sales. They may be small, but together they add up to a large section of what helps customers feel safe and comfortable ordering from you and coming back for more.