E-commerce and UX

I recently came across three pretty interesting articles that relate directly e-commerce and user experience.

$300 million dollar button
This article talks about how a simple modification in an e-commerce site led to better conversion and increased revenue. A $300 million dollar increase.


17 New Rules for Successful E-Commerce Websites
Rules by SEOmoz to ensure your users have a good experience on your site. A good link for someone developing e-commerce sites.

Gender behavior differences on E-commerce sites
Unfortunately, this article is in Japanese but it talked about how in one study, they asked users to go to Rakuten (a major shopping portal in Japan) and buy a valentines gift for their partner. The study revealed that female users would scan through a site based on visual ques and click on banner ads. They would look for what looked visually appealing and hence images were important.

On the other hand, the study also found that male users, relied more heavily on the search function and would refer to best sellers or popular gift ranking lists. Personally, I fall in this category because usually I'm really lazy and find best seller lists useful.

Just some food for thought for anyone running an e-commerce site and how ux (user experience) is probably an important thing to consider for your business.