Relationship Counseling for You and Your E-Commerce Website

I'm in a long-term and sometimes rocky relationship with my company's e-commerce site, DailySteals.com. Every day, I expect our site to showcase our products, and my job is to figure out ways to turn more visitors into customers. Sometimes, I feel like the site isn't pulling its half of our relationship. Or maybe I want too much too soon. Sadly, Cosmopolitan and Men's Journal don't have any good tips for working things out with my website.

As retailers, we're all in relationships with our e-commerce sites. Some of these relationships are more of a roller-coaster ride than others. One day you may look at your site and say, "I think we're moving in different directions. This just isn't working out." Before you dump your website, however, I suggest you try some counseling first. If you want to salvage the relationship, work through these three steps:

1. Don't commit to a new idea, commit to a solution. The launch of a new or replatformed e-commerce site marks a huge step for your business. However, it can be fraught with unexpected challenges and unnecessary changes. So before you do this, identify what issues you aim to solve and see what you can accomplish with your current equipment.

If you don't have an analytics platform for mobile and web, get one. Once you do, look at the data to see how visitors interact with your site. For example, you might find that people abandon your checkout page all at the same point. They get to the page where they have to fill in customer info, and it's too complex. You use scrolling menus in places where visitors should be able to enter text. You don't save credit card info or support PayPal, so the checkout process takes longer than people want. Make changes, then perform A/B tests to see if they worked.

Address those issues that you expect to have the greatest effect on your conversion rate. Over a month, see if you shift the numbers in your web analytics by making these changes.

2. Ask your customers what they want. After the data has shown you how to optimize your website for purchases, ask your customers what they want. Take a segment of your customers that regularly open your emails or make multiple annual purchases and ask them via email what features they'd like to see added or changed on your site.

For example, some shoppers like 3-D models that help them virtually try on sunglasses or examine products with 360-degree views. Analytics can't suggest these types of changes, only real people can. Acting on customer feedback might be the key to your site standing out from its competition — and it may save you from spending six or seven figures on a new e-commerce platform.

3. To break up or not? If you want to scrap your website, plenty of companies will try to sell you a customized website and suggest replatforming. Whether you choose to keep your current website or not, the process leading to this decision is valuable. You now know what works and what doesn't, and what your customers want.

If you can't solve the problems you identified (i.e., you're ready to break up and move on), determine what level of customization you need before dropping big money. Sometimes ready-to-go solutions solve the problems you encountered and scale appropriately with your site's growth. Be realistic about your budget, timeline and return on investment on this project. More customization usually means you can expect a higher cost and longer development time.

If you start with my first two relationship counseling tips, you might find that your website is ready to take your relationship to the next level. Breaking up and finding a new platform should only be an option if your website isn't capable of making the changes you know you have to be made. Remember, this is a marriage of convenience.

Deeon Brown is the brand and communications manager for DailySteals.com, an electronics, consumer and lifestyle products daily-deal site.