In 2013, I did most of my shopping online, even the year before that.  I used to take pleasure in purchasing stuff offlline until I started working as a chef full time.  Night shifts, weekend kitchen schedules and working overtime made me want to simply head straight home to find some time to relax and hopefully catch up on a number of chores and of course, blogging.  So heading downtown and checking boutiques one by one was something I couldn’t squeeze into my schedule anytime I felt like doing so.  To give in to the irresistible calling of shopping, I turned to e-shopping instead.

As an avid online customer, there are quite a number of factors that make me stay loyal to certain e-boutiques.  Below are some things I like in different shopping websites:

Website design – In my checklist, 90% of the time, first impressions last.  The site has to look credible and trustworthy.  A clean, straight-to-the-point eCommerce site gets my attention in a snap, makes me stay longer on the site and tickles the interest in me to browse products.  Neat navigation bars with functioning buttons [I so dislike those unresponsive buttons!],  well organized widgets and catchy sliders make shopping fun and entertaining!

Speed – While some don’t get easily irritated with websites having slow loading pages, I get discouraged almost in a heartbeat.  Too much loading time and worse pages won’t open at all?  Find a better e-shopping site!

Visually appealing product pages – Most of the time, when I go online shopping, I already have in mind what I want.  So when I click on a product, I want the product page to appealing and be complete with the information I need.  These includes:

a. product price – if on sale, the before and after price and if possible with the amount savings in %
b. product photos all complete with zoom functions so I can see closer minor and major details
c. color selection if the product’s available in other shades
d. size chart – even showing which sizes are no longer available
e. sharing buttons – as a blogger, I often enjoy sharing products that I find worth the share.  Giving me the option to share the good news to my Facebook friends and fan page peeps, Twitter, Instagram and/or Pinterest – a plus!
f. shipping details – free shippping --- love it!  If not, at least let me  know how much the cost will be plus the approximate number/s of shipping day/s.
g. product reviews and ratings – whenever I am having mixed emotions regarding the item, I check the product’s reviews and ratings.  This feature definitely helps me decide on whether to give it a go or not.
h. my favorite list page – there are times when all I want to do is window shop.  If come across a certain product I really like to buy in the future, I want to save it in my favorite bag so getting back to it whenever I want to will no longer be a tedious task.

Not-a-quite perfect example of the above mentioned features – I find at SOLESOCIETY [missing a favorite list page *sad face*] :

Easy to update shopping bag with the order summary – for me, shopping bags should have the easy-to-update features.  I can easily edit, remove or update the quantity of the item/s I am buying before finally heading to the checkout counter.

Accepting several payment methods including PayPal – for personal reasons, I mostly pay my online transactions via PayPal.  Websites not accepting PayPal --- not my e-shop of choice 95% of the time.

Order confirmation and receipt, please! – after paying for goods, I expect a quick order confirmation via email including the receipt.  Without these two, I get confused and stressed.

So far, these features are on top of my list.  How about you?  What features turn you on and off in e-shops?