Your Customers Don’t Have Patience Anymore
People are spoiled now. Amazon trained them to expect everything to work perfectly. Their phones taught them that buying should be fast and easy. Social media showed them that shopping can actually be fun.
Your 2019 website with the basic shopping cart and complicated checkout? It feels ancient to them.
I watched my neighbor try to buy dog food from a local pet store’s website last week. Had to create an account just to see shipping costs. Then the site crashed during checkout. She ended up ordering from Chewy instead, and now that’s where all her pet supply money goes.
One bad experience. Lost customer forever.
The Stuff That Actually Makes People Buy (Not Just Browse)
Forget all the fancy features nobody uses. Here’s what actually gets people to pull out their credit cards:
Let People Buy Without Jumping Through Hoops
Remember when you had to fill out a form with 20 fields just to buy something online? Yeah, people don’t do that anymore.
I tried to buy a t-shirt from this band’s website. Made me create an account, verify my email, fill out my address twice, and then enter my credit card info on a page that looked sketchy. Took 10 minutes.
Compare that to buying the same shirt on their Instagram page. Two taps and I was done.
What actually works now:
- Let people checkout as guests
- Save payment info with Apple Pay, Google Pay, all that stuff
- Remember customers who bought before
- Don’t make people type their address if their phone already knows it
Make Your Site Work on Phones (For Real This Time)
“Mobile-friendly” doesn’t mean your desktop site just shrinks down. It means building the whole thing for phones first.
Went shopping for jeans online from my phone yesterday. First store’s site was impossible – had to pinch and zoom to see anything, buttons were too small to tap, couldn’t even tell what size I was looking at.
Second store loaded fast, big photos I could swipe through, size buttons that actually worked with my thumbs. Guess where I spent my money?
Phone stuff that matters:
- Big buttons you can actually tap
- Photos that look good on small screens
- Checkout that works with thumbs, not just mouse clicks
- Loading fast enough that people don’t give up
Show People What Other People Really Think
Fake reviews are obvious now. “Great product, 5 stars!” from “John D.” doesn’t fool anyone.
What works? Real photos from customers. Reviews that mention specific things. Even some negative reviews mixed in (because nothing is perfect).
I almost bought a coffee grinder online. Had tons of 5-star reviews but they all sounded fake. Found the same grinder on another site with 4.2 stars and reviews like “Good grinder but kind of loud” and “Perfect for my morning routine but the container is smaller than expected.”
Bought from the second site because it felt honest.
Tell People What They Want to Know (Without Making Them Ask)
How much is shipping? When will it arrive? Is it actually in stock? Do you take returns?
If people have to hunt for this information or contact you to find out, they’ll just buy somewhere else.
Basic stuff people want to know:
- Exact shipping costs before checkout
- When it’ll actually arrive (not “5-7 business days”)
- If you have it in stock right now
- What happens if they don’t like it
Let People Pay How They Want
“We accept Visa and Mastercard” isn’t enough anymore. People want to pay with their phone, split payments, use PayPal, whatever.
Tried to buy something online last week and they only took credit cards. I wanted to use Apple Pay because it’s faster and I don’t have to dig my wallet out. Ended up buying from someone else who made it easy.
Payment options people actually use:
- Apple Pay, Google Pay, all that phone stuff
- PayPal (people trust it)
- Buy now, pay later options like Afterpay
- Whatever payment methods are popular in your country
Make It Easy to Find Stuff
Your search box shouldn’t be decoration. If people can’t find what they want, they leave.
Was looking for a specific type of backpack. Searched on one site and got no results. Searched on another site for the same thing and found exactly what I wanted. The first site probably sells that exact backpack, but their search was too stupid to find it.
Search that doesn’t suck:
- Finds things even when people spell them wrong
- Shows results as you type
- Suggests other stuff when you can’t find what you want
- Lets people filter by color, size, price, whatever matters
The Fancy Stuff That’s Actually Worth It
These features used to be only for big stores. Now anyone can have them:
Recommendations That Make Sense
“You might also like” sections can add 30% to your sales if you do them right. But most stores just show random crap.
Good recommendations understand what you’re looking for. Shopping for workout clothes? Show me other workout stuff, not random jewelry. Looking at winter coats? Don’t show me swimsuits.
Chat That Actually Helps
Most live chat is either fake (goes to email) or useless (outsourced to people who know nothing).
Good chat helps people find what they want, answers real questions, and doesn’t waste time with “How can I help you today?” nonsense.
Best chat I ever used was on a bike shop website. Person knew about bikes, helped me figure out what size I needed, and even suggested accessories that actually made sense. Bought everything from them.
Try Before You Buy (Sort Of)
Can’t physically touch stuff online, but some stores are getting creative. Furniture stores let you see how a couch looks in your room using your phone’s camera. Sunglasses sites let you try them on virtually.
Sounds gimmicky but it works. Reduces returns and makes people more confident about buying.
The Trendy Stuff That Doesn’t Actually Matter
Don’t waste time on features that look cool but don’t help you sell more:
Complicated Rewards Programs
Points and tiers and badges and all that. Most people ignore loyalty programs because they’re too complicated and the rewards suck.
Social Media Buttons Nobody Uses
“Share this on Facebook” buttons that nobody clicks. Instagram feeds that distract from buying. Social stuff just to have social stuff.
Video Backgrounds and Fancy Animations
Slow down your site. Distracts from your products. Doesn’t help people decide what to buy.
How to Figure Out What You Actually Need
Don’t add features because they sound cool. Add them because they fix real problems.
Ask yourself:
- Where do people leave my site without buying?
- What questions do customers ask over and over?
- What do people complain about in reviews?
- What do my competitors do that I don’t?
Then fix the biggest problems first:
- Check out too complicated? Simplify it
- Site slow on phones? Fix that first
- People can’t find products? Improve search
- No payment options? Add more
What Happens When You Actually Fix This Stuff
Here’s the real deal: stores that fix these basic things see immediate results.
Friend of mine owns a small clothing store. Her website checkout was a nightmare – 6 steps, required account creation, crashed half the time. Fixed it over a weekend to be simple and fast.
Sales went up 40% the next month. Same products, same prices, just easier to buy.
Another guy I know added Apple Pay to his electronics store. Didn’t change anything else. Mobile sales went up 25% just because people could pay with their phones.
Not rocket science. Just removing obstacles between people and buying.
Stop Making Excuses
“Our website is fine, we still make sales.”
Sure. But how many more sales could you make if buying from you wasn’t annoying?
“People don’t care about fancy features.”
They don’t care about fancy. They care about fast and easy.
“It’s too expensive to upgrade.”
How much money are you losing every day from people who leave because your site is frustrating?
Look, Here’s the Thing
Every day you wait to fix your website is another day your competitors are making it easier for your customers to buy from them instead.
You can keep making okay money with your okay website. Or you can make it stupid-easy for people to buy from you and watch your sales actually grow.
Your choice.
Want someone to just fix this stuff for you?
Start your e-commerce journey with us. We’ll look at your current site, figure out what’s broken, and fix it so people actually want to buy from you.
No corporate BS. No features you don’t need. Just websites that work the way customers expect them to work in 2025.
Check out our e-commerce services if you’re tired of losing sales to websites that don’t suck.