Web 2.0 Stores > Fast, Simple, Search Engine Friendly Ecommerce

Visible.net is a new provider of state-of-the-art ecommerce and online marketing services.

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I have finally gotten time enough to launch my new eCommerce blog. If you already run an eCommerce store or are thinking about getting into selling online, jump on over to eCommerce Optimization and get helpful insider tips and tricks to assist you in selling more through your online store.

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Great article from the experts at Clickz. In this write up, Enid Burns talks about Web 2.0 ecommerce and how it’s the new way for shoppers to buy the products they want Online.

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Reuters reports that UPS has started contract negotiations with its union, even though the current contract won’t expire before 2008. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 250,000 of UPS’ workers. Of course this will mean higher shipping costs, the current contract, signed in 2002, has increased UPS’ costs. According to the company,

the average full- time delivery-truck driver’s wages and benefits would rise about 4 percent a year.

The union is bargaining for increases in health and retirement benefits and overtime pay, according to the article. While it may seem premature to begin talks, the contract negotiations in 1997 didn’t turn out very well, ending in a two-week strike that cost UPS$750 million in revenue. We all know which way DHL is hoping the talks go.

Today we’re introducing a new segment here called the “Fast Five”. We will take a site, ideally one submitted by our readers, and find five usability issues that could be easily remedied. If you enjoy it, find it helpful, or want your site torn apart too simply leave us a comment.

Our first Fast Five site is CDW.com (yeah, we figure go big or go home) CDW is a publicly traded company and reported sales of $620 million last month. But like any site, it never hurts to have a fresh set of eyes on your product. So here we go CDW, it’s time for your Fast Five!
1. Button Size
With so many users you simply cannot expect them all to have magnifying glasses on their desks. Let’s go ahead and kick up the font size on those buttons. Though 6 pixel fonts used to be all the rage in ‘99, the new rage on the web these days is readability (thank god).

2. White and Black and Read All Over
We’re a little confused by the use of color on their smaller callouts. They have red subheads which clearly jump out at you like a stop sign. Problem is, these aren’t really subheads at all. CDW has chosen to visually separate product names such as “Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac” for no discernible reason. We would love to see those headers go all black and have the red saved for when it is really needed.

3. Type as a Grid
We highly recommend looking at the work of Edward Tufte. He is a master at representing complex information through clear visual diagrams. One of his mantras is to let objects create grids, rather than create grids through outlines or shapes. So for CDW we removed the outlines surrounding their callouts and moved the product shots to the left. Notice how through spacing and grouping alone a grid is created (we have a tendency to create order from chaos so it doesn’t take much). The result is that the focus is now on the content, not what contains it.

4. Main Navigation
Color, type, contrast, composition all create your site’s visual language. If not properly executed any one of these can throw confusion to a site’s usability. Such is the case for the main navigation in the Mac Warehouse area of CDW. Though placement is appropriate, they have darkened the top nav and applied a low contrast to it (black type on a dark grey background). The net result is a main navigation that we bet is often overlooked. Compare that with the light grey navigation on their homepage and you can see that a small change makes a big difference.

5. Less is More
Ya, we know, how cliché. However, if you don’t think content is important enough to be set any bigger than 8 points it probably doesn’t need to be there at all (unless your legal department has you at gunpoint… and even then we recommend some Chuck Norris style evasive maneuvers). For CDW’s left hand features we would recommend removing the explanatory text or having it show up on rollover.

Aaaaand scene. Again, if you want your site sliced and diced let us know in the comments. Next week we might just put you in the hot seat.