I recently read a fantastic blog post from Kevin Ertell (of ForeSee Results fame) suggesting single digit conversion rates are a result of online marketer elitism.  Ertell is quick to point out Michael Summers (Senior Director of Usability for GSI Commerce) as the original voice behind such a bold statement at GSI’s Connect Conference a few weeks ago.  While I may not be so quick to call the majority of our clients, friends and readers elitists (OK, I may be sucking up here), the underlying message shouldn’t be ignored.

OK, that last sentence was a very politically correct, but you get my point.

The average online shopper doesn’t think like you and I do.

One of the greater eCommerce challenges is to plan your website and online shopping experience around how your visitors/customers think.  Online marketing professionals are smart, well educated and spend far more time in eCommerce than your average customer probably does.   But can e-Tailers honestly say websites are designed around how the average visitor thinks, navigates, behaves, etc…?

When I look at strong online companies who I respect, I find the majority of sites difficult. And I consider myself very much in tune with the world of eCommerce.  Sure, these sites look great, but flashy-cool websites only get you so far.  To me, the best sites always have the simplest designs.  May not be the most appealing website, but why fix what’s not broken?  I like how ecommerce-blog.org puts it, “most people don’t care how good of a graphic designer you have.  Lucas Film LTD may be interested in your work, but the rest of us aren’t”.

All that said, I realize and appreciate the amount of research, development, studies, testing and more that goes into site launches and redesigns.  I’m not saying companies intentionally create overly complicated web experiences or aren’t trying to think like their visitors/customers (in fact, I’d accuse them of trying to do just that… or at least they should be!).  However, I do believe we – as an industry – aren’t there yet.

Perhaps the online marketing community is evolving faster than the customers that fuel it.  Or the problems we’re trying to solve (shopping cart abandonment, low conversion rates, improved marketing strategies, etc…) are pushing for fixes that are far too elaborate for today’s needs.

I fundamentally believe a majority of eCommerce challenges can be overcome with a straight forward and easy-to-use website with clear and dynamic messaging.  Talk to your visitors, keep them engaged and show them the products/information they want to see.