I've gone over this point in other places, most notably talking about eCommerce and bad shopping experiences, but I still see many people making the mistake of having their shopping solution as a footnote on their business plan.

While these same people will testify to how great the internet is, and how it's changed the way that traditional mediums process campaigns, many times they've only done a cursory pass at their site and failed to look at it from an objective point of view. That one process right there might be able to give you more insight into a struggling online initiative than anything else. Maybe your site is pretty, maybe it is using up-to-date technologies and you spent a pretty penny on it, but if it's not performing then none of that matters.

What would you think of your site if you were a new user? The answer of "be totally excited for how cool my store is" is incorrect, and I'll tell you why: online users are a cynical bunch, me included. I can't tell you how many tens of thousands of banners I've seen through the years, how many convoluted ordering systems I've been forced into, or how many hundreds of sites I've had to create a password for, only never to return. When you consider that, I can truthfully tell you that I've abandoned purchases for things I've wanted based solely on the pain in the neck it was causing me to buy it.

You spend so much money to convince people to give you money, then you turn around and make it hard for them to hand it over! Really, why do you want to try to up-sell them something through 4 screens? If you have only 10 products to offer, why do you think they'll want to get a user name and password that's been verified through e-mail? What they really want to do is never have anything to do with you again. Forcing them to register will not create loyalty or increase their buying.

Luckily for you, there are tons of great services online that take a lot of the guesswork out of selling online (that was a hint, by the way). There are also a great deal of experts in this field, the team at Starling Interactive included, that deal with the terrors of usability every day.

Whether it's your own common sense, our team, or another team, you owe it to yourself to take a second glance at what you're doing online. Doing so can only increase profits.