I found these funny videos about what real life would be like if an offline store behaved like an online store:

http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/12/google-analytics-in-real-life-what.html
The takeaway, however, is that we’re not doing a good job making it easy for our customers to do business with them:

• We’re asking them for unnecessary information
• Our website search is confusing
• We’re providing them with confusing upsells that distract them from what they really want to purchase

Hello  @rich-brooks @karlmorris   

Hilarious – I’d say it was fun to watch, but I really felt the frustration the people felt in the videos because I’ve been there myself many times and actually – TODAY.  

The best websites - 

1 – Have no moving parts – nothing jiggles, shakes or moves across the screen. Videos play only if the viewer chooses the OPTION to allow them to play.

2 – No background music, ever – this does not enhance an online shopping environment or experience.

3 – Visually – as clean as possible – every page – no extra ads to distract the eye, or move them all to one side, out of the way. Plenty of white space so the eye and mind can focus on what’s important.

4 – No request for your first born child.  Meaning, you don’t need my phone number, address, city, st, zip for me to download your FREE ebook or FREE manual.

5 – NO popups!  No requests for phone no, address, email to read an article.

I’ll look at your website with my own speed – which is actually pretty fast if you don’t put a bunch of roadblocks in my way!

AND that’s what the article was telling us – those information gathering options, pop-ups – upsells, etc – are ruining the online shopping experience (that should be much faster online) for many shoppers and it’s frustrating!

Eileen

great points…. forget the fangates or  other obstacles……be   thankful  someone  got to your page and make it as nice and easy as you can… @rich-brooks 

 my pet peeve in  my world…is   dealing with the wholesale  companies  who want to sell to me…. many  ask  for all my  info  BEFORE   even showing a general  view of what  they  have….so  dumb imho…. i  dont  know  why they do this…they want  our info  but  dang why not show  a couple of pictures   to ge t us interested?…. …i  rarely  bother…the  big  cmpanies  dont usually   do this….but  lots of the small ones  do….they miss a lot of  folks  who might  be interested,   imho…my  front page   shows tons of inventory  …thats   its main  job….

Great advice in those short videos. Everybody that I DON’T shop at does those things! I don’t tolerate much of that.