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1. Tackle and publish common user issues
The time you've spent in compiling a comprehensive FAQ section should not go to waste. It's important that throughout the ordering process, common user questions and queries are addressed. Users might want to know how long delivery is expected to take or if they have to enter extra information, such as their date of birth. And they might want to know why. Go through the ordering process yourself and at each stage think of what questions a user might have? Answers to these queries should be provided on-screen or through a link. Take this one step further by cutting off problems and issues at the pass. Provide your users with an "account login area" to see account activity, as this is the perfect place to highlight these issues.

2. Create trust with customers
Many consumers are still not completely comfortable about buying online. They might be concerned about giving out their credit card number or about not receiving the items they've paid for. It's therefore important that you acknowledge and dispel these concerns to put customer's minds at rest. Think about the concerns customers might have at each step of the ordering process and try to tackle them. Go out of your way to include information on your organisation and the people behind it, as it is essential to your success. Links to this information should always be included in the navigation of your site, but consider locating this information to a sidebar during the actual checkout process. If you're worried about cart abandonment - open up the link in a new browser window.

3. Success from confirmation e-mails
Once a customer has made their order, a confirmation e-mail should be sent straight away - not waiting until you can process the order. Confirmation e-mails should be brief and tell users important information such as the order number or tracking code. Including contact information for your customer service department might be a little too much for the business process of smaller companies, but if you can manage it, there is no substitute for conveying the idea that yours is a quality product from a quality company.

4. Remove surplus "non-sales" content
When shopping at an e-commerce website, customers should always have the clear opportunity to buy a product on almost every page. It is not a good idea to have pages that only provide product details. This information should be combined on one page with a visible purchase button. You want customers to easily find what they want on the site and be able to quickly check out without wasting any time. Keep your articles and FAQ's completely separate, but easily accessible.

5. Product photographs are vital
Shopping online is a lot different than the in-store experience because customers cannot see and touch the product. Therefore it's best to show your users as many product images as possible. You want your customers to feel confident that they have either found the right product or that what they are buying is of the quality they expect. You do not need your customers to make an extra click to view photographs that should be clearly visible on your product page.

6. Highlight your discounts and savings
Take a look at any high street retailer and you will plainly see how well they promote sales they have inside the shop. This should be no different for your e-commerce store. Visitors to your website need to know there are items on sale or discount opportunities. Make sure they are enticed to dig further into your store in order to make that purchase.

7. Customer Feedback
Frequently do an online search for the name of your company and your specific domain name (or even set up an automated news alert like that offered by Google). If someone has criticised your company in an online message board or blog, you need to know about it so that you can strategise a response. A quick reply to explain the situation and offer a solution could solve the problem before it snowballs - or even turn a negative situation into a positive one. Above all make sure your customers have every opportunity to give you their feedback.

8. Are all the visitors to your site buying?
If you don't know how well your website is working for your existing and new customers, it can be hard to tweak, update and improve your site. Site statistics that track the traffic to your site include when people are visiting, how they found your site and how often they return. You should set up analytics software for your site and there are many free online analytics services that will answer all of those questions about your visitors. (Google has its own free analytics software available at www.google.com/analytics/). Once you start tracking your site name via analytics, you'll know where your customers are coming from and what pages they're visiting.

9. How much of your time is taken up with your e-commerce software?
If you've been selling on the web for some years, you may be selling your products via an e-commerce site that was built with software operating on your own server. If that's the case, you're probably already aware of the many issues involved with running an e-commerce site - security issues, possible server outages, the need to constantly check the software to make sure it's running properly.

With the increase in hosted e-commerce packages, you don't need to spend a huge amount of time anymore building and maintaining your own e-commerce site. There's a wide variety of ways to easily sell your products online.

10. Shout about the good things your customers say!
When it comes to purchases, no one likes to be a pioneer. Customers like to shop where other people shop and they like to purchase from companies that others in their situation have traded with. Regardless of what your business is, you can benefit from testimonials - people talking about why they like your business and the positive experiences they've had doing business with you.

No matter the size of your business, if you have a happy customer, ask them to give you a testimonial and add that information to your site in a prominent place.

11. Providing excellent service
A significant part of your success selling online will be your ability to provide first-rate customer service. If a customer e-mails a question or complaint about the products you're selling, you need to have a system in place to respond promptly. The Internet offers business owners an unparalleled ability to sell to people all over the world, but it also offers your disgruntled customers a wide-reaching platform to air their complaints. By far the best way to reduce customer complaints is to offer exemplary customer service.