Personal Finance and Investing

Much as we all like to be different, there are some rules that we simply must follow; this fact remains true in our daily lives and even in website design. There are certain rules that cannot be flouted when you are designing a website. The flouting of these designated norms will end up resulting in a web design that just doesn’t work for the website’s visitors.

Even in the case of ecommerce website design, there are certain things that you can do, and there are certain things that you must stay away from. Call them rules or elements of good design, there is no doubt that making them a part of your ecommerce website will make the design work.

Simple and Relevant Design

Over-the-top design just doesn’t cut any ice with online shoppers. They are not coming to your site, in order to admire its design. They have a certain purpose to accomplish and that purpose is – online shopping. All they want to do is shop for certain products and services on your ecommerce site. So, your design needs to be able to give the website’s message clearly and with the necessary impact. This is only possible with a simple and relevant design that doesn’t take the attention away from the core purpose of your site.

Effective Shopping Cart Design

Some prospective ecommerce shopping cart owners are of the opinion that it’s only an advanced shopping cart with numerous features and a stylistic design that is appreciated by shoppers. But, this isn’t true. All that an online shopper wants is the kind of shopping cart design that ensures a quick and fulfilling shopping experience. He/she wants a shopping cart that gives pertinent information about products and services on the site, and helps them purchase the chosen products and services quickly and securely. Nothing more and definitely nothing less!

Revolves around your Business Strategy

An effective ecommerce website design has to revolve around your business strategy. If you have certain quantifiable goals and objectives in mind, it’s of paramount importance that the design is aligned with them. If this isn’t the case, there is a good chance that your website’s design won’t be able to achieve the goals that you want to set for it.

These are just a few rules that will help you ensure that the design of ecommerce sites confirms to your own expectations from your site. At the end of the day, the design of the website must be able to help you generate revenue. If its helps you do that, it is the perfect design for your site.

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Lets start off with a simple explanation of how insurance works. In the good old days before those kind men got together in the Lloyds coffee shop, people were responsible for their own losses. If the horse pulled their cart into a ditch and this broke the wheel, the owner had to put his hands into his pock’ets (which fortunately had already been invented) and pay someone to repair the wheel. But once people could share the risks, life was suddenly better. If you gather together a big enough group of cart owners, each will only have to pay a small amount into the central fund to cover the losses of the few who have accidents. Those men at Lloyds were on to a winning business formula. Moving into modern times, the idea of spreading the risk is the same and, with thousands of people in each group, the cost of loss is divided into small premiums. But, with profits under pressure, the insurance companies came up with a new variation on the old theme. Suppose they could persuade their customers to accept the risk of some of their losses. This would then become self-insurance for part of the risk. The rest would be paid by the insurance companies. So the deductible was born. You agree to pay the first portion of any loss. In the case of traffic accidents, most of the fender benders are minor and don’t cost much to repair. That means you pay for most of the repairs yourself and the insurance companies get richer. Ironically, if no-one opted for the deductible, the increase in the premium for everyone in the group would be trivial.

So let’s get to an actual example to see how it works. If you agree to accept a deductible of $1,000, you will be given a discount on the premium. Say you save 10% over the year. Now that’s a good saving if you manage to get through the year without having an accident. But suppose your luck is not good and you have an accident. The bill for repairs is $900. You put your hand in your pocket (pockets are such useful things – always seeming to have money in them) and pull out the dollars. Was your 10% saving over the year more than $900? If not, you are making a loss, not just on the insurance policy but, if you had to use your credit card, on the interest added to the $900 until it is paid off. What would happen if your run of bad luck continued and you had a second accident in the year? Do you have another $1,000 as savings or available to borrow? Perhaps we should not be so pessimistic. Worst case scenarios are always better applied to other people and never to you.

The higher the deductible you accept, the more of the risk you are accepting. Cheap car insurance is a wonderful thing to have so long as your luck holds up. But if your luck fails, the maximum deductible is going to empty that magic pocket of yours. And here’s the thing – you can be the safest driver in the world, always super careful, always following all the rules, and then you meet a dork behind the wheel of another vehicle and suddenly you’re wrapped round a tree. So look for cheap auto insurance, but always look at your cash position and ask yourself how well you would cope if the worst happened. Deductibles are good for people with a margin of financial safety.

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