Many aspects of ecommerce websites are turning out to be generic. In this scenario, it has become difficult to distinguish a "good" ecommerce website from an also-ran. In my opinion, customer delight could be a big differentiator. But what causes customer delight? In interacting with customers and business owners, I have developed a sense of what seems to work. Here are the top 10 ways that top ecommerce websites seek to delight their customers.

1. Easy-to-Locate Products

If I want to buy something and I am having trouble locating it on your website, nothing else matters. All your fancy bells and whistles and shipping options will amount to nothing if I cannot even locate what I want. Locating a product is not rocket science; decent navigation and a search box should do the trick.

2. Intuitively Understand What I Want

While this might sound like rocket science to the uninitiated, we encounter it all the time. Using analytics and big data, top ecommerce players try to decipher what it is I am looking for. Such personalization is one of the hallmarks of a great ecommerce website.

3. Emails Are Responded To

Sounds pretty basic, right? But try sending an email to most of the ecommerce websites. Often, you will not get a response, and when you do, it will quite likely be unhelpful.

4. Products Get Delivered

When a customer orders a product, that product should get delivered. The correct variant of the product should be delivered, and the delivery should be on time.

5. Offers That Make Sense

Sadly, ecommerce marketing appears to be restricted to flinging offers in the general direction of the customers, the hope being that some of these offers will hit the target and lure the customer into making a purchase.

The problem with this kind of a shotgun approach towards offers and promotions is that the offers turn out to be dull and unimaginative. A top ecommerce website spends time understanding the types of offers that their customers seek and then fulfill that need.

6. Products Are in Stock

I, the customer, have visited your website, located the product, and initiated the checkout process, only to be informed that the product is not in stock. Though there will always be out-of-stock situations, your job is to reduce their occurrence as much as possible.

7. Keep Me in the Loop

When I order a product, when my product has been dispatched, and when my product has been delivered -- these are the points of time when I would appreciate it if you would send me some kind of a message to keep me in the loop. It could be an email or a text message. Ideally, you would let me set my preferred mode for receiving a message.

8. Allow Side-by-Side Comparisons

When I visit a physical store, there is a restricted range of products. I guess their focus is on stocking only fast-moving inventory. One of the advantages of ecommerce is that it allows me to access a wide range of products. However, the problem with this wide range is that, sometimes, there are minor differences between several products. Especially in these situations, I would appreciate it if you would allow me the option of side-by-side comparison.

9. Recognize Loyalty

Hey! I visit your website regularly, but it seems like you do not see me as any different from someone who visits rarely. It would be nice if you could recognize and appreciate my loyalty. A tasteful loyalty program should do the trick. That is what most top ecommerce players seem to have figured out.

10. Links Work

I wonder whether this should have been at the top of the list. But I would really appreciate it if all the links on your website work. I lose confidence (not to mention patience) if I click a link only to find that the page does not exist. All the top ecommerce websites seem to be on top of this already.