In the recent years, the e-commerce industry has been growing and multiplying tremendously, giving an opportunity to business owners to sell their products online. Along with the ability to sell products online comes the added advantage of expanding the business to any part of the world, which would not have been possible in a brick-and-mortar retailer setup. So now the question is that will just setting-up an e-commerce website bring you business? Well, the answer is a big no! There are many essential things that need to be done during the e-commerce website development phase in order to bring in business later on. This mainly includes having a user-friendly website with smart features. A website that is easy to use and understand will get more traffic and will see more sales of products/services.
On this note, let us have a look at 10 essential features that your e-commerce website design should entail.
As already mentioned above, an easy to use website is always the best. So, keeping it simple and user-friendly might win the game for you. Although simplicity should be the main aim of your design this doesn’t mean that you lose the elegance. The main objective should be to help the shoppers get what they want at a fast speed and without unnecessary steps involved that hinder the shopping experience.
There are many websites that sell the same products as you do, therefore, to stand out from the competition you need to focus on the user experience by providing shopping categories, filters, and product comparison options.
With the boost in online commerce, the consumer expectations have also risen. They are no longer satisfied with a single-shot, low-resolution picture of a product. Instead, they want to see the product picture at multiple angles and also images of people using the product in different environments. They want to be able to zoom the product and see its size in comparison to their body height to get an actual feel of the product. Therefore, technical consideration for images has become very crucial. Websites that use low-resolution images or images that take too long to upload will definitely see a drop in the website traffic. An essential thing to remember is that for an e-commerce website development or mobile-friendly e-commerce website development is that images will sell the product and not the content. Therefore, make sure that the website has high-resolution, multiple photos per product, which are optimized for page load.
A website that is not optimized for mobile devices shall not only lose the mobile audiences but its SEO will also suffer as Google gives higher search engine ranking to websites that are mobile-friendly. Therefore, one needs to make sure that their website has a responsive design that adapts easily to any mobile device.
Online shoppers read the product reviews before buying a product. In fact, the star rating on the product is the number one factor considered by users before making a purchase. Some might think that negative reviews are a sale-killer but the opposite is actually true. If the products have only positive reviews the consumers might think of them as fake and will not go ahead with the purchase. User reviews can drive your sales forward therefore; you must include it in the design. You can also integrate it with Facebook to drive social proof and build repeat customers.
While social media marketing, email marketing, and SMS marketing are a good way to inform your customers about the on-going promotions on your website, having the offers integrated into the header section of the homepage of your website is next-level marketing. Besides this, having a dedicated page that contains the on-going offers on the website is another great way to reach out to the customers.
E-commerce websites that do not have a wish-list are leaving behind a lot of revenue. Enabling your customers to save the products that they want to buy in the future and will most likely buy is a feature that every e-commerce site should have.
Having a related item or you might like this section in the e-commerce website, drives the sales further. For instance, if someone has a coffee-maker in their wish-list, the related item section could show them a toaster. This may boost-up the sales as the users would love to have a crisp toast with their morning coffee, isn’t it?
If you want to create a brand that rules, you will have to connect with your buyers at an emotional level, win their trust, and thus create brand advocates. Linking social profiles and user-generated content with your e-commerce website will inculcate brand-trust in the minds of the consumers.
Security features are a crucial part of e-commerce websites. An e-commerce website should ensure that they protect the customer information and take adequate steps to ensure privacy. At present, Magento and WordPress paired with Woo Commerce are the top two platforms for online sellers. Besides this, to ensure extra security consider adding SSL certificate, two-factor authentication, and use of a firewall.
Do you want to take your business online but don’t know where to start? Contact us, and we’ll guide you through it.