What Makes An Effective E-Commerce Website?

So you want to sell products online? Here’s what you need to know in order to have an effective E-commerce website:

THE WEBSITE

1. Make It User-Friendly

Make the purchase process hassle-free. Effective e-commerce sites make it as easy as possible for customers to complete transactions by eliminating the difficulties they might encounter upon placing an order and during the payment process. Don’t make them abandon you for the competition because you made their task difficult. Many people cite overly complicated navigation or too many pages in the purchase path as reasons they don’t complete their online sale or abandon their shopping cart.

2. Optimize for the Mobile World

This has nothing to do with creating an app or mobile site. Nowadays, your customers crave mobile responsiveness. The number of people browsing the web on mobile devices has greatly increased over the years. People want to have access to anything using their phones, wherever they are. So if your website is not responsive to different screen sizes, you will have a tough time pleasing customers. It’s very important to be accessible to customers on whatever device they are using. Having a mobile-friendly website enables you to increase sales as it offers convenience to visitors and returning customers.

Products

Product pages are the doorways that lead to revenue and conversions for e-commerce. A good e-commerce product page plays a vital role in converting a visitor into a customer. Most e-commerce businesses, therefore, invest more of their precious time and money in making their product pages more attractive and persuasive.

But then, how do you do this?

1. Product Image: Make them Impactful

Product photography is one of the most important aspects of your e-commerce site. It contributes a lot to increasing conversions and sales. Since a buyer cannot see or touch a product in person, an e-commerce website should always provide high-quality photos that provide a potential customer with plenty of detail.

For product page images, you should be mindful of download times. You need to keep in mind that not everyone has a super-fast Internet connection and that high load times can negatively affect the bottom line.

A two-second delay in load time during a transaction results in abandonment rates of up to 87 percent. This is significantly higher than the average abandonment rate of 70 percent.

– Radware

Use multiple images clicked from different angles to give the overall look of the product.

2. Zoom Option for Pictures

A zoom feature for product images is a must on an e-commerce website. Nobody buys a product without looking in detail at it, and since a buyer cannot see or touch the product in person, an e-commerce website should always provide a zoom feature to allow visitors to see the products in minute detail. Only when they have examined the product thoroughly will they be able to make an informed decision and feel happy about it. Also, product images must be of high quality so that they do not get blurred when zoomed in and out.

3. Accurate Product Description

Every good e-commerce site should ensure that product descriptions are clear and that product specifications are accurately represented.

Optimize them for Search. Keep product descriptions short and make sure to include important keywords so that the page ranks well in search engine rankings.

4. Show How Much Your Consumers are Saving on Their Purchases

Many times, if a product has been discounted, the product page shows the original price along with the discounted price. This is a smart trick used by marketers to cash in on people's loss-aversion tendency.

5. Product Reviews and Testimonials

When it comes to business, Reviews and testimonials have proven effective in winning the trust of customers.

The addition of ratings and reviews to your webpage would really help in winning the trust of consumers, especially in e-commerce because the payments are done virtually. According to reports, 79% of consumers trust online reviews. Customers not only purchase products from your website but also recommend them to their family and friends, and sometimes they even share them on social media. These positive words of mouth can add a great deal of value to your site.

Some website owners prefer not to add a review section because they fear negative comments will affect their business. The key here is not to fear the negative feedback but instead to use it to improve your product or service.

Product reviews are a ‘must-have’ feature on any e-commerce site today.

Checkout

1. Easy Checkout

Long checkout processes make 10% of people abandon their shopping carts.

– Webcredible

The user experience on e-commerce sites is critical to success. If the checkout process involves too many steps or is confusing, shoppers will wind up abandoning their cart with items left unpurchased. Ideally, the checkout section should involve a minimal number of steps and be as easy as possible for shoppers.

Tip:

Information like city and state based on the user’s zip code is pre-filled and includes a checkmark that pre-fills the billing address when it’s the same as the shipping location.

2. Offer Many Payment Options

When it comes to e-commerce, the more payment methods you offer, the better. Your customers are all different, and they all have special needs and preferences. Some customers will use a Visa, and some will want to use a Mastercard. Paypal and other services are becoming extremely popular, as are secondary credit card companies like Discover. Don’t let a situation happen where you lose a potential sale just because you don’t offer that kind of payment.

Tip:

If you have an e-commerce site, you can also consider selling worldwide. Allow payments in multiple currencies!

3. Generate an Email Marketing Campaign

You can’t expect customers right away after releasing your e-commerce site. You need to come up with a strategy first, and email marketing is the answer.

Email marketing is the foundation of effective e-commerce marketing strategies. Based on studies conducted, over 72% of people prefer to receive promotional content through their emails.

Use an email marketing campaign to keep in contact with your customers, send them helpful information, and sell your products.