Business is booming online, and if you’re a retailer, there’s no time like the present to invest in an e-commerce website. (Don’t believe us? Check out these 4 Reasons to Love Your E-Commerce Website.) Or maybe you’ve already built a online store, but just haven’t seen the growth you expected. Not to worry; we’ve pinpointed 10 things that you can easily add to your e-commerce store to boost sales and improve customer loyalty.
10 Essential E-Commerce Features
- User-Friendly Design
- High Quality Photos
- Mobile-Friendly
- Video
- Reviews
- Personalization
- Live Chat
- Better Product Pages
- Authentic Brand Story
- Top-Notch Security
User-Friendly Design
A user-friendly website design is one that is easy and enjoyable to use. It’s a website that’s built for the people who use it, like potential customers or your internal marketing team.
Tips for a User-Friendly Website
When it comes to building a website that is user-friendly, keep these tips in mind:
- Speed – does the website load quickly?
- Navigation – can people find the info they’re looking for?
- Legible Text – can people see and read the text?
Look at your website like someone who’s never seen it before. Use your website on different devices, like your laptop or tablet. Does the website make sense? Is it easy to understand what the website is about?
Better yet, send out a survey to current clients and ask them for feedback. (Be sure to thank them when they finish it!) You can also hire a company, like Artonic, to review your website and rate how easy it is to use.
High-Quality Photos
High-quality photographs are not optional if you want to offer an amazing experience to your website visitors.
How to Get High-Quality Photos for Your Website
The best advice for getting high-quality photos onto your website is to hire a professional photographer. A photographer can take high-quality photos for your business that look beautiful with your website design and appeal to your visitors.
Professional photos are:
- Relevant – does the photo make sense with the text?
- Attractive – is the photo visually appealing?
- Branded – do your photos reflect your company’s brand?
Mobile-Friendly Website
A mobile-friendly website is one that is easy to use on a mobile phone. If your e-commerce store isn’t easy to use on mobile phones, it’s time to change it now!
Options for a Mobile-Friendly Website
- Responsive – a website that changes based on screen size.
- Mobile-Specific – a website built only for mobile phones.
- Mobile App – an application built to download and use on a phone.
Videos
Use videos on your e-commerce website to bring in more sales. Product videos are especially powerful as they help create a more real-to-life shopping experience.
Add Videos & Reap the Benefits
When you add video to your e-commerce website, you’re improving your chances of getting more traffic and making more sales. Here’s why:
- Persuade Consumers to Buy
- Convey Added Value
- Make Your Site Unique
- Easy to Promote on Social Media
Reviews
When it comes to making a purchasing decision, people listen to reviews, ratings, and insight from people like them. Encourage your customers to purchase products by providing reviews of your products online.
How to Get Product Reviews
To get product reviews for your e0commerce website,
- On Your Website – make it easy for customers to leave reviews online.
- E-mail – send an e-mail follow-up after your customers
- Social Media –
Product reviews aren’t hard to get, as long as you make the process easy, fast, and hassle-free.
Personalization
“There is little doubt that personalization is key to a successful ecommerce site.” (When Should You Personalize the E-commerce Experience? by Shopify) Customer love personalization – check out these stats:
- 75% like it when brands personalize messaging and offerings
- 74% become frustrated when content isn’t relevant to them
- A personalized experience can improve conversion by almost 8%
Make Personalization Yours
Personalization is powerful. As you know, online customers enjoy a more personalized experience, but it needs to be taken slowly. BigCommerce offers an online E-commerce Personalization Manual for e-commerce marketers. “Each chapter in this guide will walk you through the fundamentals of ecommerce personalization and the latest theories and strategies around getting it up and running –– and producing ROI.”
Live Chat
Consumers dislike a few aspects of online shopping, like the inability to see or touch a product in person. Another disadvantage of online shopping is that a consumer can’t interact with a sales association – that is, unless you have a live chat feature.
Live chat offers the option for consumers to chat with a sales representative in real time while shopping online.
How You’ll Benefit from Live Chat
Improve customer service and your conversion rates with a live chat feature. Here are just a few benefits:
- Instant Customer Service
- Convenient for Sales Teams
- Easy for Customers to Find and Use
- Automated Greetings
- Pre-Chat Surveys
(Read Live Chat Benefits for Ecommerce Sites
Better Product Pages
One of the most vital elements to get right on your e-commerce website is your product page. What does a good product page look like? A great product page is “one that provides the information, assurances and motivation the visitor needs to become your customer.” (Seven Tips for Creating Killer Product Pages by Neil Patel)
Build Better Product Pages
Want killer product pages? Here are some tips on how to build product pages your customers will adore:
- Concise Text – don’t use more text than you need, and ensure the text you use is straightforward and easy to understand.
- Action Buttons – make sure your buttons, like “add to cart” or “buy now,” are easy to find and use.
- Communication – be sure to answer your shoppers’ questions to boost their confidence in your website. Include pages for shipping, returns, FAQs, and other helpful information.
Authentic Brand Story
Your brand story is gold. Why? Because of the connection it helps establish between you and your consumers.
The most successful brands do this by balancing emotion with just the right amount of information: a great story is easy to understand and simplifies big ideas in a way that sticks in people’s minds. Even more, it surprises, delights, makes audiences think and feel, and motivates them to act in ways that data cannot.
(How To Create A Brand Story That Connects With Audiences And Drives Sales by Forbes)
Create Your Brand Story
Putting together the story of your brand is very beneficial, not only for your consumers, but for you as a company. You brand story can help you:
- Clarify Your Mission
- Humanize Your Company
- Relate to Your Audience
- Connect with Core Values
- Create Authentic Content
Storytelling for brands is easy; don’t overthink it, but also, take it seriously, because it’ll pay off.
Top-Notch Security
Maintaining a secure e-commerce site is imperative to your success as an online retailer. “Cybersecurity is one of the most crucial features of electronic commerce. Without proper protocols in place, online retailers put themselves and their customers at risk for payment fraud.” (Why Online Security is so Important by BigCommerce)
How to Keep Your Site Secure
Keep your e-commerce story secure with the following best practices:
- Multi-layered Security
- Monitor All Transactions
- Regular Scans and Updates
- Address Verification
- Require CVV
- Require Stronger Passwords
- Utilize an SSL Certificate
- Choose a PCI-compliant Hosting Provider
- Protect Against DoS/DDoS Attacks
Download Your Free Guide
How do you create a website that entices your customers to buy the things you sell? And what kind of marketing strategy is best? These questions are something we answer for clients all the time!
Discover what it takes to build a success e-commerce website online with our guide: E-commerce Web Design Best Practices.
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