In the last few years, we all have witnessed a major shift from brick-and-mortar businesses to eCommerce stores. In other words, there has been tremendous growth in the number of eCommerce businesses.
Each day, there are hundreds of eCommerce websites, being launched worldwide.
Most of the retailers are either already running an online store or are in the process of developing an eCommerce website.
No matter which category you are in, this blog post will provide you with rich information on why eCommerce is a must-thing to have and what are the essential features of an eCommerce website.
Let’s get started.
Why eCommerce Will Continue To Grow
#1 Convenience
eCommerce websites provide convenience to customers. Yes, eCommerce stores provide a hassle-free & convenient shopping experience to customers.
Customers find it easier than ever to buy their desired products & services in the comfort of their homes.
Now, they don’t need to put effort to go down to the different stores located in the different parts of the town and compare the products based on their quality & cost. Customers now can do this at their fingertips.
So, convenience is definitely one of the primary reasons that have made eCommerce businesses successful thus far and still continue to contribute to their growth.
Therefore, if you’re looking for a way to take your business to the next level, hiring an eCommerce developer & creating an eCommerce store is the way to go.
#2 Low Cost Development
Did you know?
The cost to develop an eCommerce website in India may start from $1000. While many businesses still think that an eCommerce website may cost them a fortune. That’s not true at all.
Although, in their early days, eCommerce website development used to be very expensive, like any other product or service at their infant stage. But, with the evolution of great CMS platforms like WordPress, now you can build your website with a little technical knowledge in a few hours or a few days.
Don’t get disappointed if you are not tech-savvy at all. You can still get an eCommerce website at an affordable cost.
All you need to do is, hire a website designer in India to build your eCommerce store at a low cost.
To sum up, the low-cost development of eCommerce websites is also one of the major reasons for the popularity & growth of eCommerce businesses over the last decade.
Additionally, if you’re looking to save on your eCommerce website design cost, WordPress is a great option. With WordPress, you can get a professional-looking website without having to spend a lot of money. Additionally, WordPress is easy to use and you can easily add features to your website as needed.
Recommended post: How much is the eCommerce website development cost in India?
#3 Low Cost Marketing
Imagine if you have a brick & mortar store and you want to advertise your business on billboards, TV, or radio. How much is it’s gonna cost you?
Well, the answer is it may cost you a fortune. And the worst thing is that the return on this investment is not worth it.
However, with an eCommerce business, that’s not the case. An eCommerce website can be marketed & advertised through targeted & effective yet affordable channels like SEO (search engine optimization), Google Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.
So, you see, it’s not only the website development cost that’s affordable but marketing an eCommerce business is within your budget too.
#4 Accessibility
When you run an eCommerce business, your website is available for your customers round-the-clock. In other words, your customers can access your eCommerce store 24/7/365. This benefit alone has really caused a major disruption in the retail industry.
Not only this, but your website is also accessible to a worldwide audience.
Unlike brick & mortar businesses, you don’t necessarily need to deal with local customers only, instead, you can expand your reach & go global. This wide exposure will help you increase your sales & revenue.
What’s more.
Customers can also access your eCommerce website to get more information and answers to their frequently asked questions. They don’t need to call you or email you since they can get all the details on your website only.
#5 Wide Range Of Products
Unlike a physical warehouse or retail outlet, your website can accommodate thousands of products and even more. Look at amazon.com and you will see how vast is the range of their products.
Now imagine, if we were to place all of those hundreds and thousands of products inside a warehouse, how much space will we need?
Moreover, running an eCommerce website can save you a lot of money which you would have spent otherwise, on warehouse maintenance.
If you do need a warehouse or retail outlet anyhow, you can choose to keep a selected collection there and for the entire range, you can encourage your customers to visit your eCommerce store.
#6 Measurable
Now, this is something for which we like eCommerce business more as compared to a brick & mortar business.
When you run a brick & mortar business and advertise or market your retail outlet, you can’t measure the performance of your advertising campaigns precisely. As you don’t know whether the customers are coming down to your outlet after seeing your advertisement or they are just walk-in customers.
However, in the case of an eCommerce business, you do have the ability to view the analytics and view the outcome of each & every marketing or advertising campaign.
You can also set goals and conversions in your web analytic tool so that you can know how many goals or conversions have been achieved for any specific month, week or day.
Action Exercise For You
Getting an eCommerce website can really add wings to your traditional retail business. If your major obstacle in developing a website is its development cost, here’s some good news for you.
You don’t need to spend thousands of dollars on the development of your eCommerce website.
Why?
It’s because of 2 major reasons:
1. You can build an online store using any of the free CMS like WordPress. The cost to develop an eCommerce website is lower as compared to other platforms.
2. You can hire web designers in India who can help you to create an eCommerce website for as low as $800 only.
10 essential features that every
eCommerce website must have
If you are convinced from the above facts that you must build your eCommerce website, here are a few essential features that you must not miss at all.
#1 Easy Product Management
The CMS of your eCommerce website must be so intuitive that you should be able to manage the products easily.
Because for any successful eCommerce website, it’s important to add new products regularly so that your customers always see new materials each time they visit your website.
No matter how beautiful your website looks to the users, if you are unable to manage it efficiently from the backend, you will not be able to make the most out of it.
#2 Discount Coupons
Discount coupons help eCommerce websites to get more sales & revenue from the existing customer base. Therefore, you must ensure that you are website has the ability to create discount coupons hassle-free.
#3 Reporting
As an administrator of your eCommerce store, you must be able to generate, view & download all the necessary reports such as:
- Sales report
- Order report
- Customers report
- Inventory report
#4 Order Execution
Again, you must be able to manage the orders on your eCommerce website hassle-free. Your website must have the ability for you to:
- Receive notification upon each order
- Search for any order
- Change any order status
#5 Fast Loading Pages
The loading speed of a website matters a lot. Especially in the case of eCommerce websites, loading speed is the key. A slow-loading website can cause you to lose several sales & customers.
Don’t let this happen to you. You can check your website’s loading speed with any online tool such as https://tools.pingdom.com
Recommended Post: 7 Ways To Speed Up The Loading Speed Of A WordPress Website
#6 Recommended Products
Showing a set of recommended products to the existing visitors of your website will help you to yield more revenue from the same resources. It’s one of the best methods to cross-sell your products.
#7 Easy Checkout
The checkout process of any eCommerce must be quick & easy. None of your potential buyers want to spend their time filling out dozens of fields and going through various steps of checkout.
Complicated checkout is perhaps the #1 reason for the high order abandonment rate of any eCommerce website.
Recommended Post: 5 Tips To Design & Develop User-Friendly Shopping Carts
#8 Search
A robust search feature has always been the backbone of any eCommerce website.
Therefore, you must ensure that your eCommerce store has a robust search feature that can help your customers to find their desired products easily and buy them.
#9 Product Filtration
Not all of the visitors to your eCommerce store know what exactly they want. Therefore, it is vital to have a product filtration feature for the visitors to filter & narrow down their search.
An efficient filtration feature will help you to grab more sales.
#10 Intuitive Navigation
Without intuitive & user-friendly navigation, your website visitors may get lost. Robust navigation is just like a radar to the ship.
A website’s navigation helps its shoppers to find their desired products quickly & easily. It would be right to say that good navigation can enhance the user experience of your shoppers and help you make more money.
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