Are you looking to build a new e-commerce website or redesign your existing online store? Before you hire a website developer to do this job, you must know all of the important features that your e-commerce website must have.
In this blog post, we’ve shared 15 points checklist that your website builder must follow in order to produce a profitable e-commerce store.
Let’s dive in!
#1 Responsive design
Responsive website design is the first & foremost feature that your e-commerce store should have. In other words, your site must be able to render the web pages according to the different sizes & resolutions of smart devices such as phones, tablets, etc.
Given the fact that more than 50% of online buyers use their smart devices to find their desired products or services, it becomes even more than important to have a responsive (mobile-friendly) e-commerce store.
Recommended post: What are the benefits of responsive website design
Although most website developers build responsive websites these days, you still need to make sure that your website is indeed responsive. You can check the responsiveness of your website through an efficient online tool such as https://search.google.com/test/mobile-friendly
#2 Prominent search bar
A search bar at a prominent place of your e-commerce website helps your visitors to search & find their desired product(s) without wasting their time on clicking back & forth and navigating across different webpages.
Just look at Amazon website and you will understand the important of a prominent search bar on any online store.
#3 Prominent checkout button
Again, displaying the checkout button or link on a prominent location of all the web pages of your e-commerce store will enable your buyers to checkout & pay for their orders anytime they wish to do so. It basically enhances the user experience of your e-commerce website.
#4 Gain customer trust
Gaining customers’ trust in any e-commerce website is as important as its existence in the very first place. Without trust, your online store may not be able to generate a good amount of sales.
Here are a few things that your website developer can do in order to gain your customers’ trust:
- Past customers’ testimonials
- Security seals
- Secured server layer (SSL / https://)
- Hotline number
#5 Prominent calls-to-action
Have you ever been to an e-commerce website where you were not able to find out the button to add the items to your cart or checkout? And later you realized that they have that button inside their product detail page or there is no such button, but only a link text?
Don’t let this happen to your customers.
Do make sure that all the important call-to-action elements are located at a prominent position on your web pages.
#6 High-quality product images
Since potential customers can’t touch your products before they place their orders with you, they really expect to see their desired product(s) in high-quality resolution.
Especially, if you sell luxury products that are priced on the higher side, you definitely have to use high-resolution product images so that your visitors can feel your products virtually.
Other than the high-quality of your product images, you can also show pictures from different angles of your product. It will also help your customers to make their decisions quickly & place their orders with your online store.
#7 Upselling
Generating more sales & revenue from your existing website visitors will help you to grow your business.
You can try to up-sell different products to your customers when they place an order with you.
Perhaps the best idea to up-sell would be to show “You may also like” on the final checkout page or in the email that your customers will receive when they make a successful order.
#8 Advance filtration
The advanced filtration system on your search page or product page will help your customers to find a product that meets all of their criteria such as:
- Price range (budget)
- Color
- Size
In the absence of a filtration feature, your visitors may be required to go back & forth across your web pages to find their products which could be very time-consuming, and most of the time, your visitors may give up and quit your website.
#9 Product reviews
The product reviews from your existing customers will help your new customers to make their decision quickly & hassle-free. Not only this but seeking reviews on your products from the customers also make them feel important.
In order to encourage your existing customers to write reviews on your products, you can offer them some discounts on their next purchases or some sort of loyalty points to be credited to their account.
#10 Videos
Although it may not be possible for all of you to showcase a video on your eCommerce store, it can be a game-changer for your business if you can showcase a video for each product on your website.
The videos can demonstrate the unique features & benefits of your products. You can also consider showcasing the real people using your products. It’s definitely worth trying.
#11 No hidden charges
Hidden charges on the checkout page are amongst the major reasons for the high order abandonment rate on any e-commerce website. If you do have any additional charges according to the nature of your business, you must mention them upfront.
#12 Easy editing of shopping cart
Your customers must be able to edit their shopping cart hassle-free. For example, if they want to change the quantity, variant (color, size, etc.), it shouldn’t be a troublesome task for them. Also, your buyers must be able to remove undesired products from their shopping cart anytime they wish to do so.
#13 One-page checkout
How does your checkout form look like? Is it too lengthy?
Various online researches have shown that lengthy forms on the checkout pages are also one of the major contributors to the high order abandonment rate.
If at all, you need to ask too much of the details from your customers, you can request your website builder to split the form into 2 or 3 steps so that your customers don’t find it annoying to fill in their details.
Recommended post: 6 Effective ways to get more sales from mobile checkout
#14 Options of payment methods
Another important thing to take care of on your e-commerce website is to offer a variety of payment methods for your customers.
Not all of your potential buyers may want to use PayPal. Some of them may want to use their debit cards or some other local payment gateway.
You must find out the prevailing and most commonly used payment gateway in your targeted region and ask your website builder to implement it with your online store.
Recommended post: 4 Common payment methods to use on your eCommerce website
#15 Display shipping timeframe & cost
Whether you offer free shipping or charge some amount to deliver the products, you must mention it on all the product pages themselves so that your customers know about them.
Similarly, you must also mention the delivery timeframe with each product. No matter if you deliver the products in a few days or weeks or months. Just mentioned it.
Mentioning the estimated shipping timeframe & cost will avoid any kind of confusion among your potential buyers.
