The development of an eCommerce site includes a lot of moving pieces. Therefore, before jumping into the head first, one has to take into account a number of factors. Designing a simple website is one thing, but developing an eCommerce site comes with a host of challenges.
If you have finally decided to create an e-commerce website, the seven points below will tell you how you can do that effectively.
A detailed description of the product makes the shopper’s decision for making a purchase. They must know all the facts about whatever product they are willing to buy from you.
Show shoppers how the product will benefit, and what features it has. Understand that people aren’t looking for a product but a solution to their problem.
Also, add product description for search engine optimization (SEO). Figure out what people are looking for online and then use those phrases on the search results page to get higher rankings.
There is nothing more annoying than using an e-commerce site’s search feature and getting hundreds of results that don’t match what you’ve been searching for. Try to ensure that your e-commerce site uses qualified, reliable search engine software, and allows filtering for more advanced search options if you hold a large product inventory.
Companies with e-commerce sites mostly want users to create an account to complete a purchase, as this enables follow-up communication that encourages future sales and tracks demographic information for customers to examine sales. Nevertheless, it’s important to keep in mind that not everyone wants to go through the account creation process while making a purchase.
But for repeated purchases, customers should be encouraged to get themselves registered and enjoy perks like getting notified for any upcoming sale, saving their information for any of the future purchases. However, it’s still a good idea to give an option to people who just want to place a one-time order.
It is extremely important to have high-quality images. The best way to sell anything is to get it into someone’s hands, but since it can’t be done online, the next best way is to allow them to visualize the product with the help of high-quality images of the products.
Also, keep website’s performance in consideration. Big images can significantly slow down your website load time. If a customer has to wait too long to load a web page, they may become annoyed and end up leaving. A skilled e-commerce web developer will ensure that images (and video) are optimized for websites so that pages can be loaded quickly while maintaining image quality.
Electronic commerce sites must always be user-friendly. A fulfilling user experience retains visitors to the site and keeps them coming back for more. Place product categories menus and links at a noticeable place, and make sure the names of the categories and the products in each category are accurate.
In addition, ensure that every page serves users with an easy way to get back to wherever they want on the website—whether it’s the home page, finding contact info, choosing another category, or going to the shopping cart directly.
]This is the era of mobile devices, be it a smart phone, or a tablet. Therefore, the use of mobile devices to access websites is constantly expanding, and e-commerce purchases are a major part of this traffic. It’s extremely essential to ensure that your e-commerce website is mobile-optimized, providing users with the best experience regardless of which device they use to access your website.
The website launch is only the start of the whole process. You must have heard that, “if you build it, it’s going to come,” which is a total misconception. It includes a lot more for attracting visitors to your new website. Marketing strategies set up an online presence to accumulate traffic, leads and revenues.
There are several ways to attract visitors to your website. Here are just a few popular strategies that digital marketers follow:
SEO – Optimizing your pages with keyword phrases people will probably be looking for on search engines.
Social media – Communicating and engaging with prospective clients.
SEM – Paid Google ads as well as other search engines.
Content marketing – Delivering quality content for free on your websites can potentially bring new visitors and separate you from competitor websites.
Email marketing – An efficient way of engaging your customers and drawing their attention.
In this digital era, e-commerce websites have the potential to transform your business. Not only can they increase your revenue, but they can also set up your business on a global level – without the hassle of running a brick-and-mortar store.
There’s no denying that it takes sweat, time, effort and money to create an e-commerce website. Nevertheless, if you follow the right strategies, a good e-commerce website will not only drive sales, but will also retain more loyal customers than you think.