Top Things To Consider When Developing an eCommerce Website For Your Business

eCommerce has significantly transformed the retail sector in recent years. Today, the number of people preferring online retail has undoubtedly increased to a new high, with the global eCommerce market likely to touch $4.89 trillion in 2021. The question is, what does an eCommerce website development take to become an ROI machine?

An eCommerce website will prove beneficial only if you provide users with quality time. Your eCommerce website development should, therefore, always begin with a great design concept that is essential to converting your website visitors into valuable customers. 

Consider an eCommerce website as identical to a store in a mall. The first impression is most important. Attractive storefronts will attract regular shoppers, and well-organized products will encourage them to browse and shop.

However, as easy as it may seem, it’s a lot of brainstorming, strategizing, and planning put into action. You need to keep in consideration a certain few things before you start developing your eCommerce website. In this blog, we have put together the key points that will help you get your eCommerce website up and running in top shape. 

Keep the User in Mind

Every detail of an eCommerce website, from product pages to related pictures and contact forms, may affect a user’s purchase decision. Therefore, when designing your eCommerce website, keeping users’ viewpoints in mind is essential. 

Offer Convenience - Add convenient navigation, filtering, and search. Convenience is the number one reason people shop online and the number of users declines if they become confused. The main trend in UX design today is to create websites that make consumer’s lives easier and encourage them to shop easily. 

Every element should be simple and jump from one point to another, so that the users do not rush and follow a simple structure to browse the website pages. However, when designing an eCommerce website, it is important to consider the business environment or theme. 

For example, for an eCommerce website with 100,000 items, the main question is not how beautiful it looks, but how convenient the search and navigation functions are.

Embed Quality Pictures and Videos on Your Product Page 

Since users cannot get hold of the products in real life, they can only rely on the photos and videos displayed on the website. Shopping page design requires high-resolution photos, 360-degree viewing angles, 3D models, and videos. The better the presentation, the more the users will prefer a particular online store.

Photo by Charisse Kenion

Any blurriness that uses blurry images might make customers hesitant to buy a product as they assume the product to be cheap. In addition to that, people consider poor-quality pictures a sign of lack of care from the seller, making them go for an alternative site that respects them more. 

Like it or not but the consumers only give around 10 seconds of their time while browsing a product, therefore you must have an attention-grabbing design that makes them stay on your page while you can explain the details. 

Zoom-In - Another new popular feature in eCommerce websites. The main concept of the zoom-in feature is to give customers a satisfactory level of zooming on the product images to examine the product more closely. 

If possible, use images that showcase people using or interacting with your products. For example, clothes worn by models are instantly more attractive to consumers rather than seeing folded clothes laid down or placed on a mannequin.

Make Your Site SEO-Friendly

Your online store has to acquire more visitors to increase sales. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the key to generating more traffic. By incorporating search engine marketing key phrases into your product titles and descriptions, your website is likely to rank better in search engine results. Having better visibility is a key factor in website traffic and conversions.

PageRank is critical to traffic. Using the right search engine optimization can make your page rank higher on SERPs. Page performance and page loading speed also contribute to UX and Google rankings.

Impatient buyers abandon slow websites almost immediately. Make use of search engine optimization tools to measure the month-to-month search quantity and the difficulty level of the associated keyword terms. 

Terms that have excessive monthly search volumes will be more difficult to evaluate. Also, Google Analytics can help with tracking the page views of blog posts. When planning future content, take into consideration the previous high-engagement posts.

Ensure Your Store is Mobile-Responsive

Optimizing all websites for mobile devices may not seem difficult, but there are still thousands of vendors connected to old themes and websites that only display correctly on PC browsers. It is not an ideal approach when setting up an eCommerce website as nearly 50% of websites are opened from mobile devices. 

Nearly 79% of mobile users have made at least one online purchase in the last 6 months and as smartphones and tablets become more sophisticated, it is expected that this percentage will only increase.

Photo by CardMapr.nl 

Having responsive design allows your eCommerce website to adapt to any type of screen resolution or operating system and they should be able to provide mobile users with a hassle-free mobile-friendly interface. 

If the eCommerce website is not optimized for mobile devices, all the user interface elements and text are displayed in the wrong font size when they browse through the site and prove to be extremely difficult to use on a small screen device.

In a nutshell, mobile users who are unable to interact with the website properly will probably abandon your brand and visit alternate e-commerce websites with a mobile-friendly interface.

Security of Customers is Vital

Since online transactions are an inevitable part of all the customers using eCommerce websites, it is expected that many hackers will target their credit card credentials. Security measures should already be up and running before opening the eCommerce website to the general public.

Your eCommerce platform should be secured at its initial stages or else bad reviews about the safety will damage your brand’s reputation and prove detrimental to the business.

Photo by Michael Geiger 

Implement privacy policies to protect customer data who use your eCommerce website and assure them that any information they share with you is safe. Obtain SSL certification for your eCommerce store to establish a secure connection between the user and the website and make sure the SSL certificate is from a recognized vendor. 

Two-stage authentication is another means to secure your customers’ data by using a system-generated code sent via email or SMS. You can also use a firewall to protect the bridge between two networks and block any malicious traffic in its tracks.

Product Navigation and Functionality

Clunky eCommerce websites are a major letdown for customers as it decreases their efficiency to search products. Nearly 40% of customers wait for three seconds for the website to load, especially when using a mobile device. 

Have convenient modes of navigation between categories and provide filter options for price range, color, product type, etc. Easier navigation increases the probability of your customers finding the product they are looking for and encourages them to make purchases in the future.

Photo by Victoriano Izquierdo 

Keep in mind that all your customers might not be tech-savvy. So, your website should be user-friendly to even novice users. eCommerce websites should also provide search functionality for the users who are looking for items without having to go through all the pages.

If you can successfully help the customers in finding what they were looking for,  you will have a higher probability of closing a sale. You can use special sections like “You may like this” and “People who bought this item also searched for…” paired with related products to pique their curiosity and capitalize on the opportunity to sell multiple products.

Ratings and User-Generated Reviews

Customers believe the positive descriptions put by the seller blindly. In fact,  they prefer the inputs of customers who bought and used the products. 

The importance of these reviews is evident as 95% of the customers browsing through eCommerce websites, read the reviews. Ratings are also a deciding factor for purchase as 57% of customers won't buy a product if it has a poor rating. Make sure you deliver quality products to prevent bad ratings that damage the overall reputation of your brand.

Please note, it is not a good idea to use immoral methods to artificially boost your ratings and reviews. Manufacturing reviews only work for a while but prove to be detrimental for the business in the long run.

Payment Processing

Enable different modes of payment to attract a larger audience as not everyone would prefer a specific payment method. Offer added convenience to customers by providing payment methods like Cash on delivery, Credit, Debit, and Paypal, to name a few.

One of the biggest factors that cause cart abandonment is unexpected additional costs added at the last moment of purchase.  Maintaining transparency about payments keeps the customer informed about the expenses in advance and doesn’t catch them off guard.

Free shipping is an attractive option that motivates a customer into completing a purchase. Most companies see the benefits of free shipping and implement it when customers reach a certain threshold. 

  Photo by Igal Ness 

93% of online buyers are encouraged to buy more products if they get free shipping options, while 61% of customers are likely to cancel their purchase due to the lack of free shipping.

FAQs Section

With the lack of face-to-face interaction between buyers and sellers in online shopping, the best way to instill confidence in customers is by providing all the information about the product on the website itself. How? 

• By offering authentic production information in the listing
• Having a FAQ section on the website that reveals information about the purchase, returns, and other website policies

You can also expedite the customer service process by implementing Chatbots instead of letting them wait in the queue on a helpline. Chatbots can answer commonly asked questions and offer order status when connected to your website’s database.

In case customers are not satisfied with the FAQ section or interaction with chatbots, they can contact customer support and connect with an executive for further inquiries.

Conclusion

In the modern age, an eCommerce website will be extremely beneficial for your enterprise even if you own brick and mortar stores. A website would not only boost sales but also establish your business on a global scale.

Creating a game-changing eCommerce website requires a lot of time and effort. With the correct steps and providing your customers with modern features and security, you can win over new customers and convert them into brand advocates.  Establish your website and focus on maintaining the quality from day one to ensure your site is always functioning properly.

Want to learn more about starting a kickass eCommerce business? Email us at info@growthnatives.com or visit our website.