Identify the Basic Elements of an eCommerce Website
Planning your eCommerce has the same importance as a business plan if you want to sell online. In the early stages of your eCommerce planning, it is important to consider the experience you will give customers. This is something that must be long-term because you want to keep your customers even after many years.
That is why you must craft an eCommerce design that is functional, impressive, and simple. These are very important in ensuring your online store’s success. Your website must be visually appealing, with a good interface that is optimized for mobile devices as well.
If you look at the successful eCommerce websites, they all have the basic elements that are mentioned here. Find out what they are right now:
Names of Customers
Everyone wants to be recognized by their own name. Therefore, successful salesmen use this technique as well. The salesperson will ask what your name is so they can use it to address you all the time.
Outstanding eCommerce websites also requires personalization because it gives importance to their customers and makes them feel special. That is why when you choose the sign-up options to register on your webpage, make sure to add a Name feature. This is also an advantage for you because of a few things. It is easier and quicker to write a name than to upload a picture or add personal information. People are not bothered about giving their names. In addition, it makes customers feel special because they see their name on the dashboard.
It Must Be Easy to Navigate
ECommerce businesses spend a lot of money to attract website visitors. Hence, it is important for a brand to build a website that guides visitors to purchase their products.
Therefore, the navigation of your site must be helpful to shoppers in finding products easily. Good website navigation helps improve their experience and it will increase sales and revenue in the future. Poor navigation only drives users away because they will get annoyed and leave the site.
You can improve your website’s navigation by taking note of these:
- For the main navigation menu, go with a common design and conventional navigation so users have an easier experience. Make sure to include the main navigation menu of your site at the top or left side of the webpage.
- Organize your products by listing them in categories, subcategories and do not forget to label them. For example, if you are selling sports shoes, you can categorize them according to gender and type of shoe.
- There needs to be a search bar on every page of the website because it helps users find a product right away.
Website Credibility
This is something that you should not ignore when you are creating an eCommerce website. It must reach out to all visitors and tell them why they should choose your product or service among your competitors. The website design should be professional that give users the same confidence as if they were there personally. Your website must remind them that you are not just a cyberspace business. This means putting your company’s complete contact information on every webpage for everyone to see.
Any user who wants to make an online purchase must feel a sense of trust right away even if it is their first time visiting your website. A website that looks credible helps with this, and your sales will increase because of it.
Update the Product Collections
You can put together similar products, which is known as Product Collection. You can assemble your products based on season, new arrivals, festivals, best sellers, on sale, etc. The best thing about product collections is the good rankings they get on search engines. However, you must regularly update or replace the assembly of your products. By doing this, you can retain your new customers according to what they like.
If you want to make it more personal, you can add a recommended product list for each user on your website. Normally, people choose to purchase something based on the search of the last customer. Therefore, it would be good to update your product library based on the last customer search.
Product Images Must be High Quality
Visitors form their first impression of your product based on the images, so make sure they are good quality. If they do not like what they see, they will most likely leave your website.
Of course, you are not going to trust a website that does not properly photograph their products.
Customers do not have the option to touch, feel, and try your products because it is not a brick-and-mortar retail store. Before they make a purchase, they will look at the product photos that determines whether they are going to buy it or not.
If the product images on your website are too pixelated, small, or there is only one picture per product, they will not inspire people to buy.
That is why investing in high-quality product images is important. This way, your products can be properly showcased. Online shoppers are reluctant to buy if they cannot see the product’s actual look. A high percentage of consumers want to see several images of the product before buying it.
That is why excellent websites include a video or 360-degree shot to show all angles of the product and important features. This helps users visualize the product if they were to purchase it.
Product videos and images help to encourage users in buying your product and increase revenue.
Good Content
This is a very important element in building a website. Your content must give visitors interesting information, reasons why they should buy your product, a detailed description of the products, and how to contact you. Be sure that you are always updating and adding fresh content to your website so people come back.
The content should not be too wordy, which is why it needs to be concise. Everything should be included without boring your visitors because their focus is to make a purchase. They want to know what the product is all about before buying it, but they do not want to see long texts and paragraphs.
Customer Ratings and Reviews
Adding ratings and reviews is a significant website solution that will really help boost your sales and reputation. An eCommerce website design that is successful is like having a community because the page owner and customers cooperate with each other. Happy customers who bought your product will recommend it to their friends and family. Positive word of mouth adds a lot of value to your website.
There are webpage owners who hesitate to add the review option. That is because they fear that customers might say something too critical about their product or service. You cannot expect customers to like your product if you are not confident about it. The negative feedback must be used as the basis for product or service improvement. If
If you are still unsure about the review option, you can at least allow customers to rate your products or service. The given evaluations can be utilized to create filters. Consumers will also have an easy time choosing products with the highest rating. Ratings are easier to get compared to reviews.
The Checkout Process Should be Easy
An eCommerce website must have this element because buyers expect a good checkout experience when they purchase your product.
Your buyers should find it easy to add items to their cart, and they can continue to the checkout page right away. Make sure that users are not confused when they are doing checkout, which means they should see exactly what they are purchasing from their cart.
Your checkout page should have a seamless and clean design. An easy checkout process would have features like a short form to fill out, guest checkout options, multiple options for paying, and a complete cart summary.
Your checkout page must respond quickly, and it should not be slow. By improving the checkout experience of your customers, you will have increased future sales and your customers will keep coming back.
Sharing Option
Most eCommerce websites have a share feature, and it is an important part of their design. You can put short links with a share option that allows your customers to let others know about your products. Today, a webpage share feature is a huge advantage because people always use social media. Your website should also be optimized for mobile devices because most users use their smartphones to visit your page. They should get the same list of products even if they are using their phones, and it should not lag.
Many businesses actively monitor the performance of their website on mobile phones because a lot of sales come from there as well. The share feature should be for social media platforms, e-mail, SMS, and more.
Now that you know the most basic and important elements of an eCommerce website, you can already make an excellent one. Keep in mind that you should not copy anything from other websites, but these are the basic elements you must have. Take note that good website design definitely drives more customers, as long as every feature is present. To know more about this, you can contact our Singapore web developers.
