A number of studies have shown that most modern users prefer mobile commerce apps over e-commerce websites. Therefore, eCommerce websites need to provide an optimal user experience to compete against their rivals and mobile commerce. To keep your web store visitors engaged and persuade them to buy your products and services, you need to consider a number of factors. In addition to the appearance and functionality of your website, you also need to look for ways to optimize the user experience. To optimize the website’s usability, you need to improve its accessibility, usability, security, credibility and visibility in search engines.
10 Things to Consider When Setting Up Your First E-commerce Website.
1) Users
When planning and developing your first e-commerce website, you need to take an in-depth look at users and their choices. Remember that in a web store, the customer cannot actually touch, feel or smell the products. Therefore, you need to grab their attention by making it quick and easy for them to shop. Offering products at a discounted price, free shipping, and simplifying the shopping and checkout process will always attract users.
2) Design
To make a good impression on visitors and capture their interest, you should also focus on the design and user interface of your E-commerce Website. Unlike an existing brand, you need to find ways to gain your visitors’ trust. Therefore, the design of your website should include a number of elements such as a recognizable logo, shopping information, product options, product reviews and testimonials, and calls to action. At the same time, you need to make sure that the look and feel of your eCommerce website is intuitive to make the buying process simple and straightforward.
3) Mobile Optimization
As mentioned earlier, many modern users prefer eCommerce apps over eCommerce websites. Similarly, most people nowadays access e-commerce sites through their smartphones, tablets, and phablets. Therefore, e-commerce websites need to provide an optimal user experience on both computers and mobile devices. With responsive web design, you can ensure that your web store looks good on any device with a single code base. Mobile optimization further increases the visibility of your website on the main search engine results pages (SERPs).
4) Social Elements.
To impress your users, you need to include a lot of social elements in your eCommerce website. Users should be able to share their purchases from your web store with their friends via popular social networks. Social elements also help users to promote your new eCommerce website and increase its popularity. Social elements can also be used as an efficient tool to collect information about your customers and track their behavior.
5) Search Box
An e-commerce website cannot display all the products on one page. However, you can always impress your visitors by showcasing your branded products first. You also need to allow your customers to search products by specific criteria or categories; the website must allow visitors to find relevant products without any delay or difficulty. Therefore, you need to make sure that your e-commerce website includes a robust search box. With a search box, users can find a specific product and buy it directly without having to click through a variety of products.
6) Shopping Cart
The choice of shopping cart has a direct impact on the usability of the eCommerce portal. You can choose from a number of open-source and commercial shopping carts written in a variety of programming languages. However, you need to choose shopping cart software that allows users to quickly and conveniently view their past and current purchases. It should also be easy to add and remove products. At the same time, it should increase the accessibility and visibility of the shopping cart by using commonly used simple shopping cart icons.
7) Payment Methods
Online payment methods vary from customer to customer. Some customers prefer to pay by debit/credit card or internet banking, while others opt for more common online payment methods such as PayPal or digital wallets. Therefore, we need to ensure that our customers can pay for their purchases using their chosen payment method. At the same time, we must keep our customers’ online payments and financial transactions secure by using reliable payment gateways and the latest encryption technology.
8) Trust Marks
It is important to remember that many people are skeptical about new e-commerce websites. Therefore, you need to find ways to increase the credibility of your e-commerce website and gain the trust of your customers. Not only should your web store have strong security features, but it should also have the accreditation certificates and trust seals of reputable brands. A seal of approval or accreditation certificate increases the credibility of your newly established web store. A trust seal also helps protect your customers’ personal information and ensures that their online transactions are 100% secure.
9) Ability to Answer Questions Before and After the Sale
When buying a product on a new eCommerce website, users may have a number of questions before and after the purchase. Therefore, you need to answer your customers’ questions before and after the purchase to increase your sales and revenue. As with any website, you can answer your customers’ pre-purchase and post-purchase questions either via online chat or phone. However, customers need to be able to see what options are available to them to clear their doubts and answer their questions. You need to ensure that the phone numbers and online chat options are clearly visible to every customer. Also, you should have qualified customer service representatives who can properly answer the questions of the website visitors before the sale and turn them into customers.
10) Visibility in Search Engines
By following the guidelines recommended by popular search engines like Google and Bing, you can easily redirect regular search engine traffic to your e-commerce website. For example, Google ranks websites based on criteria such as mobile-friendliness and load time. When planning your eCommerce website, you should consider the guidelines and recommendations of the major online search engines. A search engine optimized design will help you attract regular visitors to your website without the need for expensive digital marketing campaigns in the future.
To make your website popular in a short period of time, all the important aspects like user interface, functionality, performance, usability, security and user experience should be evaluated during the development phase of your e-commerce website. You can invest in analytics tools to understand the behavior and preferences of your website visitors using real-time information from various sources. However, it’s also important to keep your eCommerce website up-to-date with new technologies, Industry Trends and Customer Preferences.