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An e-Commerce website is one of the most viable businesses today. It is expected that by 2022, online shops will have earned around $638 billion, and that is in the United States alone.
For this we can thank consumers who prefer to do their transaction online. Most are getting their shopping and even their groceries needs through digital means like logging on a website or accessing a store’s mobile app. With that kind of prediction for the next couple of years, it means that the e-Commerce industry has no plans of slowing down.
This is why if you are a budding entrepreneur, you should take advantage of the industry’s growth and start your own e-Commerce. Of course, just like everything else, it is easier said than done. So here are e-Commerce website essentials you should know before you dive head on.
Intuitive user interface
There is nothing more annoying than a website that is too complicated to use. When a potential customer lands on your webpage, you do not want them to spend a majority of their time trying to figure out how your website works. It must be easy to understand where they can glean more information on your products and where they can check out what they have bought. Remember that ease of use means they can get to what they want faster. So make the purchasing funnel seamless.
High quality photos and videos
As consumers of media, we are all more visual now. Bullet points on the benefits of buying a product and positive social proofs are moot if the photos and videos that should aid the copy are low quality. You should post photos that really show how your product looks at different angles. A helpful video demo will also show how your products can work for your customers. But do make sure that they are only of the highest quality.
Mobile-friendly
Most consumers access websites on-the-go. This means that there is a big chance your e-Commerce store will be visited through various mobile devices. Your website should be fully mobile adaptive, meaning it adjusts its size and orientation the moment a user opens your website on their smartphones or tablets. To do this seamlessly, consider designing your website with a simple and clean layout.
Social proofing
User-generated reviews help potential customers make decisions. You should highlight reviews on all your webpages (which includes your website and your social media channels) to help build your reputation as a credible seller. Of course, this does not mean you should delete or hide negative reviews. In fact, most shoppers think that pages without constructive criticisms in their reviews are censoring some of their customers. Just make sure you respond to the negative reviews in a calm manner, and you should be fine with leaving them on your page.
Promos and discounts
Never hesitate to offer customers special offers when they purchase from you. This is a good way to motivate shoppers to keep browsing your inventory and make a purchase. Not only that, offer return customers an exclusive offer to strengthen seller-buyer relationship. There will come a time when that customer will not look at any other store, but yours alone.
Of course, when creating an e-Commerce website, make sure that you have your branding intact. A website that does not know how to market itself is going to look confusing. No matter how good your products look and how practical they seem, if your branding story is hard to understand, then you are going to lose audience interest.
You can do this by creating branding guidelines which starts with your mission and vision for your business. Then you must consider what domain name to use (and if you have bought one already, think about transferring a domain name to a hosting that can support an increase in traffic).
Make sure to keep these things in mind when you start your e-Commerce website, and keep tweaking them to fit your customer’s preferences.