The growth of e-commerce has been significant in recent years, with consumers redirecting their spending from travel and entertainment to online purchases. During the onset of the pandemic in 2020, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported a 31.8% increase in e-commerce.
With more and more purchases happening exclusively online, many businesses seized the opportunity to create their own e-commerce websites for their brands. While simply having an e-commerce store may be enough for consumers to notice your brand, there are certain features of e-commerce websites that should be considered to achieve and accelerate revenue growth.
In this blog, we cover the following topics:
Getting Started: Should You Create an E-commerce Website for Your Business?
Understanding the category your business falls into helps in building a comprehensive e-commerce marketing strategy, allowing you to identify focus areas, opportunities, and threats.
Business Models Creating E-commerce Websites:
- Business to Consumer (B2C):
- Most common e-commerce model where businesses sell products or services directly to end-users.
- Examples include online stores selling clothing, cleaning supplies, groceries, or cinema tickets.
- Business to Business (B2B):
- Businesses sell products to other businesses, often with the buyer acting as an intermediary reselling the product or service to the end consumer.
- Typically involves higher order values and more recurring transactions.
- Consumer to Business (C2B):
- Individuals sell products or services to larger companies.
- Increasingly seen with freelancers and social media influencers offering competitive pricing compared to traditional companies.
- Consumer to Consumer (C2C):
- Consumers interact with each other to trade goods and services.
- Online platforms like Craigslist and eBay dominate this model, though it may have quality assurance drawbacks.
Improving Your E-commerce Store:
While working with an e-commerce web design service can be beneficial, understanding what makes the best e-commerce websites is crucial. Here are key considerations:
- User-Friendly Design:
- Ensure your e-commerce website is easy to navigate, providing a seamless user experience.
- Key elements include a direct homepage, a search bar, and clear product or service categories.
- Multiple and Flexible Payment Options:
- Combat cart abandonment by offering various payment options.
- Accept credit cards, gift cards, and consider popular options like Amazon Payments.
These are just a few aspects to consider when improving your e-commerce website. Implementing an effective e-commerce marketing strategy, coupled with SEO best practices, will make your content more visible on search engine results pages (SERPs).
By understanding your business category and incorporating user-friendly design and flexible payment options, you can enhance your e-commerce website and provide a better shopping experience for your customers.
various essential aspects of running an e-commerce store. Here is the translated version:
- Payment Gateways:
- Amazon is considered one of the best e-commerce platforms due to its comprehensive features.
- Small businesses can easily integrate payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal to accept credit cards, bank transfers, vouchers, e-wallets, and other payment options.
- It’s advisable to include a feature allowing consumers to securely save their payment details for future transactions.
- Customer Service:
- Offering accessible customer support is crucial for increasing return on investment (ROI) in e-commerce.
- Integration of chat plugins, such as Zendesk, Olark, HubSpot, Tidio, or LiveChat, enables real-time interaction with online store visitors, reducing additional support costs.
- Features like automated ticketing systems, prepared responses, reports, AI chatbots, and multi-channel support enhance customer service.
- Reviews and Comments:
- Customer reviews play a vital role in the online purchasing decision, as consumers rely on them in the absence of physically testing or viewing products.
- E-commerce websites should include sections for authentic product reviews, and some even add Q&A sections for customer interaction.
- It’s recommended not to leave comments unanswered, and reputation management services like Rize Reviews can help manage this aspect.
- Mobile Compatibility:
- With a significant percentage of e-commerce transactions occurring on mobile devices, having a responsive website design is crucial.
- Utilizing mobile-friendly templates or themes is advised to enhance the mobile user experience.
- Loyalty Programs:
- Creating a personalized experience through loyalty programs, where loyal customers enjoy special prices, deals, and additional features, can enhance customer satisfaction.
- Promoting loyalty program benefits through strategic marketing and incorporating discounts in pay-per-click (PPC) ads can further engage customers.
- Product Information:
- Product pages should include simple yet detailed descriptions, covering materials, color, dimensions, components, origin, and more.
- Anticipating and answering potential customer questions in this section is important.
- High-quality images and videos of the products should be included.
- Choosing the Right E-commerce Web Design Company:
- Finding a suitable web design company for e-commerce is crucial for implementing these vital features effectively.
By considering and implementing these features, e-commerce businesses can enhance their online presence and improve the overall customer experience, ultimately leading to increased ROI.