According to eMarketer, eCommerce sales will reach nearly $2.5 trillion by 2018! You too, have probably already entered the crazy world of E-Commerce if your company has an up and running website for your products. Maybe in the past few years or so you haven’t really given an upgrade or small improvements a thought because of how well your business is doing or how quickly your products tend to sell out. You might feel like any change made isn’t really worth the hassle and things are good the way they are, but what if a small improvement could end up giving you way more profit than what you are getting right now?
Your website is 50% the cause of attracting more potential customers that can reach you from anywhere at any time, but if proper functionality and “X Factor” is missing from the website, you won’t attract any new customers at all even if your products are good and may hinder in keeping your loyal customers who, after experiencing your faulty website, might never come back.
According to Core DNA, Great eCommerce sites have several pages in common:
- Home Page
- Category Page
- Product Page
- Checkout Page
Here are five elements you need to incorporate into your e-commerce website for more success and better profit:
1. Detailed yet Concise Product Descriptions
When customers come across your website to buy certain products, they’d like to read up on what they’re buying into. If the information provided next to the product seems confusing or not enough, they won’t buy it. Visit the pages on your website with the product info listed. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes who is looking to buy that certain product, and ask yourself what you would want to know. Check if all the important information worth knowing is listed. Describe the product thoroughly, considering that the other person knows nothing about it.
Sometimes while doing the above mentioned descriptive task, things tend to go overboard. You end up writing lengthy descriptions of the products and that’s never helpful. No one wants to read paragraphs on paragraphs to find the right information. Don’t overdo it, it’s not your college literature essay. Start by taking an attractive picture of the product that you might want to hire a product photographer for. The right all the specifications and highlight the features. You can add any additional information below for detailed information. This helps your customers because those who want a quick read can read the specifications and those who want to get more in-depth knowledge can read the description below. Never overdo it and keep the technical jargons to a minimum. You want to drive in more traffic, not scare it away.
2. The Luxury Of An Easy Checkout Process
When you go to the store, you pick what you want, add it in your basket, wait in line at the cashier’s, pay and check out! It’s as simple as that so why can’t the check out processes for websites be just as smooth and effective?
When the customers pick their product they are in a hurry to check out and get it done with so any process that takes more than 3 pages will annoy them. Reducing the number of pages is the effective way to get it done quickly and here are a few tips.
- Ask for the customer’s address, phone number and all shipment info when they make an account on the website.
- If the customer does not want to make an account and wants to make purchase as guest only then ask for shipping detail.
- Try to cram up the address details, shipping method and delivery service on the same page. There’s no point in saving extra free space on the web page.
- Ask for confirmation of order on the next page. More than 2 pages will frustrate the customer they will either leave without making an order or purchase the product but not return anytime soon.
3. Easy Navigation
What annoys customers anywhere is hassle and confusion. A confusing and difficult to navigate webpage can drive off a customer before you can say “sale!”
Easy navigation design is appreciated by almost everyone. Make sure your menu and categories are at a prominent place and named perfectly. They should be categorized according to type or can be categorized alphabetically. Also provide the option for location-based search. For example, if you offer Seo services in Orlando, lakemary and Miami, make separate pages for all three of them so that the orgaizations based and operating in the respective locations can contact you accordingly.
Give your users an easy way to access and find their way back to the home page where they can view your contact information or any other important detail.
Make sure the aesthetics of your website are well balanced and don’t irritate the eyes.
4. Ratings and Reviews
The most important feature that websites are now slowly adding is the review and rate section. A successful e commerce site should feel like a community where there is a mutually beneficial relationship between the owners and the customers. Displaying the review option allows your customers to buy your product, share their thoughts about it and recommend it to other customers as well. Adding the review section gives your website a genuine touch and the positive comments can attract future buyers so they are more curious to try out the product for themselves.
Many owners shy away from adding the open review and feedback option thinking that the customers might leave bad comments and may criticize the product. Well, why are you even running a business if you’re not confident about your product because if the product is bad or not good enough, it will ward off customers on its own.
If you’re still not sure whether you should add the review option or not, at least add the ‘rate’ option so customers can easily select the best products.
5. Wishlists and Price Filters
Wishlists and Price filters might seem like very mediocre options but they really enhance the customer’s experience. The wishlist option helps the customer pick out the products they like to view or order later if they don’t wish to order right away. This saves them the hassle of remembering and searching the product out again. The price filter makes it easier to categorize accordingly to the customer’s budget and makes shopping easier and efficient.
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