Whether you’re planning a brand-new eCommerce website or you’re looking to enhance an existing online store, your primary aim will be to delight your customers. It’s not enough just to get them there; you want to keep them engaged, help them to buy, and make them feel so at home they’ll want to return – with friends!
Take a look at our 10 must have features that are designed to make online shopping simply a pleasure.
1. Mobile-Friendly Online Shopping
Nearly 60% of online searches start on a mobile device. Click-through will most likely happen on that same mobile and your new customer will expect to find a mobile-friendly eCommerce store awaiting them. The online world is now largely mobile, so you need a responsive eCommerce web design, which gives you:
- A site that looks good on any device
- Easy mobile navigation
- Fast loading
2. User-Friendly Navigation
Online shoppers tend to be time-poor, so they head straight for the navigation bar to check out whether the site has what they’re looking for. Best advice, therefore – keep your navigation bar simple. Think carefully about your products menu; if your biggest sales line is cushions don’t hide them behind a ‘homeware’ tab. Try your navigation architecture out on some users before you commit to it – because that’s what your competitors do!
3. Include CTAs On Every Page
A call-to-action (CTA) is a button, ad, or line of text that prompts your eCommerce visitors or leads to take the next step towards becoming a customer. The job of an eCommerce web design is to offer help where it’s needed and prompt ‘next steps’ that guide shoppers towards a sale. CTAs shouldn’t bully or be aggressive. Their job is to offer the shopper value from your site.
4. High-Quality Product Photos
Images sell your products better than product descriptors, so it’s important to get your visuals right. If your shoppers were in a physical store, they’d probably want to touch or try on the product; your photos need to do the equivalent online. If you’re not happy with your product photos, get them retouched to improve the colour, focus and cropping.
5. Display Customer Reviews
Trust signals are an important factor for online sales. How can your customers know that they’re going to receive quality goods and customer service? Customer reviews are one of the most valuable ways to offer reassurance to hesitant shoppers. Don’t be bashful about displaying customer reviews on your eCommerce site; they demonstrate to visitors that you have a good track record and systems in place that can deliver on their expectations.
6. Make It Easy To Checkout
Statista reports that in Q2 of 2022, 80% of sales initiated on mobile devices were not completed https://www.statista.com/statistics/1254962/cart-abandonment-rate-in-the-uk/ That’s 8 out of 10 shoppers, with items in their shopping cart, leaving the site before paying. The most likely reasons for cart abandonment are:
- Additional costs – shipping, taxes, premium rates
- Account requirement – people don’t have time
- Poor returns policy – this should be frictionless
- Limited payment methods
7. Turn ‘Consumers’ Into Individuals
The data you hold about your customers can be used to offer them an engaging and valuable experience. Being recognised when you visit a website is important, and online shoppers respond positively to it. Being offered product recommendations, based on previous transactions, is also seen as a benefit by return customers.
8. Show Visitors You Care About Their Security
eCommerce sites collection data and vary out financial transactions. It’s important, therefore, to demonstrate the seriousness with which you take security at every level of your business. Ensure that your site has an SSL certificate and be transparent with visitors regarding your data collection policy. It can also be helpful to offer information for visitors about the safety measure they can put in place when shopping online.
9. Include FAQs
Take some time to think about all the questions your eCommerce store visitors may have about, for example, returns, privacy, shipping rates, payments, security. A clear and simple FAQ page saves busy online shoppers from having to get involved in messaging, or calling to find out the information they need.
10. Email Opt-In
Maybe your visitors couldn’t find what they wanted on this visit, but how do you get them to take another look? The option of an email subscription offering info about new products, or promotions, is popular with visitors. It’s also an effective way to achieve delayed conversions. MailChimp reports that subscriber emails have an average open rate of 15.68% https://mailchimp.com/en-gb/resources/email-marketing-benchmarks/ and a click rate of 2.01%.
Author Biog
Amanda is a researcher, copywriter, and digital marketing executive for Imagefix Design & Marketing. She has over a decade’s experience marketing for the public and private sectors. Amanda writes e-books, white papers, articles, blogs, and web content for a range of businesses and organisations.