Top 5 Features You Need for Successful eCommerce Website Development

When it comes to successful ecommerce website development, there are certain features that need to be there in order for your site to be a success. While you brainstorm what your ideal ecommerce or online store will look like, keep these important tips in mind.

1. Navigation

If you want to be able to sell products or services to visitors, then you have to make them easy to find. Easy and effective navigation is absolutely essential for any type of website, but this is particularly true for online sales. If a visitor can’t find what he or she is looking for, then you’ll lose them and the sale.

TIP: Microsoft conducted a study which showed that the first 10 seconds that anyone spends on a website are absolutely critical in terms of having a visitor stay on that site. Make sure that any visitor can find what they need within those 10 seconds.

2. Simplicity

A great looking website is no good if the design is overpowering the products or services that you’re trying to sell. Extravagant designs, while interesting and captivating, will do nothing for you if the primary focus isn’t on what you’re selling.

3. Make Checkouts Easy

Nothing’s worse than visiting an online store and not being able to find out either:

a) How to add an item to your cart, and/or

b) How to check out so you can pay

The easier you make the checkout process, the better. Try to keep the steps to a minimum and make the process as straightforward as possible. Otherwise you’ll end up with a ton of abandoned visitors from the cart.

TIP: If at all possible, allow visitors to purchase products without having to register. Allow them to pass through as a “guest” to complete purchases to increase sales and reduce abandoned carts.

4. Show Off Popular Products

One of the most profitable strategies that online stores can adopt is having an ecommerce site that features popular products. These can be “customer favourites”, “new product lines” or “sale items”. It’s also a good idea to frequently update that portion of your site so that repeat customers are still able to check out new products, services, and/or sales and promotions that you have going on.

5. Include Videos with your Products

Video marketing is becoming all the rage, and one will quickly see why when they see the increase in their conversion rates. ReelSEO reported recently that the online store Zappos recently enjoyed conversion increases of 6% to 30% for products that had accompanying videos showcasing the item. Ice.com also found video marketing to be incredibly profitable, discovering that those who chose to view a video for a product converted at a 400% increase than customers who didn’t view the video.

Some greats stats there, I hope we’ve got you thinking!

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