The pandemic pushed businesses away from the traditional models and accelerated the move to online first interactions. Ecommerce has changed the face of commerce. Despite that, most ecommerce websites will still fail.
Things to keep in mind when building a highly successful ecommerce website:
- User experience: A positive user experience is critical for the success of an ecommerce website. This includes making it easy for users to find and browse products, as well as making the checkout process smooth and efficient.
- Mobile-friendliness: With the increasing use of smartphones and tablets to access the internet, it is important to ensure that your ecommerce website is mobile-friendly. This means that it should be easy to read and navigate on smaller screens.
- Product images and descriptions: High-quality product images and detailed product descriptions are essential for an ecommerce website. Customers need to be able to see what they are buying, and having detailed descriptions of products can help them make an informed decision.
- Payment options: Offer a range of payment options to make it easy for customers to complete their purchase. This includes accepting credit cards, PayPal, and other popular payment methods.
- Security: Ecommerce websites handle sensitive financial information, so it is important to ensure that your website is secure. This includes using SSL encryption and keeping your website software up-to-date. Where possible, offload jeopardy to card processors and try, if at all possible, to never hold credit card numbers in your local databases.
- Shipping and returns: Clearly outline your shipping and returns policies to help customers understand what to expect when they make a purchase. During the pandemic, people used online buying as a trial system. They would buy several options (near sizes, near styles, colour variants) and then use the promise of free returns to send back what they didn’t like. That was bad for online retailers. It was also bad for the environment, as some large retailers wouldn’t return them to their inventory. Returns were destined for secondary markets and landfills. Do the math of what happens in 2/3 of your sales came back as refunds?
- Customer service: Provide excellent customer service by offering multiple channels for customers to contact you, such as phone, email, and live chat. Customer service– the human touch– is more critical online than you may think.
- Search engine optimization: Optimize your ecommerce website for search engines to help increase its visibility and drive traffic to your site. This includes using relevant keywords in product titles and descriptions, and optimizing your website’s meta tags and titles.
Retailers that focus on these key areas can build a highly successful ecommerce website that provides a positive user experience, build a solid reputation and draw in more sales.