Introduction
You’re ready to launch your eCommerce business! But before you can make your dreams a reality, there are some essential eCommerce website features you need to succeed. Whether you’re designing it yourself or hiring a professional web development team, understanding the basic requirements of a successful eCommerce website development is key.
Having the right website features can make or break your online store’s success. A good eCommerce site should be easy to use and have all the right information available to customers in order to make their purchase decisions. With the right features, you can optimize the customer experience while also increasing conversions and sales.
So what makes an eCommerce site great? Here are the top 10 website features that you need for maximum success – keep reading as we explore these must-haves in more detail!
1. Responsive Design
When it comes to building an ecommerce website, responsive design should be at the top of your list. Responsive design means that your website is optimized for users no matter what kind of device they’re using. This could mean anything from a laptop, to a mobile phone, to a tablet. Having a responsive design gives customers access to your site no matter where they are or how they’re viewing the site, giving them more control and convenience.
When you have a website that’s not optimized for different devices, it can lead customers to have slow page load times and difficult navigation experiences. This will make them more likely to abandon their carts or leave the page altogether! With a website that has responsive design, you’ll be able to ensure customers get the best experience as possible on any kind of device – ensuring maximum success for your ecommerce store.
2. Easy Navigation
When it comes to your eCommerce website, one of the most important features is easy navigation. Think of it as a map to your store that helps customers find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. If a web visitor can’t find or understand how to get from Point A to Point B, chances are they’ll abandon their shopping cart and leave your website.
Having an intuitive design with categorized products, helpful search filters, and short loading times will make a huge difference in helping attract potential customers. Make sure your navigation bar is clearly visible at the top of the page and your webpages are optimized for both desktop and mobile use.
Don’t forget to include search options with keyword autocomplete—this helps shoppers find what they need without needing to manually enter in search terms every time. As an added bonus, you can also have advanced search options that allow customers to refine results by product size or color, giving them the ability to effortlessly locate what they’re looking for in no time!
3. Product Reviews and Ratings
Product reviews and ratings are essential for gaining customers’ trust, as well as improving your store’s visibility. People rely on others’ reviews to decide if they like a product. As such, it is essential to have a feature that lets customers rate products, include photos and write reviews.
An effective way to encourage customers to post reviews is by incentivizing them with discounts or rewards in exchange for their feedback. Additionally, you should make sure that customers can easily access product reviews when visiting a product page.
Another aspect of rating and review systems is the ability for the website owner to respond to customer feedback, which shows the visitor that you value their opinion. This will help increase customer satisfaction, build relationships with customers, and potentially fix any problems they might have encountered while using your ecommerce website.
In summary, having a rating and review system on your eCommerce website is essential in order to gain customer trust and improve visibility. Additionally, incentivizing customers with discounts or rewards in exchange for their feedback can help increase engagement and response rate. Last but not least, make sure you show visitors that you are paying attention by responding to customer feedback.
4. Social Proof and Customer Testimonials
Social proof is the idea that people are more likely to make a purchase if they see that other people have already made a purchase. That’s why it’s a great idea to add customer reviews and testimonials to your eCommerce website—it gives potential customers the reassurance they need to feel confident in making a purchase.
You can also supplement customer testimonials with social media integration. For instance, integrating Instagram allows customers to share their products on their own personal feeds and tag your eCommerce website—allowing you to gain additional exposure, as well as leverage existing buyers’ credentials.
Including social proof and customer testimonials on your eCommerce website ensures customers that they will be making an informed decision when making a purchase from your business. By introducing this level of trust, you create an environment conducive for conversion. Here are a few ways you can include social proof:
- Customer reviews/testimonials displayed on individual product pages
- Badges from review websites like Trustpilot or Yelp
- Sharing buttons for customers to post products on their own social media
- User generated content such as images/videos of customers using the product
5. Abandoned Cart Reminders
Think about how often you’ve had items in your shopping cart that you didn’t end up purchasing. Chances are, it’s happened more times than you can remember. Just because a customer didn’t purchase something from your website doesn’t mean they won’t come back. That’s why abandoned cart reminders are so important!
Adding abandoned cart reminder notifications to your ecommerce website is an effective way to capitalize on the lost opportunity when a customer does not complete their purchase. If configured properly, this automated feature can even include parameterized product links to make it easier for the user to return and pick up where they left off.
Plus, with the right technology, it’s easy to make abandoned cart reminders personalized and dynamic. This allows you to tailor the messaging for each customer and offer discounts or incentives unique to them like free shipping or an extra discount on their order.
Thanks to technology, abandoned cart reminders don’t have to be generic, one size fits all messages either. You can add images of the products customers left in their shopping carts for a more personal touch, or let customers know about limited time offers and coupon codes exclusive to them.
Abandoned cart reminders are no doubt a powerful tool for ecommerce success — when used correctly, these notifications can help give your sales an extra boost!
6. Product Search Functionality
It’s no secret that Product Search is one of the most important features of any eCommerce website. After all, customers want to quickly find what they need and proceed to checkout.
To ensure maximum success for your eCommerce website, here are some must-have product search functionalities:
Query Autocomplete
Autocomplete capabilities are essential for improving the user experience and cutting down the search time for customers. It allows customers to identify queries faster, so they don’t have to type in their entire query. This means they get to the product page quicker and can check out faster.
Keyword Search
Customers should be able to input keywords and get relevant results with filters such as price, color, and style. Not only do keyword searches make it easier for customers to find what they’re looking for; it also helps improve page ranking as search engines are better able to crawl pages with relevant keywords.
Multi-language Search Capabilities
If your eCommerce website caters to customers that speak multiple languages, it makes sense to integrate a multi-lingual search feature. This will allow them to search products in their language of choice and make more informed purchasing decisions.
With these features in place on your eCommerce website, you’ll be able to maximize customer satisfaction while driving more sales—definitely something worth striving towards!
7. High Quality Product Images
If you’re looking to maximize success with an ecommerce website, you can’t ignore product images. A picture really is worth a thousand words and the better your product images are, the higher likelihood of conversions.
High quality product images are key for three primary reasons:
- Product Quality Evidence: Quality product images help customers determine if a product is worth buying. This is beneficial for both small businesses and bigger brands as it helps to establish trust and credibility with customers.
- Good Product Comparison Opportunities: Good quality pictures help customers to compare products in terms of features, size, color, etc., so that customers can make informed decisions about what to buy.
- Increased Visual Interest: Product images are the first thing potential customers will see when they land on your ecommerce website, so having high quality visuals will increase visual interest and engage them more in shopping.
When it comes to selecting your product images, always go with high resolution ones that accurately represent the products— that means shooting them on a white backdrop or real life settings without any filters or video effects as these may give misleading representations of the products. So don’t skimp on quality here— investing in great visuals is always going to be worth it!
8. Shipping and Delivery Information
When it comes to ecommerce websites, having a clear and easy to find Shipping and Delivery page is a must. It’s vital that customers understand all the options for getting their items, as well as the cost and expected delivery time.
Shipping Options
Your Shipping page should include options like standard shipping and express delivery, so customers can choose which one is best for them. If you offer free shipping on certain orders, mention that too!
Delivery Times
Include an estimated timeline based on shipping location, so customers know when their order will arrive—this is especially helpful if you offer pre-order items or print-on-demand services. Noting any holidays or other exceptions is also important.
Returns and Exchanges
You should also include information about your returns policy and how exchanges can be handled. Explain any applicable fees or processing times customers should expect, so they know what to anticipate when sending something back.
These are just some of the features you need on an ecommerce website for maximum success. With clear Shipping and Delivery info, customers will feel confident about their purchase decisions!
9. Security Features
Security is another important feature when it comes to eCommerce websites. From customers inputting their payment information to you safely collecting and storing customer data, the security of all transactions is paramount to a successful, trustworthy website. To ensure that your customers feel safe using your website, some important eCommerce website features should include:
SSL Certificates
These certificates are essential for encrypting data passed between your customer’s browser and your ecommerce servers. This means even if the data is intercepted, it cannot be read without the encryption key. An SSL certificate is also a must have for PCI compliance if you handle customers’ credit card and debit card numbers.
Payment Gateways
This is what enables customers to pay online using various secure methods such as PayPal and Stripe. As these companies are trusted payment providers, customers feel secure knowing that their payment details are being accepted by a secure third party. Customers also prefer buying from sites that use popular payment gateways rather than an unknown system.
HTTPS Protocols
These protocols provide secure communication over the internet between two systems and add an extra layer of security against attackers stealing sensitive customer data such as username, passwords, or credit card information during the transmission process.
Having strong security measures in place will give your customers peace of mind to trust your website with their personal payments and allow you to grow a successful ecommerce business.
10. Data Tracking and Analytics
You may be building an eCommerce site, but don’t forget about the importance of data tracking and analytics. While running your website, it’s essential to be able to track the success of your efforts. Data tracking and analytics will provide you with insights into where visitors are coming from, what they do when they get to your site, and their behaviors when they’re there. This information can show you which pages bring in the most clicks, which products are most popular, and which pages need better optimization—all details that are vital for success.
Having a tool like Google Analytics installed in your eCommerce website will enable you to see real-time data about how visitors are interacting with your store. This includes the ability to track page views, average time on page, bounce rate, and other key metrics. You can also monitor conversions and assign goals for each user action (like adding items to their cart or completing a purchase). The more data you have available at any given time, the better decisions you can make when it comes to optimizing your store for maximum success.
Conclusion
It’s easy to get caught up in the details of your eCommerce website, but at the end of the day, having the right features is what will make or break your online store. The top 10 eCommerce website features discussed here — from customizability and scalability, to payment security and a great user experience — are essential to having an online store that really shines.
When you’re ready to get started building your eCommerce website, make sure you have all the right features — with the help of Celestiq’s expert eCommerce website development services, your online business is sure to be a success!
