With online shopping on the rise, businesses everywhere are trying to keep up and cash in. In order to stay competitive, building an eCommerce website is a good move for all retail stores. Although it is essentially just another website, eCommerce has a few key elements that set it apart. Here are 6 things you need to build a successful eCommerce website.
1. High Quality Product Images
Pictures are extremely important to any website. However, it is extra important for an eCommerce website. Potential buyers need to be able to see what they are buying. Customers rarely make a purchase without seeing the actual product. Showing your product from different angles and highlighting any important features will help your sales greatly.
Showing your products in real-life settings is also known to help generate sales. These are called “lifestyle” photos. This not only helps the customer see the product size in relation to the person and see it in action, but also is psychologically more engaging.
Additionally, the quality of the photos is also important. You may have a great product, but if the pictures look sloppy, you run the risk of visitors bouncing off your site. Your website represents your brand and your business. If you don’t take care in how your products are displayed, how can a buyer be sure that they will get what they paid for, that there will be support if anything goes wrong, or if their personal information will be safe?
2. Customer Ratings & Reviews
When people like your products and customer service, let them talk about it! Use the trust of past buyers to be a high-performing marketing asset. Letting past customers speak about your product will show credibility for your sale and will help the possible buyer see the information they need to make a decision.
3. Related Products & Upsells
This is the digital version of “Would you like fries with that?” Upselling and cross-selling is a good way to interest customers in complementary products. For every sale you make, there is a possibility of increasing the subtotal by some well-placed and well thought out product upsells and cross sells.
Now, this may seem “spammy” in nature, but it’s not depending on how you do it. The key to upselling and cross selling is that you offer upgrades and products that will add value to and improve your customer’s life.
4. Website Security
Website security should be a major concern when you are selling your products online. Not only is it a legal requirement, but having your site be the cause of stolen identities will be a brand killer. It is important to be PCI Compliant and let your customers know your site is safe for transactions.
Sending personal information over a website is something every person is weary of. There are always risks involved in online shopping, and everyone has it somewhere in the back of their minds. Highlighting that your website is secure and is protected by an SSL certificate will help users to be more comfortable with their purchase.
5. Site Speed
eCommerce sites have a lot of moving parts. As a person that is not familiar with code, you may not be overly aware of this. However, the images, advanced coding, content, and other elements in eCommerce will weigh down site speed.
This becomes a problem when a potential customer visits your site and winds up thinking it’s broken because of how it’s rendering. I am sure in your internet travels that you have gotten to a site that didn’t load quickly enough. You most likely navigated away. And as well you should! Any decent eCommerce store will be speedy and able to manage traffic and even the worst of WiFi connections.
6. Expand Your Merchant Accounts
Making the checkout process easier for the customer will always be important. With so many ways to pay online, it makes sense to offer more than one. If you only take the regular credit cards and not PayPal, you may be losing out on sales.
Expanding your merchant account is easy. And it’s an easy way to nab a sale that would have passed.
Start Selling Online!
Whether you have an eCommerce store or are building one, these features will help give you a boost. Our goal at Logic Web Media is to have you improve your web presence and your bottom line.