Impressive designs are not enough to make your e- commerce website successful. If you decide to be smart and see what the successful ones are doing well, you’re sure to pick up some tips to improve your web store’s performance. In the world of online trading, innovations are always welcome, but the bulk of the impression will depend on just a few indispensible elements. When creating an e- commerce platform, or improving on one, business owners must think from the consumers’ perspective and ascertain that their website succeeds in delivering what the consumers precisely look. Read on to know the ingredients that can make your e- commerce flourish. Let’s spill the beans and tell you about the ‘indispensable elements’ that can eventually send the cash registers ringing with better customer conversion, retention and selling.
User friendly interface
A website that’s difficult to understand, cumbersome to navigate and has way too many graphics and unnecessary pop ups on the page stands good chance of being rejected by users. By and large, your users look forward to online shopping because of its ease, time- saving and hassle free nature. Thus, e- commerce should help facilitate the process and this is possible with a site that offers quick navigation, filters for enhanced search, quick payment options and everything else that makes your users comfortable being on your site for long. Remember, the longer you make them stay, the more stuff they’re likely to buy from you, but the longer you make them wait, they’d prefer moving out. So it’s important to understand the thin line between making them stay with a friendly interface and making them wait due to the cumbersomeness of the page. The number of users who shop using their mobile devices is growing, so make sure your website design and interface is compatible and accessible fully with these devices.
Visual appeal of your website
The first impression of your website goes a long way in determining its popularity and that’s one good reason why you should adorn your site with relevant and beautiful images wherever necessary. Make use of high quality images that attract users and you can also add options to zoom them or provide views from different angles. Such images will definitely make your customers more confident of the products they are interested in and compel them to add them to their wish list. At the same time, keep in mind not to clutter your pages with redundant pictures as they are likely to repel customers; remember-quality matters.
Increase your customers’ confidence
Online users generally worry more than offline buyers simply because they do not get to see the products in real time. To help your customers overcome their fears, you could incorporate few essentials in your e- commerce website to make them more convinced about shopping with you-
- Include a comments and reviews section – Understand that online buyers rely heavily on customer reviews about a given product. Thus make sure you make provision for the people who have dealt with you to write about the experience they’ve had with your services and product. A good service with fetch you good reviews and in return, more customers.
- Genuine descriptions – Every product catalog requires you to give a precise description of the product. If you try selling your products with fake and flashy descriptions, you may manage to lure some one- time buyers, but eventually your online store will collapse. So it is better to give a candid and transparent account of what you are selling.
- Display availability of product – It is usual for some goods to be out of stock for some reason or the other. Showing the availability or non availability of your goods in the catalogue page itself saves your buyers the trouble of proceeding with the shopping process, only to find in the final step that the product they’ve requested isn’t available with you.
- Transparency with cost – Sometimes, buyers need to pay more than what is mentioned as the cost of the product. These additional costs include taxes, shipping charges, etc. Different variants of a product may also vary in price. Hence, before making your users proceed to the payment gateway, give a detailed description of all the charges that they have to pay along with the price displayed in the catalogue. Hidden or unspecified costs only build suspicion and a feeling of insecurity.
- Guarantee/ warranty – All buyers are interested in knowing what would happen in case they received a damaged or non functional product. Highlighting the guarantee or warranty applicable to a product convinces them to go ahead with their choice. These days, most online stores also make provision for money- back or exchange facilities for a certain period in case the users are not satisfied. This increases trust and you expand faster as buyers leave behind their doubts and keep coming back to you.
Flexible payment options
The leading online stores have all possible ways to collect payment from buyers- credit card, debit card, net banking and so on. Cash on delivery is also a very convenient option that a lot of buyers prefer these days. Additions such as PayPal, etc. prove really helpful to e- commerce stores.
Shipment tracker
When your users place any orders, they are always curious to know the status of their shipment. Though you may assure them of timely delivery, etc., a shipment tracker is always a useful option to include in your e- commerce website. It keeps your customers updated about their order and adds value to your site.
Make logins simple
If at all you require your users to create login ids, simplify the task for them by making them log in with their email ids. This way they do not need to remember any user ids or user names. Of late, allowing your users to login with Facebook is also a much preferred way and it works well.
Progress bar display
Though having a progress bar on your site may seem like an unimportant idea, it proves to be a helpful addition since your customers can know how far they are from successfully placing their orders. Something like a choose- select payment option- pay- get shipment detail is helpful in making your customers understand that online shopping is actually easy and hassle free.
Customer service – the backbone of any business
This is one thing no buyer would want to compromise on. A quick and responsive customer service is a common feature of all successful businesses, not just the online ones. Thus it is imperative that you value your customers by providing all possible assistance through your website. You could make use of various options to address your users’ grievances- contact forms, live chat, call back services, etc. Make information related to your customer service contact very visible on your website. No matter what mode you adopt, make sure you make your customers feel important and leave no stone unturned to make them satisfied with their shopping experience with you. Assist them at every step of shopping- from choosing a suitable product to troubleshooting the payment procedure- a happy customer is more likely to bring in few more.
Create simple yet attractive e commerce sites to boost your sales with these useful elements which are sure shot means of grabbing more attention than a competitor site.
