Unwritten Rules for eCommerce Website Owners That Shouldn't Be Ignored

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September 4, 2020 Business, Web development

How to convert website visitors into paying customers? – this is the biggest challenge all eCommerce business owners face. Besides providing quality products that are in demand, the best way to accomplish this is by making sure that people who are visiting your website can find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

eCommerce website development is different from creating any other website. It’s a complex development process requiring well-versed developers who have hands-on practice. For that reason, hiring a professional WordPress web development company might be the best solution.

So, what are actually the essentials for creating a good eCommerce platform? Following are 7 tips that will help you make the customer journey as pleasant and rewarding as possible.

1. Make Navigation Easy

In order to entice visitors to make a purchase, you need to make it easy for them to find what they’re looking for. Conduct research to find out which categories your target audience finds the most important. Then, based on the results, create logical categories and subcategories. If possible, put size or color variations on every product page to reduce clutter and make navigation easier.

For additional ease of navigation, use breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are a visual trail, like a progress bar, that allows visitors to see where they are in the process of performing a certain action, for instance: login – shipping info – billing info – review and pay – purchase complete.

2. Keep the Layout Clean

Your website’s layout needs to be clean and simple. Put the essential elements, like price, product code, short description, size/color options, video and photo gallery, as well as rating summary, above the fold, and use the remainder of the page to provide extra info like shopping options and reviews.

In addition, be careful with the colors you’re using. While colors can be great for adding emphasis and evoking emotions, too many of them can make your website look chaotic and create confusion. Restrict the color variations to 3 primary colors that match your brand and product(s). Use your brand colors as well as their shades, and try to keep them consistent throughout the entire site.

Experts also recommend considering color psychology. For example, green can signal an eco-friendly company while blue is trustworthy and calming (no wonder it is the color of choice of some of the most successful companies like Facebook, Dell, Ford, Bank of America, etc.)

3. Ensure That Text is Easy to Read

Well-written, helpful text can help you sell more products, but it needs to be readable.

First and foremost, make sure there’s high contrast between the background and the text so people can read it without a problem. Next, ensure that the copy is big enough to be easily read on all devices. Finally, ensure that the line spacing is big enough as well and there’s some white spacing between the lines.

4. Use Quality Images and Videos

Use good-quality images that show your products from different angles and give your customers a clear idea of what they are buying. The more info you provide via images, the easier it is for customers to make a buying decision.

Integrated video can be hugely beneficial for eCommerce websites, especially when it comes to showing off products or video blogs for brand identity.

However, when it comes to managing an eCommerce store, it is important to consider the best way to integrate product videos. There’s a number of video hosting sites that offer data storage and provide you with access to rich video editing tools. Choosing the best video hosting site will depend on the cost, ease of use, and the features you are looking for.

5. Provide a Simple Checkout Process

According to stats, the highest drop-off point for eCommerce is at checkout. The most common reason for this isn’t customer indecisiveness but confusing and complex checkout.

Make sure your checkout process is simple by reducing the number of steps required in order to make a purchase. Allow users to add items to the shopping cart directly from the category sections and to review products without having to navigate away from the main page. In addition, don’t make account creation mandatory and allow them to shop as a guest. Also, consider offering various payment options and include ones that speed up the checkout process, such as Android Pay, Apple Pay, and PayPal’s OneTouch.

Finally, if you’re a subscription-based eCommerce brand, consider using a failed payment recovery service. Failed payments can cause stress for eCommerce website owners but keeping your cool and calmly handling the situation can help turn things around, and create a positive outcome for you and your customers.

6. Check Your Site’s Loading Time

Nothing makes visitors bounce more than slow-loading website pages. Today’s shoppers aren’t in the mood for waiting around and if your site takes ages to load, they’ll just go to your competitors. Studies have shown that 40% of shoppers will leave a website that takes more than 3-4 seconds to load.

Needless to say, slow page loading speed equals lowered conversions. To be more precise, just a 1-second delay in page response could reduce conversion rates by up to 7%.

To make sure your loading times are fast enough, consider trimming down and cleaning up your code. In addition, compress large images as they take a while to load. Finally, consider responsive design, which adapts your website’s design to look great on any device.

7. Offer Virtual Support

Consider live chat or chatbots with predictive technology to provide assistance and anticipate consumers’ needs. Shoppers aren’t going to wait around for an email response or in a phone queue to ask questions about a product they’re considering. If they can’t get an answer quickly, they will leave your e-store and look elsewhere. Besides providing instant help chatbots and customer service agents can also offer personalized recommendations that get customers past the hump and close the sale.

Final Thoughts

Running a successful eCommerce store is not an easy task. Luckily, you can do many things to improve your chances of driving sales and keeping your customers coming back for more.

Hopefully, these 7 tips will find their way to your e-store and make it an even better place to shop.