21 Tips for a Successful E-Commerce Website
An eCommerce site helps you to connect with more customers, build your brand and ultimately drive more sales. As the eCommerce space gets increasingly competitive, your online store must be optimised for maximum conversion. Whether you already have an eCommerce site or are building a new one, you want your site to make customers take action. Our SEO and branding agency in Perth lists down 21 E-commerce tips for your E-commerce website to help you keep ahead of the game and be successful.
So, let’s see what are the 21 tips for a successful E-commerce website.
1. Fabulous Web design
Web design is critical when it comes to e-commerce. Good web design means using the right fonts, images, colours, text and graphics to convert visitors to leads. A user should be able to spot the CTA and product descriptions within 3 seconds. An e-commerce website should look good and drive visitors to take action and make a purchase as well.
2. Easy navigation
Make sure your top menu is coherent and easily navigable, with relevant categories like services, about, contact sections and also a Search Bar, so your customers can easily find what they’re looking for. At the same time, it is important not to stuff too many tabs in the menu. Use subcategories if you have a variety of products.
The easier your categories and pages are to navigate, the easier it will be for your clients to find what they’re seeking for. And this means more chances of business.
3. Add Search Bars
If you have a long product list, you must have a Search Bar in your online store. Auto-suggest will also be useful to a customer in quickly finding a product. Scrolling through endless product lists to find a product, can affect customer satisfaction, and cause conversion issues.
4. Use high-quality images
Using images in website increase conversions. If you want clients to buy your products, you need to show them what they’re buying. High-quality professional images of all your products can build confidence and trust in your customers and boost chances of purchase. The intention is for shoppers to imagine themselves owning your product, to picture themselves with it.
5. Use informative and brief product descriptions
Product descriptions should be short and informative at the same time. Product names can give only so much information and lengthy blocks of content can be boring and drive away customers. Highlight the key benefits; bullet points work wonderfully for informative pieces.
6. Get seals for your site to build trust
Add seals(logos that you can get from third parties) such as security seals issued by PayPal or any SSL seal or Anti-Virus companies seals. These seals must be visible to the visitors, so they will know your site is reliable and won’t scam them. This is a key component of any e-commerce site as it generates trust.
7. Multiple payment options
Provide customers with multiple payment options such as PayPal, Apple Pay, credit card and many more. Also, make sure your payment gateway stays on your site, so your customers feel safe and makes it easy for them to insert their information.
8. Keep the checkout process simple
Very often, customers abandon a purchase during checkout if it takes too long to complete the transaction. Every additional step increases the chance of cart abandonment. Ask for minimal information that is necessary for billing and shipping.
9. Focus on providing value to the customer
Incorporate useful information and content on the homepage that provides value to your customers. Make them feel at ease by informing about the benefits they will receive from your products.
Bullet points and crispy descriptions that are catchy and are easy to read will create interest. And also answer any possible questions in advance.
10. Include signup forms
Incorporate social media and email signup forms at the bottom or in the sidebar of your home page, to make it easily available for customers. Displaying contact information such as email addresses or phone numbers, or a chat box is also positive.
11. Display reviews and testimonials
Make the reviews and testimonials easily visible so visitors can see what other buyers think about the product. This helps the customers feel assured and to trust in your products.
12. Active communication
Make sure your site actively communicates to customers. Some of the most effective communicative means are:
- Trust seals
- Search bar
- Lots of call to actions
- Display product prices on the home page
- Show when items are about to run out or out of stock
- Emphasise urgency by using a banner offering a sale for a specific period
13. Do research
Think from your customer perspective; learn about your customers through interviews, ethnography and focus groups. Understand the way they use your website and apps through usability testing. And ensure that your electronic resources are fully accessible to everyone.
14. SEO
SEO is the perfect way to bring organic traffic to your site, as well as to improve your Quality Score with Google and help you rank higher in SERPs.
Some of the best SEO practices:
- Pick keywords that are related to your products.
- Optimise your website according to those products, by customising your homepage and landing pages using the targeted keywords.
- Customise all your product descriptions with the targeted keywords.
- Writing at least one blog post per week. This will boost credibility to your site and provide valuable content for customers.
- Write keywords in the Alt Text of all your images.
- Include backlinks in the different pages of your website.
- Customised Meta Title and Meta description
15. Run tests regularly
Run A/B tests regularly to know if your e-commerce pages are set up for the highest possible conversions. With this test will help determine which landing pages are driving the largest conversions. Based on the results, you can execute the necessary adjustments, increasing the chances of your success.
16. Email Marketing
Email marketing is an excellent marketing tool. Include a call to action box for customers to sign up for your newsletter and remember to give them value. You can do this by:
- Send Sales Alert
- Send blog posts
- Send free e-books related to what you sell
- Send discount coupons for future purchases
17. Exceptional Customer Service
Make sure all your contact details are easily visible for any visitor. Have a Contact page with all your information, from email to address, add a Buyer’s Guide, a chatbox and have a great FAQ page visible in all your product pages.
You need to also reply to customer queries without delay. You’ll see how this will help your conversions rate and brand reputation grow. Also, it would help if you were positive and professional while responding to negative reviews – how you reply helps in building or breaking customer trust.
18. Focus on content
A website lets you optimise each webpage for search, gain a dedicated space for your products and start a blog. Setting together an entire website can seem difficult and expensive, but it’s a great investment. It diversifies your revenue streams to protect your business and to have a direct route to your customer base.
19. Mobile optimisation
A recent survey showed that 62% of smartphone owners used their devices to complete online purchases. Making your e-commerce site to be optimised for mobile devices is a necessity.
Building a mobile app for your e-commerce shop is the ultimate way to personalise the customer shopping experience.
20. Be active on at least 3 platforms
For long-term business, the goal should be to own a thriving e-commerce business on at least 3 platforms. This way, you are diversifying, optimising, and future-proofing your business. And eventually, you’ll have robust revenue streams that aren’t dependent on a single platform.
21. Get Premium Web Hosting
So, here is the last but not the least of the tips for a successful E-commerce website.
Budget web hosting plans may seem attractive in the beginning, but can cost you sales in the long run. Speed is a primary factor when it comes to eCommerce. A delay in page loading or during purchase transactions can cause cart abandonment and low customer satisfaction.
With these 21 tips for a successful eCommerce Website, your business will not only get more conversions but will look more enticing. You don’t need to start working on all of them at the same time; prioritise what is important for your business and work towards the rest. Contact us today or email at sales@computingaustralia.group to find how we can create a fabulous site for you.
Jargon Buster
Web hosting – an online service that allows you to publish a website on the internet. A hosting provider allocates space on a webserver to let a website store its files.
Cart abandonment – when a customer adds products to a virtual cart, but leaves the site without completing the purchase.
by The Computing Australia Group