The best eCommerce websites feature far more than a collection of enticing products- they feature a delightful online shopping experience for their customers. If you’re looking to elevate the experience for anyone who visits your eCommerce website, you will have to modernize it and integrate new development, design ideas, and technologies to ensure that your website will perform at its peak capability.
By implementing the following features, you will be able to drive higher metrics and overall revenue through a drastically improved user experience, a competitive edge, and meaningful interactions across all touch points that are designed to impact the actions of the consumer.
Navigation that feels natural
Consumers find navigation struggles to be a major turnoff, which leads to site abandonment as a result. It’s not enough to just plop a search bar somewhere on the page, and it gets awkward when people visit your website on desktop only to be greeted with an interface that’s better-suited for mobile. Navigation on eCommerce websites (or any website for that matter) is expected to be intuitive. That is accomplished by making use of basic design elements, such as easy-to-read fonts, keeping navigation bars at the top of the fold, and arranging navigation by hierarchy. There are countless sites we come across that feature hamburger menus, which is fine, however it’s strongly recommended to simply keep menus visible at a glance if possible. Hamburger menus can oftentimes be a nonintuitive directive. Limit ads and avoid sidebars to avoid confusing visitors on your site.
Prominent CTAs
Be sure your website features tastefully worded and placed CTAs. They are crucial for numerous initiatives, including driving conversions, lead generation, and of course the collection of email addresses. The CTAs shouldn’t just be hyperlinked text. They ought to be surrounded by borders, made with bold and/or contrasting colors, and include verbiage with action words that will prompt a response. Some popular CTAs for eCommerce businesses include: Buy Now; Purchase Now; Learn More; Get Started; Add to Cart; Add to Wishlist; Sign Up; Checkout
Updated Items and General Content
Regularly keep your content on trend, current, and relevant. While you’re at it, consider important keywords, and featuring the best items when needed. This even applies to websites with limited items. If Christmas is around the corner, and you’re not necessarily introducing new merchandise for the holidays, you can still highlight items that are more festive-looking; are of traditional colors; or would simply make a great gift at an affordable price point. If your website includes a blog, post some enticing content that would easily be considered shareable across social media, such as a list of top 10 best Christmas gifts for that special someone.
Simplicity and security with processes
Try to limit things such as forms and the checkout process down to what is essential to complete them. Simply things as much as possible, by including auto-fill options, and not requiring potential customers to “join” before making a purchase. Include the option for customers to be able to save their shopping carts to help drive conversions. If relevant, include trust badges and security seals to help boost consumer trust.
SEO and general maintenance
Stay up-to-date on the basics of SEO, by being strategic with the inner workings of your website. Whenever tastefully possible, incorporate established keywords in titles, headers, content, and more. Make sure each of the images uploaded contain a unique URL. While at it, ensure that your site only has working quality links, title tags, and an accurate sitemap. Seek outside services if needed, to periodically check up on the maintenance of your website. You wouldn’t want to experience high bounce rates due to slow load times and faulty functionalities. There are even services out there such as Coralogix, that can help automate the combing through of websites to detect anomalies and point out severity levels of changes that need to be made to ensure a smoother website experience and for cybersecurity purposes.
Conversational AI
Conversational AI, such as chatbots, can assist with services such as personal shopping 24/7, or even manage basic customer service inquiries. Just be sure to have a solid strategy in place before you take this route.
Social Sharing
Incorporate social sharing buttons into your website and blog, because as you may already know, social media platforms play a huge role in driving customer awareness and traffic for brands.
Mobile responsiveness/website
eCommerce itself is quickly shifting towards becoming mobile commerce, and as such, your website should be optimized to be mobile-responsive. Better yet, offer a separate mobile experience altogether.
Implement these features to your eCommerce website, and you too can enjoy the benefits of staying ahead of the curve with technology.