10 Essential Things Your E-Commerce Site Should Have

Do you want to create an Commerce project? Well, that’s a great idea! Modern trends show that people go shopping online ever more. The advantages of eCommerce are clear — it’s comfortable both for customers and businessmen. To give just one example of eShop advantages: if you have a store online, you don’t pay rent. This lets you invest more into project growth, and finally develop one of the best sites in eCommerce area.

Modern web technologies allow you to start an eCommerce website without involving any specialists. Sounds incredible, right? However, you can use many tools, and make a website from scratch yourself. Your best helpers in this case are CMSs. And even if you’ll have troubles creating a website, numerous tutorials will teach you efficient eCommerce project management fast and for free!

Key Features of E-Commerce Website

So, what are the most important features of eCommerce websites? If you have an online shop, you need a shopping cart, indeed. Studies show that if users add something to it, they will almost surely make a purchase. Also, payment systems are a must. The more you have, the better it is. Also, it’s extremely important to make a good start page for your website as it makes the first impression.

Successful E-Commerce — 10 Tips for a Good Site

You can do a lot to improve your online shop. Some small things can cardinally change your customers’ attitude. To give you some good tips, we have prepared a list of things you have to improve at your online shop to make it more interesting and reliable in the customers’ eyes. So, here they are:

1. Make Your Logo Eye-Catching

Your logo is your face. So, if you still have no logo, order something really unique. It should attract attention and stay in your customers’ memory. Even if you have a logo already, make it as visible as possible. Here we can’t give you adequate tips, as this is the job of designers, and they know really well how to make a logo catchy and notable.

2. Make an Impressive Start Page

Apart from logo, customers get the first impression from the start page. It’s really advisable that you place the most popular products of your shop here. This will give people a signal — they can find really popular goods here. Another strategy you can choose for the start page is putting top-class products on it. This will create an image of a really serious shop dealing with major brands and high quality products.

3. Place Tools Logically

The most important tools that you have on the website are tabs, login form, shopping cart, and search box. It is critically important that they are allocated according to traditional patterns. If you browse the web, you’ll see that most online shops have page category tabs in the upper part of their pages. This makes tabs more visible for customers. Also, don’t forget to put search box, login box and cart into the upper right corner — people always look for these tools there, and only there.

4. Attract Clients by Promos

Here is another good tip for your start page. Along with your products, we advise to put some teasers on the start page. This can be a Christmas promo, or a free shipping offer, or whatever your imagination can create. We also advise you to learn from your competitor, and see what offers they have on the start page. This can give you many good ideas for further promos.

5. Add Fresh News and Blog Posts

These points are really important for promoting your website. If customers like your online store, they will surely subscribe to your RSS, so you need some dynamic information. You can post info about fresh products, upcoming and current promos, or brand news. Also, making a blog will be good for SEO promotion. In blog posts you can share your experience about choosing good brands and products.

6. Use Social Media Wisely

Social media is an incredibly powerful tool that will help you in making a prosperous eCommerce project. First of all, add social media buttons to the sidebars and to every blog or news post. Then, use social media for promotion. Create accounts for your project on Twitter and Facebook (these two are the best for promotion), and make a couple of promos for every network. But this is only the start. Go deeper into social media management, and you will have even more success.

7. Support Clients Well

Many people have started shopping on the web not so long ago. This means they may be not really familiar with tools that may seem obvious for you. That’s why we advise to pay special attention to work with clients. Make a good contacts page. Moreover, if you have enough resources, make an online chat. Helping customers makes them extremely loyal to your company.

8. Use More Payment Systems

There’s a tremendous number of payment tools you can use at your shop. Obviously, the more of them you will accept, the more convenient it will be for your clients. It’s very important that you accept not only credit cards, but also online payment systems (like PayPal, Skrill or Google Checkout). And, of course, don’t forget to add logos of accepted payment systems to your website (mostly placed in the footer).

9. Make a Clear Store List

You already have real shops, and the website is only supporting them? Well, then you should work well with the store search tool. Help customers find your shop as fast as possible, and they’ll just love you! A built-in map is another good option — use it, if you have several shops in one city. Also, we advise you to avoid tables, as people don’t really like scrolling a lot in search of their nearest shop.

10. Prove Your Reliability

It is very good if you’ll show that shopping with you is safe and reliable. First of all, you can make a page with testimonials, and even post them in social networks. That will work for your positive image. However, if you want to prove you’re really serious, ask special trust rating companies to examine your website. If the results are positive, you can place a small banner at your page, and that will add even more trust to your eShop.

So, as you see, there’s quite a lot you have to do on the way to a successful eCommerce project. However, every task on our list is not really hard to complete. Improve your project gradually, and you’ll get permanent increases of customers’ trust and loyalty. For sure, your eCommerce project is worth showing it to the world. So, don’t hesitate and become a successful eBusinessman!