Quick Summary:
Are you a marketing director or a small business owner planning to enter the eCommerce game? What features to look for in an eCommerce platform? Valuetree is here with this blog to walk you through what features to look for in an online store solution.
Many of us have had to transition to selling online or switch to eCommerce business post-pandemic. But for many, this transition could not be smoother.
With no prior knowledge or experience of eCommerce, business owners need help deciding which eCommerce platform will be the best for their business.
As a business owner, you want to make an informed decision because you are investing time and money at once. So, before investing money in an eCommerce platform, consider whether it provides these features. If yes, you have made a wise choice.
Key Features To Consider Before Choosing an ECommerce Platform
1. Extensibility
Every eCommerce store has unique needs that change or expand with time. Online e-commerce platforms offer essential features required to launch your e-commerce platform.
In the future, or with customers’ changing demands, you may need added features to meet those growing demands, such as additional payment and shipping methods.
You can get ready-made integrations to support your platform to solve this issue. These ready-made plugins and add-ons can be used or integrated with platforms like Optimizely, Shopify Plus, commerce tools, etc.
2. Simple to use
The E-Commerce platform should be simple and user-friendly for customers. People are too excited about shopping; if they find what they want quickly, they will continue for longer hours and be more likely to shop from the same platform again.
An eCommerce platform offering more straightforward navigation to features and different pages makes customers’ browsing experience much more delightful and memorable. So, organize features smoothly and friendly. Only put some features in one place, or your website will look cluttered.
3. Category Page
An eCommerce website offers many products for different people and various purposes. It will help if you organize those products into different categories—for instance, electronics, clothing, home accessories, etc.
It will make finding products and browsing for users more accessible. They can directly search in the category instead of browsing through thousands of products they want to avoid purchasing. The ease of shopping makes people stay and return to the website again.
4. Add to Cart
An eCommerce website is complete with a Shopping cart. Add to Cart allows users to add items from their shopping list and continue shopping. In other words, they can gather all the products from their shopping list in the Cart and proceed to checkout and payments. Ensure your Cart shows all product details, prices, quantities, and delivery charges.
5. Make it Appealing
A website or an online platform that is visually appealing to the user’s eyes has the upper hand over others. People look at the interface design in the first place, and if it appeals to them, they like to shop from those platforms. If you design a custom theme, ensure it is engaging, effective, and user-friendly. Also, you can choose a theme for your eCommerce website that goes well with your business brand colors.
6. A Simple Checkout
People tried browsing through the products on the website and adding all the products to the Cart. Now, at the time of checkout, if they don’t find a convenient payment option, all their efforts will go in vain. They may cancel the order and may not return it for future purchases. So, integrate enough payment gateways to your eCommerce website, including COD, card payment, net banking, Wallet payment, etc.
7. Compatibility
People shop using desktops, smartphones, and tablets, so ensure your eCommerce website is compatible with all devices and platforms. Many focus on making websites friendly for desktops, but nowadays, people search for everything on their smartphones first. So, make their shopping experiences on all devices equally delightful. Also, you can get more sales through all touchpoints.
8. Feedback
Online reviews and customer feedback are excellent ways to assess the performance of your eCommerce website. You can gather genuine customer comments and improve areas where necessary. The feedback feature enables users to share their feedback, queries, or complaints and receive a solution. Ensure you respond to every customer review, whether positive or negative. It gives them a sense of importance and respect. They also know that their queries will be answered.
9. Security
Cyberattacks are prevalent more than ever, and thus, your eCommerce website is more prone to cyber security threats. If your website gets hacked, it may pose a significant security threat to thousands of your user’s data and information.
Employ best security practices for your websites to avoid and withstand security attacks. Also, update your website timely and check for security loopholes or glitches. If you encounter any security glitches, resolve them immediately.
10. Scalability
Before creating an eCommerce store, every owner aims to expand its reach to new customers. More customers mean more user data, requests, and traffic.
Now, the question is, can your eCommerce website handle this increased traffic? It must be scalable to accommodate new and high traffic and user requests. Many companies also upgrade their eCommerce websites to integrate with existing systems, like warehouse management systems, in-store point-of-sale systems, etc.
11. Search Engine Optimization
You have created and launched your eCommerce website, but how will people find it? How will Google know about it? If you want Google to crawl and index your website and rank it in the top positions, ensure you have done your SEO correctly.
Choose a development platform that offers built-in SEO features like WordPress. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the proven way to gain organic traffic for your website and rank it in the top positions on Google.
Conclusion
With more users switching to online shopping, building an eCommerce website is a great way to earn huge revenues. However, opening an online eCommerce website or store requires attention to many things. From choosing a development platform to features, security, and third-party APIs and integrations, all this requires keen concentration and consideration.
Consider adding the features mentioned above to your eCommerce website to make it appealing to your users. The choice of the right development partner makes a huge difference. An experienced and reliable eCommerce development company will help you research your competitors and target audience and choose the right design, features, and technology stack for your website.
Have you planned to develop an eCommerce website? If you are looking for a trusted development partner, Valuetree can help you with our over a decade of experience in the domain. Let’s get in touch with us if you have any queries or want to hire dedicated eCommerce developers. Call us at +1 (312) 380-0911 or email on sales@valuetree.io to book a free consultation.
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