Since the last 2 decades, the world has witnessed a huge transformation in the ways of conducting business, especially e-commerce.
Yes, from startups to small businesses and to the big brands, there are a huge number of companies that have already benefited from their e-commerce websites.
An e-commerce website can help any kind and any scale of business to grow their sales by setting up a website and start selling their products & services online.
But the question is “Does it take only the website development to start selling?“.
Well, the answer is ‘No’.
You don’t need just a website, but you need a profitable website.
Today anybody can set up a basic e-commerce store cost-effectively by hiring an affordable WordPress developer. But that’s not the end of the story.
You do need to enhance your e-commerce website design in order to fetch more sales & customers. Most webmasters learn this fact the hard way from their own experiences & own investment.
Luckily, you don’t have to do that.
In this blog post, I’ve shared 8 essential elements that you must include in your e-commerce website design to facilitate your online shoppers and grab more sales.
Of course, these elements are not new in the industry and can be considered as basics, but they do work because not all e-commerce websites have these features in them.
So are you ready? Let’s dive in.
#1 Best sellers
I am sure you must have been to many e-commerce websites that have a section called “Best Sellers”.
The “Best Sellers” section could be a collection of popular & fast-running products from your store. You can display the best sellers section on the homepage of your e-commerce website.
Why do “Best Sellers” work?
Your customers don’t have to browse different pages of your website to see your best products.
Your homepage design looks impressive when you showcase your best products.
The ‘Best sellers’ section can help your online shoppers to save their time and make their buying decision quickly.
Does your e-commerce website design has a “Best Sellers” section?
If not, ask your website developer to do it now.
#2 Contact information
One of the main ingredients of a successful & trustworthy e-commerce website is trust.
The e-commerce websites that look trustworthy are more likely to engage their online shoppers & attract more sales.
There are several ways to make your e-commerce website look trustworthy. Displaying your contact details on all the pages of your website is one of them.
Yes, by showing your email or phone/hotline number on the header or footer of all the pages of your online store, you can show your customers that you are available for them, always!
So, when you hire a website developer to build your online store, you must ask him to add your contact details as an integral part of your e-commerce website design.
#3 Ratings & reviews
Ratings & reviews feature on any e-commerce website gives their existing customers a voice to share their experiences and their new customers a confidence to buy their products.
Did you know that more than 70% of online shoppers look for ratings & reviews from the existing users before they place their orders with any website?
Given this scenario, it’s even more than important to include a ratings & reviews section on your e-commerce store. Isn’t it?
Below are some of the major benefits of adding ratings & reviews to your e-commerce website design:
- Trust generation
- Get more sales
- Strengthening marketing efforts
- Boost SEO
#4 Search
Of course, a search bar is an indispensable element of any eCommerce website design. We all know that. But here I am talking about a robust search.
What’s a robust search and how it helps?
The robust search feature on an e-commerce website enhances its user experience by helping them to find their desired product(s) seamlessly.
How can your website developer integrate a robust search system?
Here are some of the ways in which a robust search can be applied to any e-commerce store:
- Merging the singular and plural search queries.
- Auto-suggesting the search query based on the users’ preferences.
- Showing recommended products if no results are found based on the users’ search query.
- Auto-filling the search queries to save users’ time.
#5 Price filter
The price filtration is yet another essential part of any successful e-commerce web design.
Most online shoppers have their preset budget and they always prefer to spend as much as their budget allows.
It could be therefore a great experience for your users if they can easily filter the products based on the cost.
In other words, when the users are able to filter the products according to their budget, they are more likely to make their buying decision quickly.
#6 Wishlist
If your e-commerce website design doesn’t have any place for a wishlist, you may be losing a lot of customers & sales.
Not all online shoppers are the same. Some of them may want to take immediate action and place their orders, while others may need some time to think about it.
For those shoppers who are not yet ready to place their orders, the wishlist feature works like a time-saver.
They can simply add their desired products to the wishlist bucket and next time when they visit the website, they can quickly make the payment and place their orders.
So the next time when you hire a website developer to create your online store, make sure that he includes the wishlist feature in his e-commerce website proposal.
Recommended post: 9 Important elements that your e-commerce web design quote must have
#7 Social sharing
Do you want to get more traffic without spending any money?
Go social!
Yes, social media platforms like Facebook & Instagram can open the floodgates of quality traffic to your e-commerce website.
All that you need to make sure of is that your webpages have social sharing widgets, especially on product pages.
If your products are good and shareworthy, believe me, your website users won’t hesitate to share them across their social networks.
As a result, you get more traffic to your website without spending any additional money on advertising & marketing.
So do make sure that your e-commerce website design already has placeholders for social sharing widgets on the product pages.
#8 Product zoom
The product zoom feature is an integral part of any e-commerce website design. We all know that.
But the question is “Has your eCommerce developer used an appropriate zoom-in model on your website?“.
If you are a frequent online shopper, you must have seen that some e-commerce websites show an enlarged version of the product when you click on the product image while other online stores show a magnified view when you mouseover the product images.
Which one is appropriate for your business?
Usually, for an apparel e-commerce store where the users want to see the texture of the material, the magnified view works well while for standard products such as grocery items, an enlarged version works well.