Essential Features on an E-commerce Site
“Shopping”- Do you think of a woman when you hear this word? Do you think it is a woman’s-only thing? You may be surprised to hear this but, you are wrong. It is not longer a woman’s-only area. Many men have taken up to shopping owing to the growing online sales, and lucrative price deals being offered by the various eCommerce portals. In fact, shopping has become a genderless, ageless phenomena, to be enjoyed by one and all.
In 1994, the term ‘Metrosexual’ was coined, which meant men who were meticulous about their appearances. These men spent a significant amount of time & money in grooming. These are the men who are targeted by the eCommerce sites for grooming & other products. These men are obviously geared up about their gadgets; but they are equally happy shopping for their clothes and other product. eCommerce sites are also targeting teenagers, parents and kids with diverse products and store types.
Hang in there, coz I am not going to talk about the advantages of online stores, as we are aware of how popular eStores are. We will discuss the essential features for eCommerce stores here. Setting up an E-commerce site, Surely there are no universal features or graphic options for setting up an eCommerce site. There are numerous essential functionalities that one should not ignore while creating an online store. Here, I will list out certain features that you should necessarily have on your online store.
Logical, Valid & Clear Logo:
For both, branded stores as well as startup shops, a logical, valid & clear logo acts as a business identity. Logos provide recognition to the customers and are a reassuring symbol and an element of trust and loyalty. A logo/symbol, along with an image or video content plays an important role for online stores, as it leaves an effective impact in the minds of the customer.User Registration & Login:
An option should be given for customers to register on your site, so when they do return they don’t need to enter all their billing and payment details again. This will give flexibility to your customers to quickly check out.Powerful Search:
Your store should have powerful & advanced search functionality. The Search box should be positioned well on the store, thus allowing your visitors to quickly search the product they are looking for.Freebies, Free Shipping, Deals:
Your store should have the capability of grabbing the attention of your visitor within seconds of their landing on your site. This activity is necessary because visitors usually decide quickly whether they like the website or not. If you are unable to retain their attention, they will jump to another store. Nothing attracts a shopper better than deals. Most users are known to shop during sales, and are ready to buy anything at the slashed rates.
Few are attracted by free shipping, few by the major concession — but almost everybody is interested in the promotional deals. Hence, discounts and special deal is the first thing your visitor would look for on your website. Captivating promises and unique prices encourage the visitors to spend a lot. So, it makes sense to position eye-catching banners with discount offers on the top of the home page of an online store.
You can always attract visitors to your store with free shipping. This will surely develop his interest towards your store. Purchasing the desired things on the Web without even any eye catching deals may prove to be cheaper than purchasing the same products offline by visiting the big brand stores.
Featured & Related Products:
You can display featured products on your home page which will communicate the top selling products on your store to the visitor. It could also be products that are being offered on deals, or general products that you wish to promote. These products placed on the featured products list get noticed by the visitors. Related Products is a great up selling feature. This will display your visitors regarding what other products they can buy along with the one they are currently viewing or looking for. This will be a smart way of highlighting this is with a title – ‘Customers who purchased this, also purchased’. This will push your visitors to purchase more than one item at once.Newsletter Subscription:
Allow users to enter their email address to stay updated with your offers, exciting deals, campaigns and promotions. This functionality will allow you to build your mailing list which you can use in marketing campaigns later.Clear Categories:
You should have clear categories on your website to list your products in. They should be displayed in a way that they can be easily accessed by the visitors. For example they can be displayed across the top or on the side columns.Essentials of Every Product Detail Page:
Actually there is no fixed no. of features that you must include on a particular product’s detail page for each eCommerce store. However below are the features which will help an E-commerce store to increase landing page conversion rates.- Product Title
- Product Image with Zooming feature
- Multiple Images with Thumbnail to navigate
- Product Video
- 360 Degree Views
- Add to Cart Button
- Product Price
- Product Availability or Inventory
- Payment Modes
- Clearly Stated Shipping Details
- Returns & Exchange Policies
- Product Details
- Variants of Products (Size, Colors)
- Ratings of Items
- Product Trustworthy Reviews
- Wishlist Button
- Compare Feature
- Trustmark
- Contact Modes
- Special Offers
- Provide Social Proof & Social Sharing Tools
- ‘People who liked this also liked…’ OR ‘Customers who purchased this also purchased…’
- Cross Selling & Up Selling
