7 Must-have features for an effective online store

Jeff Bezos said:

“We see our customers as invited guests to a party, and we are the hosts. It’s our job every day to make every important aspect of the customer experience a little bit better.”

There are many aspects in the process of managing an online store, so what are the main ones?

Intuitive navigation

First of all, a clear message is essential. When a person visits a website, they need to understand what you are selling.

The site should be visually attractive and as convenient as possible for potential customers. Its interface should be intuitive to make it easy to find information on your site. To do this, you can implement a product catalog with easy navigation and filters, as well as search forms.

Informative product page with high-quality photos

Each owner of an online store must solve the problem of how to acquaint the buyer with the product in as much detail as possible. In e-commerce, high-resolution photos give this opportunity.

Presentation of products using high-quality photography allows the seller to increase the weight of their resource. The more detailed options you can present to a potential client, the better they will understand the value of the product and the fewer questions they will have. A detailed product demonstration also allows you to reduce the number of refusals and product returns.

Nowadays using high-resolution photos is a must as users have more and more devices with high-resolution screens, which makes small-sized photos look dull and lackluster. Over and above, high-resolution photos will allow you to integrate the zoom function into your online store. You can use Visual Merchandiser solution to enhance the presentation of your products.

Website mobile responsiveness

With the advent of smartphones and tablets, more and more buyers are looking for goods and services online using mobile devices. Why? It’s all about convenience. The buyer can visit the site on the go.

The only way to win the so-called e-competition is to be the most accessible, the easiest to find, and the easiest to interact with from any device to the majority of users.

Your task is to make the experience of using the mobile version of the site as user-friendly as possible if you want your sales to be high.

One of the best ways to make your website mobile-friendly are PWAs. Moreover, PWAs are the best way for developers to make their web applications load faster and perform better. The best thing about PWAs is that they don’t have the limitations that traditional apps have. This means that PWAs can be as progressive as possible and will run on all possible operating systems.

You can upgrade your store with the premade PWA solutions to enhance the shopping experience of your customers and boost revenue.

Customer reviews

One of the main reasons why businesses need online reviews is to help the customer make a choice in your favor. Before using the services of your company, it is important for potential customers to find out the opinion of other buyers about the product, as well as to find out what customers who have already received the service in the company think.

Reviews are searched for, they are read, they are trusted more than official sources. Buyers read the reviews because they do not want to be deceived and get a low-quality product.

According to searchengineland.com, 68 percent of people say positive customer reviews make them more likely to use your business. So don’t lose your potential customers — implement the reviews!

Clear price tags on the product and catalog page + variable payment options

It is important to make sure that the buyer understands the price tags in your store. If you have some kind of promotion for a product, then you can cross out the previous price and write a new one, indicating the size of the discount as a percentage.

Besides, do not forget to provide your customers with various methods of payment. Remember that not only the simplicity and convenience of the transaction is important to the payer, but also the size of the commission of intermediaries, as well as the safety of the payment method.

Make the payment process as convenient as possible by implementing as many payment methods as possible so that the user has a choice. You can find the most popular payment methods here and think about implementing them in your e-store.

Provide your customers with shipping info\options

Providing delivery info is an important point in running your online store.

You can inform buyers in advance about the possibility of free shipping to their region, as well as shipping options in a shorter time for an additional fee. Providing the opportunity to choose a delivery method, increases user loyalty and allows you to expand the geography of product distribution.

Here you can find information on one way to increase customer loyalty and provide cost-effective shipping for your e-commerce business — smart packaging.

FAQ and online chat for customer support

Before purchasing goods or services or making a decision to participate in any activity, a client or just a visitor may be puzzled by questions. The FAQ is one of the ways to provide them a fast answer. Moreover, FAQ eliminates the need to repeatedly answer common questions.

Having compiled a detailed FAQ, leave the opportunity to simply ask for help in the live chat.

Users love chats because even if a visitor has to wait a couple of minutes for a response, they can continue browsing the site without wasting time. A potential buyer feels more confident and more willing to get acquainted with the assortment, knowing that a specialist can help at any time. A positive customer support experience increases the average order value.

You can also find some tips for achieving success in e-commerce in 2021 and decide in which direction to develop your business.

We started with a quote. Let’s end the article in the same way.
“It takes months to find a customer… seconds to lose one.” — Vince Lombardi.

What did this guy mean? Only he knows. But it sounds like the truth. Make sure that the quality of your services is so high that no client is lost and you will be on top! (most likely)