So you wish to sell products online? Here’s what you need to know, in order to have an effective E-commerce website.

Make the purchase process hassle-free. Effective e-commerce sites make it as easy for customers to complete transactions by eliminating the difficulties they might encounter upon placing an order and during the payment process. Don’t make them abandon you for the competition because you made their task difficult. Many people cite overly complicated navigation or too many pages in the purchase path as reasons they don’t complete their online sale or abandon their shopping cart.

This has nothing to do with creating an app or mobile site. Nowadays your customers crave mobile responsiveness. The number of people browsing the web on mobile devices has greatly increased over the years. People want to have an access to anything using their phones wherever they are. So if your website is not responsive to different screen sizes you will have a tough time pleasing customers. It’s very much important to be accessible to customers on whatever device they are using. Having a mobile-friendly website enables you to increase sales as it offers convenience to visitors and returning customers.

Product pages are the doorways that lead to revenue and conversions for e-commerce. A good e-commerce product page plays a vital role in converting a visitor to a customer. Most e-commerce businesses, therefore, invest more of their precious time and money in making their product pages more attractive and persuasive.

But then, how do you do this?

Product photography is one of the most important aspects of your e-commerce site. It contributes a lot to increase conversions and sales. Since a buyer cannot see or touch a product in person, an e-commerce website should always provide high-quality photos that provide a potential customer with plenty of detail.

For product page images, you should be mindful of download times. You need to keep in mind that not everyone has a super-fast Internet connection and that high load time can negatively affect the bottom line.

“A two-second delay in load time during a transaction results in abandonment rates of up to 87 percent. This is significantly higher than the average abandonment rate of 70 percent.”

Use multiple images clicked from different angles to give the overall look of the product.

A zoom feature for product images is a must in an e-commerce website. Nobody buys a product without looking in detail into it, and since a buyer cannot see or touch the product in person, an e-commerce website should always provide a zoom feature to allow visitors to see the products in minute detail. Only when they examined the product thoroughly they will be able to make an informed decision and feel happy about it. Also, product images must be of a high quality so that they do not get blurred when zoomed in and out.

Every good e-commerce site should ensure that product descriptions are clear, and that product specifications are accurately represented.

Optimize them for Search. Keep product descriptions short and make sure to include important keywords so that the page ranks well in search engine rankings

Many times, if a product has been discounted, the product page shows the original price along with the discounted price. This is a smart trick used by marketers to cash in on the loss aversion tendency of people.

When it comes to business, Reviews and testimonials are proven effective to win the trust of the customers.

The addition of ratings and reviews to your webpage would really help in winning the trust of the consumers, especially in e-commerce because the payments are done virtually. As per reports, 79% of consumers trust online reviews. Customers not only purchase products from your website, but also recommend it to their family and friend, and sometimes they even share it on social media. These positive words of mouth can add a great deal of value to your site.

Some of the website owners prefer not to add a review section because they fear the negative comments that will affect their business. The key here is not to fear the negative feedbacks instead use it to improve your product or service.

Product review is a ‘must-have’ feature on any e-commerce site today.

“Lengthy checkout processes make 10% of people abandon their shopping carts.“

User experience on e-commerce sites is critical to success. If the checkout process involves too many steps or is confusing, shoppers will wind up abandoning their cart with items left unpurchased. Ideally, the checkout section should involve a minimal amount of steps and should be as easy as possible for shoppers.

Information like city and state based on the user’s zip code is pre-filled and includes a checkmark that pre-fills the billing address when it’s the same as the shipping location.

When it comes to e-commerce, the more payment methods you offer the better. Your customers are all different and they all have special needs and preferences. Some customers will use a Visa, some will want to use Mastercard. Paypal and other services are becoming extremely popular as are secondary credit card companies like Discover. Don’t let a situation happen where you lose a potential sale just because you don’t offer that kind of payment.

If you have an e-commerce site you can also consider selling world-wide. Allow payments in multiple currencies!

You can’t expect customers right away after releasing your e-commerce site. You need to come up with a strategy first and E-mail marketing the answer.

Email marketing is the foundation of effective e-commerce marketing strategies. Based on studies conducted, over 72% of people prefer to receive any promotional content through their emails.

Use an email marketing campaign to keep in contact with your customers, send them helpful information and sell your products.

What Comprises An Effective E-Commerce Website?

Functionalities