The internet has brought about a lot of opportunities for businesses across the world. Even before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, online shopping had already taken root. What the pandemic did was accelerate the industry and make it more popular than ever before.
There’s a lot to gain when it comes to e-commerce, and businesses should take full advantage of it to increase their sales. This process starts by ensuring that you have a perfect website in place. Customers are always keen on the general appearance of a website. A poorly designed website is likely to turn away a customer.
As a business owner or an ecommerce website builder, there are certain things that you should take into consideration when creating an e-commerce website. One of the significant factors to consider is the features to include.
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Below are five handy features within e-commerce builders:
1. Streamlined navigation
The arrangement of your e-commerce website plays a big role in attracting customers. What if you went into a cluttered store with merchandise thrown everywhere without any particular order?
Would you enjoy shopping in such a place? That’s definitely not a good shopping experience.
Likewise, an online shopping website is similar to a messy and cluttered store. Having a great business name is okay, but you also need to ensure that the general appearance of your website is appealing. Customers should have an easy time navigating around.
2. Strong product photography
Most customers are never comfortable purchasing products that they can’t see. They want to ensure that they are spending their hard-earned money on something tangible. That’s probably the reason why e-commerce websites face stiff competition from brick and mortar shopping businesses.
A customer can easily pick up an item in a physical store and compare it with other products. But with online shopping, it is impossible to touch items.
3. Live chat
Customer service should always be a priority for every business. You have probably walked into several physical stores and been greeted by smiling employees. This is referred to as retail etiquette 101.
For e-commerce websites, a live chat can serve as a friendly and invisible friendly employee. You should use live chat to make customers visiting your site feel welcomed and comfortable.
4. Safe and easy check-out
Filling credit card information online can be scary for many customers. This is mainly because of the constant scamming incidents being experienced. There are always hackers on standby to take advantage of the slightest mistake you make.
As such, all e-commerce websites should do everything possible to ensure that they offer safe and secure checkout processes. If you don’t have experience or expertise in online retail security, you will have to use a hosted checkout.
5. Social proof
A majority of customers today rely on some kind of proof before purchasing items online. This is because they don’t know much about the people running different e-commerce platforms.
To build confidence and cast out doubt from first-time clients, you should include positive reviews from previous clients.
In general, businesses can take advantage of e-commerce websites to reach out to customers and grow their businesses
