Not all e-commerce websites are the same and certainly not all produce results. All to often, online retailers and companies are left wondering why their website and online store does not produce sales. There are various reasons for this, but assuming the products sold are of quality, it is often the website itself that prevents a company from generating online sales and profitability.
E-commerce websites have to be professionally designed and developed for best results. This is especially true if the website will be marketed and the company depends on the website becoming visible in search engines for their most important keywords and products.
Successful and effective e-commerce websites and stores have common trends that produce these results. Regardless of product sold, an e-commerce website should be created with these successful trends for best results.
5 Common Trends Of Effective E-Commerce Websites And Stores
1. Know your market and understand your consumers.
This may seem simply, but many businesses hire website design companies and developers, who do not have enough experience or just simply do not know the market and industry well enough. What works for one company does not necessary work for another business. For best results, a company should know their market and understand their consumers. This enables a business to communicate well with the website design team in order to produce the right results for their market.
2. Quality design is worth a thousand words.
We do judge the book by its cover. Websites that lack in design quality often are perceived to not be so trustworthy. Poorly designed websites often do not make consumers feel safe enough to shop. Conversion rates and customer acquisition rates tend to increase with quality website design and with the right “call to action” elements to support sales conversion.
3. Use intelligent navigation and keep it simple.
Online consumers do not like to look for things on a website. With every “click” forced upon a website visitor, a business is risking to loose this individual and a potential sale. Companies that want to improve their website’s performance must review and if needed edit their navigation. Website navigation should be simply, easy to use, and certainly not confusing to the website visitor. Keep it simply for best results.
4. Short and simply checkouts yield best results.
Consumers get annoyed with lengthy and complicated e-commerce checkouts. Online store checkout processes should be short, simply, and not confusing to the online customer. Shopping cart abandonment are already as high as 60% for many online retailers. To increase online sales and lower the shopping cart abandonment, e-commerce websites should have short and simple checkout procedures.
5. Marketing a website to succeed is not a choice.
Rarely does a business not need to market their website. This is usually only true if a business has a large customer base and does not need new customers. For most, this is not the case. A website, especially with e-commerce functions and an online store must be marketed to produce sales. Most companies look for tactics and methods to market and advertise their website to gain website visitors, sales, and loyal customers. Websites that do not get marketed, most of the time fail to produce sales.
